Workers have recently cleared some trees on the midcoast island that Maine is trying to develop as a staging facility for its proposed offshore wind industry.
While state transportation officials say that clearing was meant to prepare the site for geotechnical work by a subcontractor, a representative of the group that oversees a conservation easement on the state-owned island argued that it was not given proper notice of the work.
It was the latest case of area residents who are trying to protect Sears Island objecting to how the state is pursuing its goal of starting an offshore wind industry in the Gulf of Maine, after the project was recently dealt a setback when the federal government denied Maine’s request for a $456 million grant to help pay for it.
On Monday, Maine Department of Transportation spokesperson Paul Merrill said that the consultant who is helping the state to develop the wind port, Moffat & Nichol, hired the subcontractor to do the geotechnical work.
“They will be doing borings at seven different spots next month,” Merrill said in an emailed statement. “There was some tree-cutting work done today in preparation for the geotechnical work.”
Merrill said the agency notified stakeholders about the tree-clearing earlier that day.
As part of an agreement reached in 2009, Maine placed about two-thirds of Sears Island into conservation, while the rest is legally allowed to be developed for transportation purposes.
But on Friday, the vice president of the Friends of Sears Island, Rolf Olsen, said in a statement that the group should have received more advance notice about the tree clearing, which reportedly made way for a 12- to 14-foot-wide access road to the boring sites.
The Friends of Sears Island helps to maintain the conserved section of the island, which is just offshore of Searsport. But its members also oppose using the rest of the island for the state’s wind port, and have instead pushed for the project to be located at already-developed Mack Point.
“We are disappointed and discouraged that we were not informed completely and in advance about this work,” Olsen said. “Two years ago, when geotechnical work was first done on the island, I received at least a few weeks’ advance notice by email, including a map showing where the roads would be cut through the forest.”
Opponents of developing Sears Island also argued that the timing of the work was inappropriate, given the recent denial of federal funds for the project.
