Rail Tie Wind Project
Draft Environmental Impact Statement
Aesthetics and Visual Resources
The term aesthetic and visual resources (visual resources) refers to the composite of basic terrain, geologic, and hydrologic features, vegetative patterns, and built features that influence the visual appeal of a landscape. The analysis area for visual resources is defined as the area of visibility up to 30 miles from the Project Area.
To investigate the potential visual impacts of the Project, a viewshed analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which the Project (wind turbines) would potentially be visible within the 30-mile analysis area. Within the 30-mile analysis area, three distance zones were established: foreground (0–5 miles), middle ground (5–15 miles), and background (15–30 miles). The analysis identified where Project components would be visible if there were no vegetation or structures to screen a viewer from Project components. This analysis, based on “bare earth” visibility, reflected the conservative scenario in determining sensitive viewing locations and potential visual impacts.
There would be approximately 138,930 acres of change to Class A, B, and C areas (approximately 6 percent of the analysis area) within the Project Area and visible areas of the foreground of the Project within the analysis area. There would be 215,920 acres of change to Class A, B, and C areas (approximately 9 percent of the analysis area) within visible areas of the middle ground of the Project within the analysis area.
Although the Project components would be visible in the background areas of the Project within the analysis area, the inherent scenic quality for areas within the background (approximately 439,172 acres or18 percent of the analysis area) would have weak to no degrees of visual change (i.e., contrast perceived by viewers and magnitude of change to landscape character/scenic quality) because of distance and the ability to perceive the Project in relation to other existing visual elements within the landscape.
The improvements to existing access roads and the construction of new access roads within the Project Area where current public uses occur could create opportunities for people to access previously inaccessible areas. This could result in trampling vegetation and additional resource damage (such as increased erosion), which could affect scenic quality in these areas. New access roads within the Project Area would not be open for public uses. There would be weak to strong degrees of visual change for the existing scenic quality and landscape character resulting from operations and maintenance activities.
The degrees of visual change for maximum turbine height would be moderate to strong from 76 percent of identified key observation points as compared to 54 percent associated with the minimum turbine height. The landscape would appear substantially to severely altered; Project components would introduce form, line, color, texture, or scale uncommon in the landscape and would be visually prominent to dominant in the landscape; Project components would attract or demand attention; and Project components would begin to dominate or dominate the visual setting. The degree of visual change for travelers, tourists, and residents ranged from none to strong, depending on distance from the Project and the observation point. The reduced activation time as well as the short-duration, synchronized flashing of the Aircraft Detection Lighting System would have substantially fewer significant visual effects (duration) at night than the standard continuous, or synchronized flashing, medium-intensity red strobe Federal Aviation Administration warning system, which would reduce the potential degrees of visual change of nighttime lighting depending on viewer location and proximity. One location was identified within the analysis area where there would be a maximum predicted shadow flicker of 25 hours and 6 minutes per year. This represents approximately 0.6 percent of the potential available daylight hours and is not considered significant. Based on the overall analysis of these issues, the introduction of wind turbines and associated infrastructure would result in significant impacts as compared to the characteristic landscape.