Ever wonder where those behemoth trucks are headed as they rumble down Mill Plain Boulevard and state Highway 14 with their gargantuan payloads of wind turbine components? Local residents shrivel to Lilliputian context as the monsters roll eastward between escort vehicles with flashing yellow lights.

The trucks - some carrying blades so colossal that only one can be transported at a time - are headed for wind farms east of the Cascades, mostly in Klickitat, Kittitas and Walla Walla counties. Each convoy ought to elicit smiles from local onlookers, because the entire operation has bolstered the local economy as the Port of Vancouver stokes its import activities.

Despite our region's decades-old dependence on hydropower as a reliable, reasonably clean and inexpensive power source, Washingtonians have embraced the concept of extracting energy from wind. In 2006, 52 percent of voters approved Initiative 937, requiring large utilities to increase renewable energy sources to 15 percent of their power production by 2020. Still, wind energy in the Northwest has raised valid concerns. For example, last month a golden eagle was killed at a wind tower southeast of Goldendale; it was believed to be the state's first casualty of an eagle killed by a wind turbine.

Environmental and ecological concerns about wind energy magnify as power producers shift their attention away from the wind farms in the dry and brown eastern portion of the state. West of the Cascades Range, proposed wind farms encounter different types of animals and landscapes. As Erik Robinson pointed out in a recent Columbian story, it's more difficult to produce wind energy on the west and wet side of the mountains. Here, winding narrow roads limit access by the behemoth trucks, and fragile species of foul and other wildlife must be considered. A windmill pad leaves a far different footprint on the western slopes of the Cascades than in the eastern part of the state.

That's why we were glad to read in Robinson's story that the state Department of Natural Resources has put on hold a wind farm envisioned near Larch Mountain in east Clark County. This project may some day pass such scrutiny and stimulate the local economy. But that day must arrive only after great caution, research and planning for environmental and ecological protections.

Last year we expressed conditional support of this wind farm proposed in Clark County, but only if state and county agencies study the proposal meticulously. If the DNR believes more study is needed, so be it. No state employee would speculate that this more measured approach has anything to do with last year's election, when Republican state lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland lost to Democrat Peter Goldmark. But the wise observer won't rule out that possibility. Sutherland wanted to increase state revenue by leasing state timberland for wind farms. That might still occur under Goldmark, but as DNR spokeswoman Jane Chavey told Robinson, "We want to make sure we go into this with a very well-thought-out approach. ... We're becoming more aware of the subtleties we'll need to deal with on the west side (of the Cascades)."

One-size-fits-all is the wrong approach in moving wind energy production from wheat fields and foothills into forests and mountains. For DNR officials to wait, research and decide cautiously is the far better strategy.