Dixville-Kelsey wind turbines

Wind turbines have been proposed in the Dixville-Millsfield area that would be near the summits of Dixville and Kelsey among others.

Environmentalists were successful in banning public access to the area around the Searsburg VT wind turbines and will probably try that here, so if you ever want to climb peaks in this area you might want to put them on your schedule soonest.

Hi Folks, I went to the hearing for the Windfarm project that is being proposed for the Dixville and Millsfield NH last evening in Colebrook. There are 33 - 3 MW turbines proposed for the ridgeline of three mountains. Very impressive presentation. They brought up in the presentation that recreational access will not be impacted by the project. I subsequently asked them to clarify that recreational access would be continued on the ridgeline and the roads servicing the site and they stated (which is on the public record), that they and the landowner plan to continue all recreational access (including snowmachines and ATV's) . I also asked if there were anytimes after the project is in place, if access will be restricted. They did state that during potential icing conditions, that they would close access on a case by case basis.

Most of the visual impacts on roads frequented by casual hikers will be north of RT 110 and south of RT 26. Mt Mondanock (west of Colebrook) will most likely have the least restricted view, with the percys a close second

One thing of note is that they did locate "a small area of "old growth" on the side of Kelsey mountain, and the project will impact a small amount of it. They will be mitgating the impact by obtaining a permanent easement to the rest of the area. I did not look at the application in detail, but it is public record if someone would like to investigate this.

They did mention that they would like to develop another larger windfarm northeast of the current site when transmission cabability is availlable.

So it sounds like folks dont need to rush to bag these peaks, unless they want to see them before the windturbines encroach.

The state is currently going through an approval process for this project and they welcome written comments.

peakbagger said:

They brought up in the presentation that recreational access will not be impacted by the project. ...

So it sounds like folks dont need to rush to bag these peaks, unless they want to see them before the windturbines encroach.

Click to expand...

Do you understand the 500' buffer zone around the turbines? It might not matter to hunters if this was closed but could matter to hikers.

peakbagger said:

One thing of note is that they did locate "a small area of "old growth" on the side of Kelsey mountain, and the project will impact a small amount of it. They will be mitgating the impact by obtaining a permanent easement to the rest of the area.

Click to expand...

interesting. I've been to Kelsey (never going back, the summit was full of dead spruce trees like @#%@#% pickup sticks), remember some steep areas below the summit thick w/ moss growing over nothing.

thanks for keeping up w/ the project.

I went direct to the source, the project manager in Lancaster NH. With the exception of construction and icing events, there will be access to the summits. There is no permanent 500 foot buffer.

Pure speculation on my part is that there most likely be video cameras at each turbine, so if any one has any strange rituals when summitting, you might want to go before the construction starts

...so at some point, are the summit canisters now going to be rotating at high velocities?