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What is the value of a view? 

Credit:  By V. Paul Reynolds, Special to the BDN, bangordailynews.com 7 October 2011 ~~

As is their right, professional Maine Guides from Grand Lake Stream and other scenic, tradition-laden Down East hamlets, have fought valiantly to fend off threats to their way of life. Whether it’s alewife stocking in the St. Croix watershed, closing the Grand Lake Stream fish hatchery or the loss of camp lot leases – it’s always something.

The latest round involves a plan by First Wind to spoil the Down East vista with rows of big wind turbines, some of which “are even taller than the mountains they destroy,” wrote Gary Campbell in a letter to the Maine Sportsman.

What is the value of majestic views of distant mountains and sunsets across sparkling, clear lakes? How do you quantify the worth of all this Down East outdoor grandeur? These are interesting questions made all the more timely by the whole wind turbine debate.

The late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Democrat who championed alternative energy at every turn, turned out to be a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) when it came to erecting wind turbines within eye view of his beloved Cape Cod.

Granted, there is a certain subjectivity when it comes to humans placing worth on unhampered views of mountains and lakes. We all measure the worth of pristine scenery differently.

In Mr. Campbell’s letter to the editor, he includes an excerpt from First Wind’s application with the Land Use Regulation Commission to erect wind turbines on Bowers Mountain. In defending its quest to erect wind turbines in scenic places, First Wind writes: “Fishermen can orient their boats away from the turbines or situate themselves in one of the many coves if views of the turbines become undesirable. Or they may recreate at other nearby lakes with fewer views of turbines, if preferred.”

Are they serious? Can you think of a more grating arrogance?

The charitable conclusion about what motivates a corporation to indulge in such a grotesque, self-serving rationalization would be to say that the folks at First Wind just don’t get it. After all, there are people to whom a scenic vista means nothing of any inherent value. Sometimes otherwise good people are blinded by the profit motive. Perhaps this is the case.

George Smith, a respected Maine outdoorsman and former head of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, recently slapped the Down East guides across the face with a shockingly callous blog column titled,”Industrial sites, wind towers? Pah! Anglers go where the fish are.”

In a nutshell, Smith argues that in the angler’s hierarchy of values, most of us care about just one thing: catching big fish. Smith writes, “Anglers pay big bucks to catch big fish. While it’s nice if the river or lake is in a beautiful remote setting and not crowded with other anglers, we go where the fish are.”

Although I never have fished with Smith, I thought that I knew him. I would have surmised that a guy who purports to love the outdoors, who has a camp at Nesowadnehunk Lake, would place a greater value on “place” when he recreates outdoors. To write what he wrote at a time when thoughtful, respected guides like Dave Tobey and Steve Norris are fighting to preserve a livelihood and way of life bespeaks a strident cynicism that is unbecoming a sportsman advocate of Smith’s stature.

As one angry critic asked Smith on his blog site,”How would you like a couple of wind turbines erected atop North and South Traveler Mountains in your beloved Baxter Park?”

Is this lapse in judgment all attributable to the proverbial “money trail”? Smith’s critics think so. During the time that Smith was head of SAM, that organization accepted significant dollars from First Wind. First Wind also has done some institutional advertising on Smith’s blog site.

It seems to me that most of the men and women I have shared a canoe or fishing boat with over the years all placed as much value on the scenery and quality of place as the size of the fish.

V. Paul Reynolds, who lives in Hampden, is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” on WVOM-FM 103.9 and WQVM-FM 101.3, and former information officer for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Source:  By V. Paul Reynolds, Special to the BDN, bangordailynews.com 7 October 2011

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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