Stop Norfolk County from Destroying Walpole's Forest and Fields
Stop Norfolk County from Destroying Walpole's Forest and Fields
The Issue
The Norfolk County Commissioners - Peter H. Collins, Francis W. O’Brien and Joseph P. Shea - are moving forward with plans to lease 25 acres of Walpole’s forest and farmland to a commercial solar development company, Kearsarge Energy. With precious little open space remaining in Walpole and across Norfolk County, the land in question holds great purpose and value beyond serving as a repository for solar panels. We are asking the County Commissioners to cooperate with the Walpole Preservation Alliance (WPA) and state and local agencies to create a fair and reasonable solution to satisfy the best interests and needs of the Town of Walpole, Norfolk County and their residents.
The project as proposed would take 17.5 acres of the fields and forest on North Street, and a further 7.5 acres of mature forest on the campus of Norfolk County Agricultural High School (“the Aggie”), and convert those lands into large-scale solar plants. The existing trail system in both locations would be destroyed and the Aggie cross country course and Haunted Hayride route, along with the natural hands-on learning environment for a number of Aggie classes, would be eliminated.
In its presentation to the Walpole Select Board on 8/4/20, Kearsarge Energy omitted showing typical project details such as maintenance roadways up to and surrounding the solar panels and additional acres of tree clearing at the perimeter of the array to eliminate the casting of shadows on the panels. They also failed to show the path of interconnection lines from the array to the transmission lines, which typically consists of a pole-mounted overhead line next to a stabilized roadway able to support heavy maintenance vehicles. These things combined can occupy up to 60% or more land than the panels themselves.
This proposal is in direct contravention of the State’s “Model Zoning for the Regulation of Solar Energy Systems”, published by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) in 2014 as follows: "DOER strongly discourages locations that result in significant loss of land and natural resources, including farm and forest land, and encourages rooftop siting, as well as locations in industrial and commercial districts, or on vacant, disturbed land. Significant tree cutting is problematic because of the important water management, cooling, and climate benefits trees provide."
The Department’s recommendation is clear. Large-scale solar projects should first utilize places like the rooftops of public buildings, landfills, and unused highway land, rather than farm and forest land.
Further, this proposal violates the Town’s zoning laws and goes against a core objective of Walpole’s 2020 Open Space and Recreation Plan: to "encourage the preservation and conservation of agricultural parcels and large forested parcels and to identify" and "protect wildlife habitats and corridors, particularly those of endangered and threatened species". It would also compromise the existing green corridor especially on the North Street fields, which sit on the border of BioMap2 land designated by MassWildlife as Core Habitat and Critical Natural Landscape.
It is ironic that Norfolk County, who has responsibility for teaching students to preserve and manage agricultural land, is proposing to lease a large part of their precious open space for a project that is in direct conflict with the State’s own recommendations.
Concerned neighbors under the banner of the Walpole Preservation Alliance (WPA) have worked individually and in concert with the Town of Walpole to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement with the County -- whereby the County would receive the money it is seeking and the Town would retain its open space. The County has refused all opportunities to pursue an alternative solution.
WPA supports solar energy and the educational value it can provide to the students of Norfolk County Agricultural School, and we believe that educational objectives can be achieved with rooftop solar panels already in progress at the campus.
If, like us, you believe we should preserve this precious open space and site solar farms on previously disturbed locations, please sign and share this petition to show Norfolk County they are acting against your wishes.
Additional comments can be sent to Michael Mullen, Norfolk County Director at mmullen@norfolkcounty.org
We are grateful for your support,
Walpole Preservation Alliance
The Issue
The Norfolk County Commissioners - Peter H. Collins, Francis W. O’Brien and Joseph P. Shea - are moving forward with plans to lease 25 acres of Walpole’s forest and farmland to a commercial solar development company, Kearsarge Energy. With precious little open space remaining in Walpole and across Norfolk County, the land in question holds great purpose and value beyond serving as a repository for solar panels. We are asking the County Commissioners to cooperate with the Walpole Preservation Alliance (WPA) and state and local agencies to create a fair and reasonable solution to satisfy the best interests and needs of the Town of Walpole, Norfolk County and their residents.
The project as proposed would take 17.5 acres of the fields and forest on North Street, and a further 7.5 acres of mature forest on the campus of Norfolk County Agricultural High School (“the Aggie”), and convert those lands into large-scale solar plants. The existing trail system in both locations would be destroyed and the Aggie cross country course and Haunted Hayride route, along with the natural hands-on learning environment for a number of Aggie classes, would be eliminated.
In its presentation to the Walpole Select Board on 8/4/20, Kearsarge Energy omitted showing typical project details such as maintenance roadways up to and surrounding the solar panels and additional acres of tree clearing at the perimeter of the array to eliminate the casting of shadows on the panels. They also failed to show the path of interconnection lines from the array to the transmission lines, which typically consists of a pole-mounted overhead line next to a stabilized roadway able to support heavy maintenance vehicles. These things combined can occupy up to 60% or more land than the panels themselves.
This proposal is in direct contravention of the State’s “Model Zoning for the Regulation of Solar Energy Systems”, published by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) in 2014 as follows: "DOER strongly discourages locations that result in significant loss of land and natural resources, including farm and forest land, and encourages rooftop siting, as well as locations in industrial and commercial districts, or on vacant, disturbed land. Significant tree cutting is problematic because of the important water management, cooling, and climate benefits trees provide."
The Department’s recommendation is clear. Large-scale solar projects should first utilize places like the rooftops of public buildings, landfills, and unused highway land, rather than farm and forest land.
Further, this proposal violates the Town’s zoning laws and goes against a core objective of Walpole’s 2020 Open Space and Recreation Plan: to "encourage the preservation and conservation of agricultural parcels and large forested parcels and to identify" and "protect wildlife habitats and corridors, particularly those of endangered and threatened species". It would also compromise the existing green corridor especially on the North Street fields, which sit on the border of BioMap2 land designated by MassWildlife as Core Habitat and Critical Natural Landscape.
It is ironic that Norfolk County, who has responsibility for teaching students to preserve and manage agricultural land, is proposing to lease a large part of their precious open space for a project that is in direct conflict with the State’s own recommendations.
Concerned neighbors under the banner of the Walpole Preservation Alliance (WPA) have worked individually and in concert with the Town of Walpole to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement with the County -- whereby the County would receive the money it is seeking and the Town would retain its open space. The County has refused all opportunities to pursue an alternative solution.
WPA supports solar energy and the educational value it can provide to the students of Norfolk County Agricultural School, and we believe that educational objectives can be achieved with rooftop solar panels already in progress at the campus.
If, like us, you believe we should preserve this precious open space and site solar farms on previously disturbed locations, please sign and share this petition to show Norfolk County they are acting against your wishes.
Additional comments can be sent to Michael Mullen, Norfolk County Director at mmullen@norfolkcounty.org
We are grateful for your support,
Walpole Preservation Alliance
Petition Closed
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The Decision Makers
Petition created on October 31, 2020