Star Childs charges DEEP decision in case a “rip-off”

By Veronica Burns

In December 2010, a brief article in the Hartford Courant alleged that there
had been a non-permissible clear-cutting of trees on State-owned land on
Canaan Mountain. The article seemed to mark the end of it.

Now, three years later, the Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council
(BLEC) has filed a lawsuit in the matter. Papers have been served
against the Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Energy
and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and against BNE Energy, Inc., a
renewable energy company with headquarters listed as 19 Flagg Hill Road
in Colebrook. BNE is the same company determined to build six industrial
wind turbines in Colebrook, but has run into other legal challenges as well.

Following a state investigation into the Canaan Mountain clear-cut on a
portion of Housatonic State Park, DEEP’s commissioner, Daniel Esty,
issued a consent order stating that BNE had violated Section 52-560a of
the Connecticut General Statutes.

The problem with this, according to BLEC’s attorney, Nicholas J. Harding,
is that Esty does not have the authority to invoke this particular law, only
the Attorney General does. “We plan to challenge this,” says Harding,
“since we believe it is not in Esty’s jurisdiction. We will contest the validity
of the consent order.”

Starling Childs, president of the nonprofit that is suing the state’s Department of Energy and Environment Protection.

Estey’s stance has infuriated Norfolk’s Starling Childs, head of Great
Mountain Forest and also president of BLEC. The consent order imposed
various research requirements and included a financial penalty of $10,000.
Childs calls that “egregious” and suggests that a fine of $500,000 would
be more appropriate. “Esty had the opportunity to do the right thing,” says
Childs, “I think this is a rip-off, a slap on the wrist.”

The order states that BNE “cleared approximately 2.5 acres of land and
placed a sodar (sonic detection and ranging) apparatus on the land to
measure wind speeds.” At the time, BNE was working with Matthew Freund and Lone Oaks, Inc., in a proposal to install a wind turbine to provide electricity for Freund Farm and to create an access road on the Lone Oaks property. The lawsuit against BNE seeks full restoration of the forest.

For BLEC, a non-profit conservation organization founded in 1970 by a
group of citizens concerned about a large-scale Northeast Utilities project
on Canaan Mountain, this particular battle has brought them full circle. “We
have made Canaan Mountain a cause celebre for decades,” says Childs.
“This was a stand of some 500 trees, including ancient hemlocks, large
diameter oaks and mixed hardwoods. It was a healthy and functioning
forest canopy. Now it is down and dead on the ground.”