Up-to-Date News

SISK MOUNTAIN ALERT

Looking down stream along the chain of ponds

TransCanada Pipeline Corporation, destroyers of the natural environment from Alberta Canada to Franklin County, Maine, are at it again! TransCanada is a $34 billion pollution belching behemoth awash in greenwash while heavily sucking up windpower tax subsidies from the American and Maine taxpayer.

TransCanada now wants to place a huge industrial windpower facility on the ridgeline of Sisk Mountain that overlooks Chain of Ponds. Historic Chain of Ponds near the Canadian border is one of the premier wilderness spots in Maine’s vacationland and sits along Maine’s Arnold Trail, where you can dip your paddles in and  follow in the footsteps of Benedict Arnold on his march to Quebec. There are few places in Maine with as rugged a landscape to paddle through. Mountain summits and ridges surround the narrow ribbon of water and create a fjord-like setting.

Clouds over Chain of Ponds

Winter ice on Chain Of Ponds

TransCanada’s proposed industrialization of Sisk Mountain will have significant impacts on the environment and enjoyment of all of the Chain of Ponds area as well as the Mountain itself. Friends of the Boundary Mountains has raised many questions with Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC), challenging approval of this project. These include questions about disturbances to wetlands, soils, golden eagle habitat, Canada lynx habitat (listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act), rare native plants of State concern and many other natural features. TransCanada’s project will require considerable grading and clearing on the ridge itself. It appears that in some places the removal of up to 23 inches of top soil will be necessary. And over two miles of new access road above 2700 feet (mountain protected zone under LURC) will have to be built on slopes that may have grades of as much as 25%!

a species threatened by TransCanada's roads and habitat destruction

Canada Lynx, a threatened species, are among the residents of the Boundary Mountains that depend upon its undisturbed boreal forest habitat for survival