You Are Not Welcome Here

My family doesn’t post our property.  We never have, for as far back as I can remember.  My grandparents owned many acres, as did my parents, and there was never a “No Trespassing” sign posted on trees. 

My husband and I are lucky enough to own 70 acres of forest.  We feel fortunate to be able to step off our front porch and take a walk in the woods and we want everyone to have that same freedom and ability.  When I was a child, almost all of Maine was ‘open’.  It was rare to see a “No Trespassing” sign and Mainers were able to roam the forests and fields and mountains to experience that ‘quality of place’ and quality of life that is so integral to our contentment. 

A shiny silver Ford pick-up drove out of the driveway to our orchard.  That was not a big deal.  It happens all the time in November, since this is the height of deer hunting season.  The truck then proceeded up the road and stopped beside our house.  Since my husband had just gotten into his Blazer to take our son to work, he got out and walked over to the Ford.

He noticed the GPS antenna mounted on the front of the hood.  He asked the driver what was up.

The driver informed my husband that he and his partner were ‘fixing the positions’ of residences in the area for a survey they were conducting.

Mr. Pease asked them who they were working for.

The driver informed him that his client wished for the company's identity to remain confidential.

Mr. Pease said, “Oh.  Iberdrola, huh?”

The men became deer in the headlights.  Kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  They shut their mouths.  Stick a fork in them—they were done!

It’s easy to have the last word when the other party won’t speak—but the words my husband uttered could not have come easy, nonetheless.  He’s the kindest, gentlest, most generous man I know.  But he meant what he said when he told those wind industry surveyors that they were not welcome on our land--that he knew he couldn’t prevent them from using the county right-of-way to invade our privacy or help a foreign company threaten our way of life, but he COULD forbid them from stepping foot—or driving tire—onto our property.

This is a tough battle we’re fighting.  We don’t have anything against those men—not personally.  Those contractors are Mainers who are “just doing their job”.  But as a friend from Vinalhaven said of the construction workers who built the Fox Island Wind turbines near his island home: “YOUR job has ruined MY life.”  Those six words sum it up, powerfully.

That shiny, decked out Ford (and yes, I got the license plate number) that was driven so nonchalantly onto the property we generously share with all was likely purchased with money earned by work done for an industry which is negatively impacting the lives of hundreds of Mainers.

So, no.  We don’t post our property, and unless something drastic occurs--we won’t.  But let this be public notice that anyone working for an industrial wind developer--whether directly, or indirectly as a subcontractor--is not welcome at The F.A.R.M.  If you’re going to try to plot and plan how to sidestep the wishes of more than 77% of the residents of Lexington Township, you’re going to have to do it without our help.  If you don’t care that we have stood together and said “NO!” you will not be the beneficiary of our largesse.  We will not harbor you, we will not welcome you—and we will firmly escort you off and arrange for transportation to the county jail if you come onto our property without having express and written permission from my husband or me.

You are not welcome at The F.A.R.M. and you are not welcome in Lexington Township.  Or in Concord, or in Highland.  Accept defeat, please.  You are not welcome here and I am just one voice of many asking you to respect us and abandon your plans for wind developments in these three communities.

Profiled...

What a gorgeous spring day! Oh, how I wish I’d been able to get outside and enjoy it!

Actually, I did enjoy it. Parts of it, anyway. I attended a LURC pre-conference hearing for the Highland Wind project, which was held this morning at the Maine Forestry Service building in Augusta. That wasn’t the part of the day I got pleasure from, but it was a good meeting to ‘get behind us’, nonetheless. Within a few days the Friends of the Highland Mountains and other interested parties and intervenors will know the schedule of events as they pertain to our most pressing project in the Plantation of Highland.

The part of the day which added additional sunlight to an already dazzling and warm Thursday came before and after the meeting.

I took Josie-Earl with me.

I’d requested that she be allowed an ‘excused absence’ from school, so that she could attend the meeting, too. I believe such things are ‘educational’ and warrant an occasional absence from the classroom. I want my children to be young people who are active and ‘aware’. I want them to be concerned about what goes on around them, and I’d like to see them participate in the shaping of their own futures. I’ve always been of the opinion that a person has no right to complain unless they are willing to take the time (and put forth the effort ) to get involved in changing that which troubles them.

Since I’ve been devoting so much of my free time to ‘wind’, I’ve missed out on a lot of the ‘one-on-one’ time I used to have with my family. So I decided that combining an educational experience with an afternoon of ‘girlie’ shopping was in order.

As often as Josie and I clash, that doesn’t change the fact that she is a delightful young woman. I enjoy spending time with her. She’s funny, articulate, and engaging. I loved spending the day with my daughter.

When it comes to my three kids, I am so very lucky.

After a ten hour day ‘on the road’, I returned home to find forty-one emails waiting for me. I changed into my ‘grubs’ (running pants and a baggy sweatshirt--typical garb for this country girl) and sat down to deal with those many notes. The first one I opened was from a friend in Massachusetts who is also involved in the effort to stop needless and expensive industrial wind sprawl on our mountains. She told me that she’d been searching for something online, and ran across a website called ‘Carbon Capture Report’.


And on this site, she discovered that I have been ‘profiled’.

Profiled. Like I’m an ‘enemy of the state’, or something.

In all honesty, I haven’t had time to read the whole thing. I opened the link, scanned it quickly, and minimized it to the bottom of my screen. It is held ‘in reserve’ for later, in case I get caught up on my work and can devote a few minutes to reading what is there.

All I know is this: The corporate wind lobby is a powerful entity. It has sufficient resources to devote to foolish endeavors such as tracking the activities of a woman from the western mountains of Maine—those same mountains which the wind industry currently covets. Corporations like Independence Wind, First Wind, Maine Wind, Iberdrola Renewables, Patriot Renewables, Eolian Energy…these corporations stand to make millions in tax-payer subsidies if they can build their projects on Maine’s iconic ridgelines.


I also know that the corporate wind lobby is worried. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t waste their time in this manner.

And…I believe that the corporate wind lobby is dirty.

That being said--I also believe they are uninformed. Behind the ball. Wrong. I am far more active in this effort than their statistics show me as being.


If there are folks from the wind industry who want to know my stance on grid-scale wind developments on Maine’s mountains, they need only call me. My home number is (207) 628-2070. My email address is roomtomove@tds.net. I am an open book, and I will not be intimidated by the very corporations which have infiltrated my state--and my federal--government.

This isn’t solely about industrial wind. Not anymore. It is about right and wrong. It is about corruption. Indoctrination. It involves the fabric of the very foundation in which we Americans believe.

I had a wonderful, happy day with my daughter. Feel free to add that to my stats.