Mount Redington is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

located in Franklin County,

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. Redington is flanked to the northeast by South Crocker Mountain and to the west by Black Nubble. Redington stands just northeast of the U.S. Navy Survival Escape and Evasion Training Facility (USSEAETF). The southeast side of Redington drains into the South Branch of the

Carrabassett River The Carrabassett River, a tributary of the Kennebec River, is located in Franklin County and Somerset County, Maine, in the United States. It rises near Sugarloaf Mountain, east of Rangeley Lake, and runs for ,U.S. Geological Survey. Nationa ...

, then into the

Kennebec River The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 natural river within the U.S. state of Ma ...

, and into the

Gulf of Maine The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northea ...

. The northwest side of Redington drains into Nash Stream, then into the South Branch of the Dead River, Flagstaff Lake, the Dead River and the Kennebec. The

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tra ...

(AT), a

National Scenic Trail The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nati ...

from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, is routed around Mt. Redington, to instead pass near the summit of

Sugarloaf Mountain Sugarloaf Mountain (, ) is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a peninsula at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. Rising above the harbor, the peak is named for its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf suga ...

() — the second highest peak in the state of Maine. The AT runs from Saddleback Junior to the southwest, over Spaulding Mountain and Sugarloaf to the east, and passes about a mile northeast of Redington, at the summit of South Crocker. Mount Redington and Owl's Head in New Hampshire are the only New England

four-thousand footers The Four-thousand footers (sometimes abbreviated 4ks) are a group of forty-eight mountains in New Hampshire at least above sea level. To qualify for inclusion a peak must also meet the more technical criterion of topographic prominence important ...

without a maintained trail to the summit.

Wind farm proposal

In 2005, Maine Mountain Power filed an application with the Maine Land Use Regulation Committee (LURC) for a permit to develop a 30-

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

on Redington and neighboring Black Nubble. After years of contentious debate, the proposal was voted down by the LURC in 2007. The summit of Redington was seen as too ecologically sensitive — a sub-alpine fir habitat providing a home for two rare species, the

bog lemming ''Synaptomys'' is a genus of North American lemmings. These animals live in wet forested and open areas. They are small, cylindrical rodents with large heads and short ears, legs, and tails. They eat green vegetation such as grasses and sedges. ...

and

Bicknell's thrush Bicknell's thrush (''Catharus bicknelli'') is a medium-sized thrush, at and . One of North America's rarest and most localized songbirds, it breeds on coniferous mountain tops and disturbed habitats of northeastern North America. While very simi ...

. Also, the development would have been visible for miles along the AT. A revised proposal, which would have developed wind power only on Black Nubble, was rejected by the LURC in 2008. As of early 2009, the wind farm project was being planned as the

Sugarloaf Community Wind Farm The Sugarloaf Community Wind Farm is a wind power project in western Maine under development by Endless Energy Corporation. The wind farm is planned to be situated between the Sugarloaf (ski resort), Sugarloaf and the Saddleback Maine (ski resort ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Redington Mountains of Franklin County, Maine New England Four-thousand footers

Wind farm proposal

See also

References