Wind is widely seen as a clean and green source of renewable electrical power. But in the Northeast, sites most sought by wind power developers are often those high-elevation ridgelines that contain other natural resources AMC has long fought to protect.

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Find details on AMC's wind power policy and siting methodology at outdoors.org/conservation/wind. See a video interview with AMC's Director of Research Ken Kimball, on AMC's wind power policy.

Therein lies a conflict of conservation values. In response, AMC researchers have created tools to help evaluate proposals and identify areas where wind projects have the most and least ecological impact.

The wind power siting guidelines developed by AMC are designed to weigh site conflicts and help arrive at reasonable solutions that don't compromise the integrity of important natural resources. The AMC researchers who created them are working with officials in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to encourage states to adopt consistent wind power siting guidelines and direct wind power projects to areas with the least environmental impact.

AMC is committed to promoting clean, alternative energy, while minimizing or avoiding natural resource damage by locating projects appropriately. "No energy source is benign. Most energy projects have pretty big environmental impacts, regardless of whether they're renewable energy or not," says AMC Director of Research Kenneth Kimball.

Conflict comes when wind developers focus on undeveloped areas, as is often the case, he says. "This is industrial-scale development in these relatively undeveloped areas, and that's the dilemma for AMC," says Kimball. "It is industrial development, to get the megawatts. Big projects, big output is where the money is."

Of particular concern are the potential effects of wind power development on subalpine spruce-fir forests, which are widely recognized as providing distinctive and ecologically significant habitat, according to AMC Assistant Director of Research David Publicover. Among their other natural resource values is their status as prime habitat for Bicknell's thrush, the region's rarest migratory songbird. Other concerns surround a project's visual impacts, particularly in relation to otherwise undisturbed, natural views, and effects on soils and hiking trails.

One of the predominant impacts of industrial-scale wind is the infrastructure—tower pads, transmission lines, and roads—needed to service wind turbines, Kimball says. The construction of this infrastructure can damage fragile soils and subalpine forest habitat.

To date, AMC has formally intervened in six wind power projects across the region, supporting two and opposing one in their entirety. On three others, AMC found some portions of the project acceptable, but opposed other portions because of "unacceptable impacts to high-elevation ecosystems and/or outstanding scenic values," Publicover notes. In one instance, AMC withdrew its opposition following negotiations that led to permanent conservation of 1,700 acres of high-elevation habitat and significant funding for additional habitat conservation. AMC has also filed comments on two other projects.

In deciding which proposals to weigh in on, researchers are guided by AMC's wind power policy, which notes the organization has an interest in "resources of state, regional, or national significance."

We're often dealing with the conflict between worthy goals," says Publicover. "AMC's research is identifying how these conflicts play out on the landscape."