Two public meetings on the proposed Deerfield Wind Project have been scheduled in November, according to Robert Bayer of the U.S. Forest Service.
The first will be held on Nov. 5 at the Readsboro Elementary School and the second will be held on Nov. 6 in the Franklin Conference Center at the Howe Center. Both are from 6 to 8 p.m.

Bayer said the sessions are part of the Forest Service's application process, which is in progress for Deerfield Wind, LLC, a limited liability company created by Iberdrola Renewable.

He said the Forest Service first held an informational session in 2005, when it outlined the proposed plan to erect 17 wind turbines as an extension of the existing Searsburg wind facility on Green Mountain Forest land. The towers would be 350 feet in height.

Bayer said comments and concerns raised at that meeting went into the Environmental Impact Statement, which is now available for public viewing on the Forest Service's Web site.

Bayer said Deerfield Wind was actually under two application processes. The other is under the Vermont Public Service Board. He said the Forest Service's decision would take the eventual service board's decision into account.

He said the open houses are for the public to ask all manner of questions about the wind project, despite the impact statement recently released being about the environment.

He said concerns about wildlife had been brought up at previous meetings and the impact statement had addressed them.

According to the impact statement posted on the Forest Service's Web site, previous studies from the Searsburg facility show that only a small number of birds, including hawks and other birds of prey, fly past the location of the wind turbines on their migrations. The Forest Service studies said birds prefer open agrarian land which creates more thermal updrafts, allowing them to fly higher.

The studies also reported no carcasses were found at the Searsburg site in 1997, which according to the report, means bird mortality rates are low. The studies also found no bird of prey nests in the area.

Studies done as recently as 2007 showed a low number of bat calls during high wind and inclement weather. They also showed bat activity was highest near the tree line at low altitudes.

John Searse, a wildlife biologist with the Green Mountain Forest Service, said there is no major anticipated impact on either birds or bats. He said the towers would not be built along a major migration route, and that it was migrating animals that are most vulnerable to wind turbines.

He said the post-construction studies would give data on when and under what conditions birds and bats suffer high mortality rates from the turbines. He said the turbines could be either slowed or shut off during those times tom minimize the impact.

According to the report, one of the largest threats to black bear habitat around the towers will be from the addition and expansion of service roads. Black bear habitat includes stands of beech trees which produce nuts the bears eat.

Searse said roughly 100 beech trees with bear markings on them would be removed. He said beech trees did not provide an annual supply of beech nuts, but were still important to bears.

He said another concern was the increased amount of human traffic along the service roads that would need to be constructed. He said under the current proposal, the roads are gated off to vehicle access, and hunters might not be allowed on the roads or in the vicinity of the towers.

Searse said he had heard concerns raised over the use of public land by a commercial entity. He said the Searsburg wind facility is on private land and operated by Green Mountain Power. The Deerfield project, while being a geographical extension, is not a corporate one.

The Deerfield towers are nearly twice the height of the Searsburg towers and will require lighting to comply with FAA rules. He said the proposal is for construction on both sides of Route 8 and visual simulations are available online for people to check on how much of the towers they will be able to see depending on where they are.