Friends Of The Highland Mountains

Matching Funds Donation!

stansted — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:08:46 +0000

Wow! How often do we get to make a 100% return on our money?

Well, the Friends of the Highland Mountains are able to do exactly that! A generous benefactor has offered to match specific “matching grant” donations to the tune of $2,500.00. If you have been considering making a donation to FHM’s, now would be the perfect time to do it! Simply write “Matching Grant” on the memo line of your check, or in the “message” field on PayPal. Send the money on its way to us, and we will record the donation. When we’ve reached $2,500.00, our benefactor will also deposit $2,500.00 dollars to our account to help us in our efforts to stop the development of Highland’s iconic ridges!

If we can reach our latest goal, we can expect to double our money, almost immediately! So, please… if you are willing to support us and contribute to this matching grant, just let us know. We’ll see that your generous donation gets doubled. Thank you so much.

For questions or comments, please email us at highlandmts@gmail.com or call (207) 399-4850.

THANK YOU!!!

Portland Press conference to Announce Release of DVD

stansted — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 05:53:14 +0000

On Wednesday, June 30^th, the Friends of the Highland Mountains held a press conference in the State of Maine Room at Portland City Hall. The purpose of the conference was to announce the release of our DVD, “Save the Mountains of Highland, Maine”.

In the DVD we outline some of the many negative impacts the proposed development will have on these unique mountains. After months of study and of consulting with experts from many fields, we believe that the plan to erect miles of 40 story turbines is a disaster in the making. The impacts range from environmental and ecological, to health-related, to economically devastating. Our quality of life and quality of place are at stake, and the consequences will be felt much farther away than the tiny plantation of Highland and its surrounding communities. The Appalachian Trail and the Bigelow Preserve are at our doorstep, as is the Arnold Trail and the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. These unique parks and trails are some of the last remaining wild places left east of the Mississippi, and the wonders experienced here are sought after by people the world over.

In the weeks since our press conference, we have been granted the opportunity to meet with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, and Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. We appreciate the fact that our U.S. delegation has given us an audience and listened to our concerns. We were able to leave factual written material and copies of our DVD, and we hope that they will heed our words.

We can use all the help we can get. If you would like to weigh in with our U.S. Congressional representatives, please email them at the addresses listed below. And if you, too, would like a free copy of our story, “Save the Mountains of Highland, Maine”, all you have to do is contact us at our email address, highlandmts@gmail.com.

http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorSnowe.Email

http://collins.senate.gov/public/continue.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorCollins.EmailIssue&CFID=58767336&CFTOKEN=17979704

Harraseeket Inn Fundraiser is Big Success!

admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:32:17 +0000

On June 5, 2010, Nancy Gray and her Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, Maine, generously sponsored a fabulous fundraising event for the benefit of Friends of the Highland Mountains and the Forest Ecology Network, both of whom are engaged in an effort to save the mountains of Highland Plantation, Maine, from industrialization by a 48 turbine wind energy plant.

The event included a silent auction, live auction, a sumptuous dinner, live comedy by Karen Pease, presentation of the Friends of the Highland Mountain’s new DVD, and speakers from several organizations engaged in the struggle to keep Maine from losing some of its greatest assets to the misguided wind energy policy promulgated by our state government.

Attendees came from as far away as Presque Isle and even from out of state to register their objection to the government backed destruction of Maine’s rural mountains and hills. It was a great evening that exceeded our greatest expectations and was just a hint of the rapidlygrowing dissatisfaction with Maine’s wind energy policies.

We want to express our tremendous thanks to all who attended, all who made generous donations, all who donated the wonderful items for our auctions, and especially Nancy Gray and the extraordinary staff of the Harraseeket Inn.

More Towns Take Refuge From Maine Wind Siting Laws

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:31:03 +0000

Two more Maine towns, Prospect and Eddington, recently added their names to the ever-growing list of towns rejecting Maine’s wind industry friendly siting laws. Montville went a step further and passed a wind ordinance that protects its citizens and property from the intrusion of poorly sited industrial scale turbines. As the list grows, it’s becoming cumbersome to list them in our statements announcing these milestones, so we will start listing them below.

As long as state level disregard persists, local ordinances are the only way reasonable restrictions can be placed on turbine siting. Unfortunately, for those in LURC jurisdiction, these actions may place more pressure on the unorganized towns and plantations. Residents and property owners in these places are sitting ducks with no opportunity to change ordinances to protect ourselves. We simply have to sit back and watch our way of life, our landscape and our soundscape be bent and broken to satisfy the whims of wind industry developers, the governor, and our legislators.

We should all applaud and thank the residents of these towns. By looking out for themselves, they are looking out for Maine; filling the void left by those in Augusta who are not.

Maine Towns with Restrictive Grid-Scale Wind Turbine Ordinances

Dixmont, Jackson, Thorndike, Montville, Buckfield.

Maine Towns with Grid-Scale Wind Turbine Moratoriums

Buckfield, Dixfield, Rumford, Phillips, Avon, New Vineyard, Eddington, Prospect.

Mars Hill, Maine