I’m a native Vermonter and live in West Dummerston, Vermont, which isn’t too far up the road from the FiberMark plant.  It’s a neat place to be—the old hometown.

My brother called one night last fall and asked if I wanted to join him on a moose hunt the following weekend.  We headed up north to Burke Mountain and just had a wonderful time.  We didn’t shoot any moose, but that’s not really the reason we go up there anyway—it’s just an excuse to share some camaraderie and walk around in the woods a bit.

I had heard that, in the 1960s, they put a radar facility up on one of the peaks next to Burke Mountain.  It was during the Cold War era, and I think it was supposed to be a warning system to watch for aircraft that might be coming in from Canada.

The old station is on a long, saddle-backed mountain. I’d never been up there, so I was looking forward to doing a bit of exploring. We took a run up, and instantly I could see that it’s a whole different world and very remote.  The road is paved all the way, but it’s overgrown with brush and trees.  The wind was blowing and it was snowing a bit.  I’d guess it’s about 3,000 or 3,500 feet in elevation, and it’s so open that you can see clearly in all directions from up there.  So we were looking around at all the old, defunct buildings and equipment that were a part of this radar site, and I was impressed with how huge a facility it must have been.  At one point I noticed that there was an anemometer up there to gauge wind speed.  It seemed like it was still hooked up and working.

When we came back down, I saw a Vermont Electric Company truck on the road, so I stopped to talk to the driver.  I mentioned to him that the facility up there would make an awfully good site for a wind generation station.  The property is already compromised with the buildings and such, the wind blows all the time and they have this nice ridge to capture the wind from all directions.  He asked me if I’d noticed the anemometers and some of the other equipment that appeared to be working.  I said yes, I had, and he told me that they were already investigating it as a possible source for wind power.  Forget about the moose hunting.  To me, that was neatest and most interesting part of the trip!

It’s important because tapping wind power to create energy is a very good way of giving back to the grid something besides water power and nuclear power and everything else that they’re using to generate energy.  Before I said so long to the driver, I thanked him and his company for keeping the area open to curious souls like me.

I’ve been at FiberMark for more than 20 years and, when it comes to the environment, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the company’s thinking.  I like to think that I’m a part of the reason this company has become so environmentally conscious.  We try to trim waste and if we see something wrong we make sure to take care of it.  We’re all here for the same purpose, to make a living, but, in the meantime, if we can find or do something that makes a difference environmentally, then it’s our responsibility to see that it gets done.