PORTLAND, Maine — Industrial wind developer First Wind announced Tuesday that it has partnered with a coalition of not-for-profit organizations dedicated to preserving the Appalachian Trail to create a $700,000 land conservation fund.
The conservation fund will protect the Appalachian National Scenic Trail viewshed lands in Maine.
First Wind operates five wind farms in Maine. It has also proposed the Bingham Wind project, a 62-turbine wind farm located in Bingham, Kingsbury Plantation, Mayfield Township, Parkman and Abbott. The Bingham Wind project would be near the Appalachian Trail, a fact that concerned the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Maine Appalachian Trail Club and Appalachian Trail Conservancy, according to a news release. The Appalachian Trail covers more than 2,180 miles from Maine to Georgia.
John Lamontagne, a spokesman for First Wind, called the new conservation fund “a significant and positive development” for the company’s proposed Bingham Wind project.
“This agreement reflects the importance that there be clean sources of renewable energy in Maine balanced with protecting important viewsheds,” he wrote in an email to the Bangor Daily News
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