Does any body have any advise on fighting a wind farm? This is next to a 3000 acer ranch I am a small part owner of. I have fought to keep the trails open and have fought to keep the ATVs from making new ones. This wind farm will be massive and is sure to ruin the the area. We know nothing about wind farms in Colorado so I'm asking those that do for any advise. Are they bad and do they wreck the areas property values? How do I fight?
This is our area:http://www.tresvalleswest.org/
And this is the proposed windfarm:http://www.silvermountainwind.com/silver-wind-farm-project

I don't know much about them either, but why are you intent on fighting them when you say you don't know if they are bad or wreck property values?

I can tell you this: Depending on the scenery there, they can be pretty destructive to build. Were talking logging op. destructive. The best fighting point is wildlife conservation (And fawk you assholes, I drive an 8 mpg chevy... that disqualifies me from being a greeny. Im just tryin to help this guy not have to stare at a giant windmill:flipoff2:). So what you say, or write is that, we condemn business's like chevron for birds flying into a oil storage pond. Fine them hundreds of thousands of dollars for 60 birds dying. These wind fields kill THOUSANDS of birds each year (you'll need to find evidence on yer own, but its out there) and go on about some spotted prick bird that's endangered in your area (again, do research). Thats about the best I can think of.

Thats a good idea ET. Fight green with green! Stupid liberal bastards will fall for anything that sounds good but thinking past the 1st level is above their brain capacity. That is a haven for wildlife but I'll find out if it's a fly way for migrating flying rats.

So you fight to keep trails open but want to stop ATV's from having new ones?

So you fight to keep trails open but want to stop ATV's from having new ones?

We have hundreds of miles of trails starting on this ranch and in the joining BLM land and National forest land. The ATV's were starting to tare up virgin ground and make shortcuts. In the dry Colorado enviroment with the short growing season a torn up area takes decades to heal. No sense letting them do that when they already have miles of great trail systems. It also gives us who respect the trails and are happy to have what we have a bad reputation.

So.... NIMBY, huh?

http://www.savewesternny.org/wildlife.html

That could be something hard to fight in Colorado. I work in the wind industry and Colorado is one of the states makeing a big push right now to build up there wind energy capability.My company actually has manufactureing and warehouse's in Colorado because they gave a tax break to bring in renewable energy. I will heading there tomarrow to work this week also.

You defenetly would have to be carefull fighting it also. If the wind farm is state backed they can pull the imonante domain card and sieze land for what they think is a fare price. That has happened quite a bit out here in california and i know it has also happend in kansas and nebraska lately also. Depending on how the wind farm is layed out or who the company is running it could be the diffrence to weather or not people(wheelers) would still have access to the land that the farm is on. Most of the cases access to that land is taken away except to the land owners if the farm is built on leased privately owned land. So good luck fighting it and just be carefull in your wording or tactics cause there could be some powerfull backers in that part of the country and that state in particular!

I may work in the wind industry but dont support it! it just pays my bills.

I have heard that the low-rpm "whirring" sound is enough to make someone pull their hair out.

dont know. havent went crazy yet. it kinda sounds like waves crashing on a beach on the more windy days. kind of relaxing but still wouldnt sound that way to people against it.
Wish the best of luck fighting to keep the land open and I fully support you because there will be more and more farms going up in the next couple years and that will become a threat to the wheeling and atv communitiees.

The big meeting is tomorrow night. The local area is turning artsy fartsey and is packed with California and Texas liberals trying to "change" everything they can about Colorado. They have groomed local perception that these are beautiful graceful savers of the planet so my job will basically educating regular locals as to what the real impact on the area will be. Even if I can only just wake up some that will help keep the project in check it will be worth the effort.
We scaled back major rezoning in my local area near Denver the same way. They wanted high density housing and big box stores so they requested zoning for apartments, expanded industrial and Home depot/Wall mart size development. People started to get happy when they found out it was just scaled back to high density housing and a strip mall but I told them that was basically what they wanted all the time from the beginning. We kept fighting and blocked the sewer and water line to kill the whole thing. We wound up with a normal updated rezoning for the small commercial area we had and 1 house on 5 and 17.5 acres. That was worth the fight and if we can get half the concessions we got on the last fight then will be worth it.
On this wind farm I need help picking my battle so thanks for the info and links!

my solution for NIMBY is money. reimburse the locals impacted with reduced cost for whatever is being made or used. it wont convince everyone, but it would sure be a help. for example:
wind farm - half price power for 5-10 years
garbage incinerator - reduce taxes by x over 5 years

Our oposition is rolling! Wish us luck. :)
http://savelavetavalley.com/

Fighting pays off again! I just got this email that proves that opposition to goverment land issues is worth your time. Get involved! It has worked well for me 3 times in a row. An email I just got:

"The impossible has happened! Today, the commissioners voted unanimously to deny RES America's application for a wind farm in La Veta. Deb Lathop, who was able to attend the meeting said that John Galusha (the County Administrator) officially submitted a report....saying (paraphrasing) "Just in case this was the way the vote was going to go, I had our lawyer prepare a report stating the specific reasons for the denial...including the guidelines set forth in the County's Land Use Guide."

This is such a wonderful conclusion to all of your hard work. I want to thank each and every one of you who made this possible. Those of you who sent letters to the newspapers, thank you. Those of you who put your heart and soul into letters to the town of La Veta, the County Planning and Zoning Commissioners and the County Commissioners, thank you. Those of you who came to the P&Z meeting and spoke out against the wind farm, thank you..

The best outcome of all of this was that our government listened to us and cared about the valley and did the right thing.

So, I have one more favor to ask of you. Please send a note of thanks to each of the commissioners for listening to us and stopping the wind farm.

Best regards and have a very merry Christmas!

-Nancy Powers"

YAAAAAAAAAAA

Our oposition is rolling! Wish us luck. :)
http://savelavetavalley.com/

I'm happy to hear your group is happy about the situation, but I also wanted to see your website and it seems to be gone already? I ask this because in the classes I teach about saving recreation areas, that's one of the first steps in creating a "friends" type group or coalition like you did.

Just curious,
thanks ,Del
ps. I wouldn't retire all the horses to the barn quite yet. To put it simply: every "no" has a hidden "maybe" and every denial has an appeal. Stay vigilant

I'm happy to hear your group is happy about the situation, but I also wanted to see your website and it seems to be gone already? I ask this because in the classes I teach about saving recreation areas, that's one of the first steps in creating a "friends" type group or coalition like you did.

Just curious,
thanks ,Del
ps. I wouldn't retire all the horses to the barn quite yet. To put it simply: every "no" has a hidden "maybe" and every denial has an appeal. Stay vigilant

I have no clue as to why they shut the site down right after the vote. Maybe money? It was not my site and I can't take any credit for for the oganized fight at the end. What I can say is that showing up and asking a few questions was better than those that did nothing. A lot of older guys seemed to be at the first meeting because their wifes wanted to get warm and fuzzy with greenies. When I asked and pinned them down to admitting that the turbines they were going to use most likly be comming from Asia (see China) the old guys piped up and you could see them getting pissed off. Pissed folks tell others and like I said I can't take much credit for the outcome because I just moved to AZ but just by showing up and asking questions is better than nothing. Sending honest emails to comissioners is also great because they probably don't get too many to read.
Thanks for teaching and if you would, send Nancy an email to see if she can help you do what you do. savelavetavalley@yahoo.com Tell her Michael Vannoy from Tres Valley refered you.

Thanks Michael, I will do as you suggest. Thank YOU for your work and effort on this one.
Del