Wind Turbines

The mouth of Sand Canyon where HELO wants to erect seventeen 500 foot tall wind turbines.

My friend Maya showed up on my front porch a few weeks back with a bottle of horse liniment for my shoulder. She was in tears. One of the many wind turbine companies that have suddenly sprung up, Rising Tree Wind Farm, was harassing her, trying to buy her property so that they could put up more of the 50 story tall wind turbines with flashing red lights that have destroyed the views of the Tehachapi Mountains from the city of Mojave, not to mention the beautiful night sky.

I first met Maya over a decade ago when she and her husband Tomio stopped at my house asking for directions. When I invited them in, Maya told me all about the house and property they’d bought in the Mojave hills. She said she’d had a dream about a dirt road and a cabin, and shortly thereafter found that dream house in the desert. She and her husband fixed it up, and added to their property. When I visited, she introduced me to all the injured birds that live with her. She adores birds and taking care of them is one of her callings. And she showed me the collection of old bottle she’d unearthed on her walks. She loves to hike up in the hills, to feel the desert breeze, to see the huge blue sky, and to hear the silence, or the howls of the wind when it blows hard from the west.

Maya is 79 now. She is a well-respected yoga teacher in Southern California. Her cabin is the place she can go to find the solitude her soul requires.  But soon, they will start erecting the five hundred foot tall turbines in her backyard, right behind her tiny cabin. Wind turbines are noisy. They block the view of the hills. They kill the birds that she loves. They turn the desert into an outdoor industrial park. Her heart is broken.

Sand Canyon has been fighting wind turbines too. This is a place of incredible beauty and a very unique landscape, molded by extinct volcanoes and a seasonal stream, with the Pacific Crest trail just to the east. It was the winter home of the Kawaiisu Indians. Tomo-Kahni State historic part is located here as well as an Indian cemetery, a Buddhist Temple, and a donkey rescue sanctuary. Yet a company named HELO wants to put the same 50 story tall wind turbines at the mouth of our canyon. Besides the aesthetic considerations, there are also significant dangers to the human inhabitants and the wildlife. If you are interested in this subject, go to the Friends of Sand Canyon link. There you will find some interesting U-Tube videos and other important information. And please don’t call me a NIMBY. Put one of these in your backyard and then we’ll talk. Our wide-open spaces are what have always given Americans their strength, and that includes our beautiful Mojave Desert. We need to think carefully about where we put these “new technology” giants and the impact that they will have.

Fortunately, the community at large is behind us in our fight to save Sand Canyon. And we thank them!!!!

In my book, The Butterfly Basket, the first view my ten-year-old heroine has of the Tehachapi Mountains, is from the old train station in Mojave. The rolling silhouette of the foothills, like something from a Japanese print, is now obscured by tons of steel, rows of rotating blades as long as football fields, and flashing red lights. That gorgeous view is gone forever.

October 1st meeting of Friends of Sand Canyon at Dr. Billingsley's Vet Clinic.