No abstract

Benton County, in north-central Indiana, USA has successfully sited more than 500 turbines. To understand Benton County's acceptance of wind farms, a holistic case study was conducted that included a document review, a survey of local residents and interviews with key stakeholders. Survey questionnaires were sent to 750 residents asking questions about attitudes toward the wind farms, perceived benefits and impacts from the wind farms, environmental attitudes, and demographic information. Key stakeholders were also interviewed for a deeper understanding of the historical timeline and community acceptance of the wind farm development. While there is limited opposition to the turbines, on the whole the community presents a front of acceptance. Financial, rather than environmental, benefits are the main reason for the acceptance. Although significant in other case studies, transparency and participation do not play a large role in Benton County's acceptance. Most residents are not concerned with either visual impacts or noise from the wind turbines. More concrete benefits to the community, such as reduced energy bills for county residents, could help to extend acceptance even further within the community. Although there are concerns about the acceptance of wind farms and the impacts of those farms on local residents in both peer-reviewed literature and popular media, we found little evidence of those concerns in Benton County. Instead, we found Benton County to be a community largely accepting of wind farms.

Our understanding of how mineral nutrition affects productivity and composition of bioenergy crops grown on marginal lands remains fragmented and incomplete despite world-wide interest in using herbaceous biomass as an energy feedstock. Our aim was to determine switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) biomass production and maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield on marginal soils used previously to evaluate the effect of soil phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertility on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) forage production. Grain yield of maize was reduced on P-and/or K-limited plots that also impaired alfalfa forage yield, whereas switchgrass biomass yields were high even in plots possessing very low available P (4 mg kg -1 ) and K (< 70 mg kg -1 ) levels. Linear-plateau regression models effectively described the relationship of soil test P and K to tissue P and K concentrations, and tissue P and K concentrations accurately predicted removal of P and K in harvest biomass. However, neither soil-test P and K, nor tissue P and K concentrations were effective as diagnostics for predicting switchgrass biomass yield nor could soil tests and their change with cropping predict nutrient removal. Concentrations of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and ash were not influenced by P and K nutrition. Predicted bio-ethanol production was closely associated with biomass yield whereas high biomass K concentrations reduced estimated biooil production per hectare by as much as 50%. Additional research is needed to identify diagnostics and managements to meet the bioenergy production co-objectives of having high yield of biomass with very low mineral nutrient concentrations (especially K) while sustaining and improving the fertility of marginal soils.