By Stephen Smoot
“Our beautiful county is one of the few pristine counties that God has graced with exceptional views and farmscape,” expressed Sugar Grove resident Jack Bowers in a letter to the West Virginia Public Service Commission that he also shared with The Pendleton Times.
He went on to add that “We truly wish to continue to be able to look at our West Virginia hills without seeing these Quixotic monsters flailing their arms, killing our birds and bats.”
On and off for 20 years, a number of residents have feared the specter of a wind turbine development on the top of Jack Mountain between Cave and Sugar Grove. When local farmer and retired lawyer Scott Somerville brought to the Pendleton County Commission last month a Federal Aviation Administration document concerning their possible construction there, the apparition gained much more tangibility.
As Bowers himself told, the ancestors of himself and his wife have lived and worked in the area since well before the War of Independence. He shared that many of those “fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant in Lord Dunmore’s War (and) in Yorktown against Cornwallis.”
In a Pendleton County Commission meeting nearly two years ago, Bowers recalled seeing the ruins of rows of decommissioned turbines sitting idle and rising above the European landscape.
Somerville arrived more recently, the retired lawyer and his family establishing a farm in Pendleton County that they hope to expand into a more extensive agritourism enterprise.
Also in an April 2023 Pendleton County Commission meeting, Somerville had described how he first fell in love with the region while driving over Shenandoah Mountain, but that had he seen a wind farm “I would not be standing here today if there were windmills here.”
He has also shared that one of the primary reasons for his hesitancy in expanding his business lies in his concerns that the presence of wind turbines could adversely affect his ability to best serve a customer base.
The connecting theme between these two families, and many others, lies in their opposition to the construction of wind turbine developments anywhere in Pendleton County.
One major source of concern lies in the prominence of Jack Mountain and the potential visibility and impact on the population, area wildlife, the unique history and culture of the region, and the natural beauty of the landscape.
In January, the Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County provided to the Pendleton County Commission a booklet that included both the F.A.A. filing and a list of potential problems that they foresee emanating from the development.
One of the issues that they wished to shed light on was in possible health problems that could afflict those living near the project. It shared that some residing in communities near such developments “report health issues such as sleep disturbance, headaches, or stress associated with proximity to turbines.”
Viola Riggleman, a self-described “farm girl and a tomboy” described living on a 100-year-old farm bought by her grandparents and “being born in Pendleton County” as two of “many blessings in my lifetime of 75 years.”
Riggleman helped to organize opposition to the original wind farm proposal two decades ago and stated that “my involvement in conservation has always been a satisfying and rewarding experience.” She shared her worries then and now that “I believe it would have a negative effect on people’s health, pets, farm animals, wild animals, birds, bats” and other issues.
Pendleton County serves as home to multiple bat species that live in and around the extensive natural cave systems that underlie the mountains and valleys of the region.
A United States Forest Service document on bat populations published in 2010 after a symposium discussed some issues with bat colonies in and around the Jack Mountain area. It described the fragility of key colonies, giving as an example an event showing that property. The breaking of a protective fence at the mouth of a cave by vandals in the late 1980s and their use of the cave to build a fire helped to cause a population to drop from more than 1,100 to less than 300 in a single year.
Another colony at Cave Mountain Cave had declined significantly, but researchers could not identify the main source of the problem. While populations have rebounded since the 1990s, the document stated that the Virginia big-eared bat hibernates almost exclusively in three caves located in the area.
While it is unclear if the wind turbines would have a direct effect on these populations, the possibility of adverse impact on the fragile colonies has raised concerns among locals.
For many other residents, the connections of family, home, and land over generations have inspired their opposition.
“The Moats family is one of the founding families of Sugar Grove,” shared Harmon L. Moats. He also stated that his family boasts “a heritage that goes back to the early 1700s.”
As he explained, “Moatstown’s deep rooted history in Pendleton County demonstrates our love for this community and a desire to preserve the beautiful countryside which has remained pristine for hundreds of years.”
The Moats family has also figured prominently in the culture and history of the county and holds “family reunion weekends with a Sunday camp meeting revival every year and have followed this tradition for more than 130 years.”
Moats described Sugar Grove as a special place with “beauty and calm nature of the environment,” but warned that “the presence of large, towering structures can significantly alter the landscape” and agreed with those who feared direct impacts on the health of people and welfare of endangered wildlife living in the area.
Joining Moats in opposition is Tyrone Moats, also a proud member of both the family and community.
Tyrone Moats shared that “our family’s deep connection to the land is documented in ‘The Black People of Pendleton County, West Virginia’ by William Dean Rexroad.”
He went on to express a sentiment with deep roots in the culture of the Mountain State and more broadly across the Appalachian region, explaining that “this land represents not just property, but a living legacy passed down through the generations.”
“Our family’s history, as chronicled in ‘The Black People of Pendleton County’ is a testament to the bond we share with this land.” Tyrone Moats commented. “The damage done by this project can’t be undone.”
The Moats family fears the impact of the turbines close to their land and homes and sees that it “threatens to encroach upon our family’s land. The industrialization of this area will forever alter the peaceful, rural character of Pendleton County.”
Jennifer Taylor-Ide, who serves as Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County’s spokesperson on the topic, shares Bowers’ worries about the decommissioning process. This refers to what will happen when the wind farm’s turbines are retired.
The Friends of Beautiful Pendleton County suggested a number of possible policies that they say will protect the county’s interests in the event of project decommissioning. Suggested policies include that the company fund the full estimated cost of decommissioning and place those monies in an escrow account, that Clearway work closely in conjunction with the Pendleton County Office of Emergency Management on necessities such as special training, equipment, budgeting, planning, and more, and that the company addresses issues of social justice as well.
“I am never more thankful and at peace than when I am outdoors surrounded by Mother Nature and enjoying the creations of Almighty God,” Riggleman said. Then she added, “Through a lifetime of outdoor experiences, I learned as a young girl the importance of conserving and preserving what God has so graciously provided for me to enjoy each day.”
She stated that this perspective is the source of her “common sense” and that sense led her to ask what she considers the main question, as she puts it – “are you willing to risk the uncertainty of the one over the certainty of the other?”
