Last Chance for Vermont 3000 footer

(I posted this recently under Vermont Trail Conditions but think it may be worthy for more general viewing)

Time may be running out to hike Vermont's 70th highest peak - known as Fairington Cemetery Peak on peakbagger.com and 3120 on Listofjohn. This week I happened to be in Bennington for business and was lucky enough to squeeze in a hike to this peak which will become the Searsburg/Readsboro Wind Energy Project later this year. There are already 6 or so wind turbines on the Searsburg end of the ridge and final approvals are near for the extension to the south which includes 3120. I parked across the road from the cemetery on Route 8 (not sure but this may be called the Sleepy Hollow cemetery), walked through the back of the cemetery onto the service road for the existing wind turbines. There is a GMP sign that says access is prohibited which I chose to ignore. I used the road for bit and then ascended in a southeasterly direction to the south side of the ridge. There's a rough utility road along the southern ridge that is probably the path for the new turbines which incidentally is being built on Green Mountain National Forest land. It's an easy bushwhack of about 3 miles round trip. Get it while you can!

I live close to there. That cemetery on Route 8 I believe is the highest elevation cemetery in the State of Vermont. You can get views of Mt Greylock and the Taconics from certain parts of that peak.
Tough to say if the Turbine expansion will actually go through. Trying to build or develop anything in the State of Vermont is extremely difficult with ACT 250, etc...and I wouldn't be surprised if a) it doesn't happen or b) it takes another decade to do so.
Thanks for the heads up though, It seems to me like these wind companies don't need to cordon off mountains for the turbines as much as they do. What the hell do they think people are going to do?? Steal the turbine? Push it over? All the fences, etc...seem kind of overboard to me.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/iberdrola-pdfs/pdf/deerfield-project-site-mar2015.pdf

http://iberdrolarenewables.us/images/deerfield-simulation.jpg

SpencerVT said:

I live close to there. That cemetery on Route 8 I believe is the highest elevation cemetery in the State of Vermont. You can get views of Mt Greylock and the Taconics from certain parts of that peak.
Tough to say if the Turbine expansion will actually go through. Trying to build or develop anything in the State of Vermont is extremely difficult with ACT 250, etc...and I wouldn't be surprised if a) it doesn't happen or b) it takes another decade to do so.
Thanks for the heads up though, It seems to me like these wind companies don't need to cordon off mountains for the turbines as much as they do. What the hell do they think people are going to do?? Steal the turbine? Push it over? All the fences, etc...seem kind of overboard to me.

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heavy sigh ---- I would guess they try to limit access due to danger of ice flying off the blades in winter (or the bird debris???) Or when they fall down at the end of their thankfully short life?

Becca M said:

Or when they fall down at the end of their thankfully short life?

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Oh come on, the Searsburg VT failure was just an anecdote. We're gonna be fine!

Consider the wind turbine fire that happened in the Kibby Range of Maine.
http://www.theirregular.com/news/2013-04-24/Front_Page/Kibby_wind_turbine_burns.html

Imagine if this had happened during a dry, windy summer day......

I reckon there would be a fire and some things would get burned. Could happen if your car happens to catch on fire near a field. Happens a lot. Still nothing compared to the environmental damage caused by the same amount of carbon based fuel being used to generate the same amount of electricity. We have to pick our poison if we are going to continue to live the energy sucking life styles that we do.
Give me turbines and panels over oil and gas pipelines any day of the week.

Tim Horn said:

I reckon there would be a fire and some things would get burned. Could happen if your car happens to catch on fire near a field. Happens a lot. Still nothing compared to the environmental damage caused by the same amount of carbon based fuel being used to generate the same amount of electricity. We have to pick our poison if we are going to continue to live the energy sucking life styles that we do.
Give me turbines and panels over oil and gas pipelines any day of the week.

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I would LOVE to see (OTHER) people trying to drive wind- and solar-powered cars rather than having our local mountaintops blasted off based on questionable economic calculations and tax subsidies