Streams of Thought: How can conservation – easements, etc. – compete with wind projects? Or can it?

At the successful completion of a pheasant hunt in Murray County, Minn., just a few weeks ago, I sat on the tailgate of the Chevy and admired the blaze of a sunset and its reflection on a duck slough below while listening to the cackling of cock pheasants that had returned to roost in the grasslands of a spread of CREP land (perpetual conservation easement acres).

A few yard lights glowed from distant farms, and I heard the drone of a tractor to the north.

My mind wandered, as it usually does.

I thought about the many pheasant hunts during the past couple of decades on that land. And before that, “picking rocks” and baling hay, back when much of the land was in ag production.

A small plot near where I’d parked my truck once served as a fenced hog pasture – temporarily compromised when a disk, pulled behind the tractor I captained, caught on said fence and ripped out nearly one-quarter of it before I noticed I’d ventured too close.

But at day’s end, after moments such as that – moments I’ve tried to forget but haven’t – there were sunsets. There’s something about the big southern sky at dusk that soothes one’s soul.

If you hang around late enough, you’ll see some of the starriest skies in Minnesota.

MORE COVERAGE FROM MINNESOTA OUTDOOR NEWS:

University of Minnesota study shows zebra mussels tied to elevated fish mercury

Minnesota CWD cases are up, but remain in known zones

‘Remarkable’ comeback complete, Lake Superior lake trout will provide fish to stock Minnesota’s inland lakes

My thoughts from the tailgate moved closer to the present.

I recalled that a few months earlier, I’d received via U.S. mail a packet from a company charged with securing land leases/wind easements for a wind project. That parcel of land I now own in the southwest is – predictably, really – within the boundaries of an upcoming wind-generation project.

The best information I have is that my conservation easement likely precludes a wind easement, but a turbine as a tall, spinning, and well-lit prairie occupant doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, anyway.

Others, I’m sure, feel differently. The packet included a page with examples of potential payments. Enough easement acres and thus, space for multiple turbines, could net a willing landowner a tidy sum after 20 or 30 years. (There were a number of varying examples in my packet, including this: a cool mil for 320 acres and two turbines, 20 years down the road.)

How can conservation – easements, etc. – compete? Or can it?

Dave Trauba, interim DNR Wildlife Section manager, last week provided an overview of the proliferation of wind leases/easements – and potential implications for wildlife and habitat – for members of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council.

Landowners now being approached for possible wind leases could benefit from that information. Wind power is clean and green. That’s been drilled into our collective skulls for years now. But, a “small footprint on the land?” That’s promoted, too. However, project construction can take up to two years, and it’s not difficult to envision the disturbances to area wildlife during that period of time, and thereafter.

Conservation and its place in the land-use scheme in farm country long has been complex. Wind and solar projects further muddy the conservation waters. Ideally, Trauba said, conservation and wind easements can successfully coexist, but added, “We’re not there yet.”

During the LSOHC meeting, member Ron Schara referenced “pollution of the horizon” regarding wind turbines on the prairie landscape. “What are we doing?” he asked.

I’m certain there won’t be a rally to ensure Tim Spielman and others of his ilk continue to have an unpolluted view of the southwestern Minnesota sky, but I would hope more people stop to ask: What are we doing?