Land Conservationists Worry Power Plant Will Fragment Forest, Harm Species
Bill Eccleston, self-proclaimed woodsman and former co-chair of Burrillville’s first Comprehensive Planning Committee, discusses the habitat and species found in the George Washington Wildlife Management Area on Sept. 5, 2017. Photo by Avory Brookins for RIPR
As my tour guide, Bill Eccleston, and I walked through the dirt, twigs and puddles of the George Washington Wildlife Management Area in Burrillville, we heard a bird call above us.
We immediately stopped in our tracks and looked up.
“That’s a hawk,” Eccleston said. “That sounds like the broad-winged hawk.”
Eccleston isĀ a self-proclaimed woodsman who started hunting in this area when he was about 10 years old. He knows the area well and has agreed to take me to what would be the property line of the Clear River Energy Center.
That’s the name of a natural gas power plant Invenergy, a Chicago-based company that develops power generators, wants to build. The plant has been gettingĀ pushback from environmentalists andĀ someĀ Burrillville residents for the past two years.