Issues Arise Over Proposed Lighted Trail

25 January 2005 - ELKINS, W. Va. - A group of amateur astronomers from the Pittsburgh area, who visit the Spruce Knob observation tower on several weekends during the year to take advantage of the dark skies found in Pendleton County, have filed a protest with the WV Public Service Commission.

They contend that the floodlights on the wind turbines would severely impact their star gazing and create light-pollution levels similar to the night skies over urban or industrial areas.

One of the group, T. Ella Scopes said, "When we looked at the siting map for the 500 turbines of the US Wind Farce project, we discovered that one of the turbine towers would be located only 30 yards NE of the Spruce Knob observation tower and another one, just 146 yards SW of it. That's one every tenth of a mile!"

A person contacted at the Forest Service declined to comment but stated off the record that she thought there were more night hikers than astronomers utilizing the Monongahela National Forest and that the mission of the Forest Service was to serve the greater public need.