Wind Turbines. Found Art. Kittitas County's Growing Debate.

Picture of a wind sculpture near Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham.

Ellensburg is famous for it's wind. Air funnels through Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. It tends to blow predictably out of the west.

I've always planned my bike trips "from the west" in that area.

One time, I tried an "east to west" ride near Ellensburg. It took several hours to go just a few miles from the top of Old Vantage Highway into town.

Pumping hard in low gears, an entire afternoon passed as I was getting down this one long hill.

There was a wooden "for sale" sign blowing horizontally.

"Wow, that's some heavy piece of plywood intended to hang down from the signpost chains." A real estate sign.

Wind from a predictable direction is great for alternative energy. People often comment that Ellensburg is utopia for wind power. They ask, "why isn't there more wind power here?"

I read that "Wild Horse Project" is functioning.

Other wind farms are planned, but two projects named "Kittitas County Wind Power" and "Desert Claim Wind" are running into neighbor objections.

This world is getting too crowded.

There is practically no place on earth that isn't too close to someone's backyard. Even in sparsely populated Kittitas County, where Ellensburg is located. That "obscuring the neighbor view" issue is becoming a big problem in wind generation.

Population is also growing in Kittitas County. The county is starting to "fill up" with long distance commuters, tele-commuters and retirees. Many folks are pouring out of the booming Seattle metropolitan area.

People want to spread out, buy a few acres and then settle down.

Commuters often figure, "the drive is only a temporary lifestyle." "Temporary till those retirement years." Then it's, "kick back" sit on the porch and enjoy a view of ponderosa pines.

Pines and, wind turbines?

If it were me, I would not mind the turbines. "Just think of this as modern art."

I live in one room near downtown Bellingham and I can't "control the view" for miles around. No problem, there's lots of "downtown sculpture" with-in walking distance.

Think of it that way. Continued.


Has anyone heard of the concept called "Found Art?" It's really an art concept, not just something I invented.

Found Art is "seeing the art in things that are not necessarily intended to be art." It can be "the pattern of smokestacks in a factory," "colors of rooftops," or "taillights from thousands of commuters;" for instance.

Windmills are a cleaner form of Found Art than a lot of things.

Here is a good question to ask, "how much land does your lifestyle require?"

Yes, that is an interesting question because it can be answered in a lot of different ways.

"How much land a lifestyle requires" and "how much the lifestyle impacts land" are two different things. They are slightly different concepts.

It takes a huge amount of land, if one's lifestyle requires "pristine environment with totally natural views of hillsides all the way around."

That's a tall order.

It takes gobs of land to make this a reality even though keeping the landscape pristine doesn't harm the land. It just requires huge tracts of undeveloped land.


Think about native American "hunter gatherer" societies. These cultures may have not had big impact on land, but they would require lots of space to survive. More acreage, per capita, than is available for the over 300 million Americans living these days.

Is there enough land to pretend we live in a pristine environment?

I would say not anymore.

Sure, it's good to preserve some wilderness areas, but being "roadless" is important in the definition of wilderness. Kittitas County is not exactly a "roadless area." I-90 carves it's way across that county bringing hoards of retirees, long distance commuters and folks seeking "rural lifestyles."

On top of Snoqualmie Pass, I think I-90 is 8 lanes or more! They say that's partially for snow removal.

West of Ellensburg, people are buying up the real estate, building dream homes and then demanding a pristine view.

Go figure.

The view is changing anyway. It's changing as more homes and roads get built.

World population keeps growing and global warming is becoming an issue. Wind power is a good way to go. It's cleaner than many other sources of energy.

We can't have it all.

Just call this "modern art."