Wind farms hit opposition

Foes target clearing of state forest land

"It's not clear-cut," he said. "We do harvest timber on a sustainable basis."

U.S. Wind Force officials have said that they'd have to clear up to 400 acres of state forest for their turbines.

As of Friday afternoon, the Natural Resources Department had received nearly 300 e-mails from the public about the proposal, and about 80 percent of the messages opposed the idea, according to the agency.

"NO! We should not be industrializing our state forests!" read one typical comment, from a woman identified on the agency's Web site only as Barbara D.

Garrett County has received more than 100 e-mail messages, phone calls and letters about the proposal, about 95 percent of them against the idea, county officials said.

The Garrett County Chamber of Commerce, Board of Realtors and County Democratic Central Committee all voted unanimously this month against allowing the wind farms on state land. The Board of Realtors sent a letter to the governor reading: "There should be no wind power turbines placed on Maryland's public lands, especially those lands in our treasured state parks, forests and wildlife areas."

Among those supporting the proposal is state Del. Robert A. McKee, a Republican from Washington County, more than an hour's drive to the east. He wrote the governor praising the project as something that would "help the region meet expected future power demands with a safe, clean, renewable, reliable, domestic source of power."

But in Garrett County, where the turbines would stand, "the consensus seems to be overwhelmingly opposed to it," said county Commissioner Ernest J. Gregg, a Republican. "The public seems to think it will disturb their views and disturb the recreational use of public lands."

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Hearings

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has scheduled two public hearings on whether to allow wind turbines to be constructed in state forests:

Garrett College Auditorium, 687 Moser Road, McHenry, 6:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Arundel Center, 44 Calvert St., Annapolis, 6:30 p.m. Thursday.