Kansas Natural Resource Council
Resolution #04-1
Resolved in Virtual Session:
Whereas the Flint Hills region of Kansas contains the world's largest share of the remaining tallgrass prairie, and is the only place where that habitat is in landscape proportions,
- whereas the Flint Hills region is also home to certain declining avian species such as the greater prairie chicken and Henslow's sparrow that cannot continue to exist without large expanses of native tallgrass prairie in an original state,
- whereas the construction of industrial wind farms necessarily involves the erection of many tall turbine towers and a network of access roads to service them, the former of which will prevent successful breeding by prairie chickens and the latter of which may abet invasion by invasive plant species such as sericea lespedeza,
- whereas the potential for ecotourism and agritourism in some areas of Kansas is tied to expectations of being able to see prairie in an original condition rather than as an industrial landscape,
- whereas the issues of tower construction, habitat fragmentation and landscape degradation also pertain to the sandsage prairies of southwest Kansas and the Smoky Hills region of north central Kansas,
- whereas development of the abundant wind energy in Kansas holds great potential to move our society towards the desirable goal of a renewable energy base,
- and whereas there are adequate, appropriate and economically viable locations available for siting of wind farms in landscapes already altered by agriculture, oil exploration, settlement and other human activities,
Therefore be it resolved that the Kansas Natural Resource Council supports the enactment of statewide siting requirements for industrial wind farms that disallow their placement in the remaining prime prairie habitats of Kansas and that ensure comprehensive impact assessment (with adequate opportunities for public input) regardless of where they are proposed.
Bob Haughawout, President
For the Board of Directors
January 23, 2004
Kansas Natural Resource Council (KNRC)
|