Clean Air. Pure Water. Pennsylvania’s Heritage. Join residents, camp owners, and visitors to safeguard our forests, headwaters, wildlife, and night skies.
Protect the McKean County Wilds
McKean County is a target for large-scale wind, solar, injection wells, and other heavy industrial developments that threaten our forests, water, wildlife, and rural way of life.
Our mission is simple: protect every township and resident in McKean County. We stand on Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution — the people’s right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic values of the environment.
The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.
Massive turbines up to ~656 ft threaten scenic ridgelines, wildlife habitat, and tourism viewsheds — with noise, shadow flicker, and light pollution.
Utility-scale solar can clear large forested areas, fragment wildlife corridors, and alter hydrology if sited poorly.
Wastewater injection may risk groundwater/drinking water and increase truck traffic; federal UIC permitting applies.
Related Injection-Well Links
Annual Visitor Spending
$0 Million
Economic value generated by visitors to the region.
Seasonal Camps & Homes
1,700+
Estimated number of recreational properties.
Kinzua Bridge State Park Attendance
0
Reported visitors to the Sky Walk and park.
McKean County Forested Acres
0+
Total acres of forest land (State & Private).
Total PA Wilds Wind Project Acres Compiled
— acres
Combined built, construction, permitted, and proposed projects.
Total PA Wilds Solar Project Acres Compiled
— acres
Combined built, construction, permitted, and proposed projects.
The massive scale of proposed projects is revealed in the PJM and NYISO interconnection queues. The vast majority of this capacity is intended for export, serving distant metropolitan areas, not local residents.
0 MW
Total proposed capacity in PJM's queue for facilities impacting the PA Wilds region.
Project Callouts (affecting/near PA Wilds)
0 MW
Total proposed capacity in NYISO's queue that is sited near the PA border or impacts the region.
Project Callouts (affecting/near PA Wilds)
Queue capacity originating in McKean County, split by technology and targeted ISO. Values reflect publicly verifiable filings; update as needed.
0 MW
Includes Clermont Solar (~120 MW).
No active PJM wind filings in McKean currently counted.
0 MW
Prior “CSR Phase 1” listing appears withdrawn/unclear — excluded.
Black Cherry Wind 1 (~300 MW) + Black Cherry Wind 2 (~150 MW).
McKean County's natural wealth has historically been exported. From the clear-cutting of the old-growth forests to the heavy extraction of oil and gas, our community has long served as a resource “dumping ground” for outside gain, leaving local populations to manage the environmental consequences.
The current wave of massive industrial energy projects, particularly wind and solar, continues this exploitative pattern. Many of these developers, including those behind Black Cherry Wind, are backed by large, often foreign private equity firms and multinational corporations. Their focus is maximizing profits for distant stakeholders, with little regard for the lasting ecological damage to our wildlands or the quality of life for residents.
We must stop trading the permanent, irreplaceable value of our wildlands for temporary, export-driven industrial profit.
McKean County sits on the border of two massive power grids: PJM Interconnection and NYISO. Projects near our border can be designed to export power out of the county.
The proposed Black Cherry Wind and other regional developments are largely positioned to satisfy New York’s mandates (CLCPA), leveraging remote, inexpensive forestland in northern Pennsylvania.
Result: locals absorb the impacts; distant metros reap the electricity.
Add your name to oppose the Black Cherry Wind Project and protect our ridgelines, headwaters, and wildlife.
Sign the Black Cherry Wind PetitionThis petition specifically concerns Black Cherry Wind.
Annual Visitor Spending ($183.9M) — Pennsylvania Tourism impact profiles (PA DCED / Tourism Economics); regional roll-ups used by PA Wilds Center. PA DCED — Tourism
Seasonal Camps & Homes (1,700+) — McKean County Assessment property class data (Seasonal/Recreational), compiled from assessment reports. McKean County (Assessment)
Kinzua Bridge Attendance (200,000) — DCNR annual park attendance statistics for Kinzua Bridge State Park. DCNR — State Parks
Forested Acres (460,000+) — USDA Forest Service FIA / DCNR forest land summaries for McKean County & surrounding PA Wilds counties. USFS FIA • DCNR — Conservation
PA Wilds Wind Acres (28,500) — Compiled from public project filings, local land-use submissions, and agency dockets (PJM/NYISO interconnection filings, township hearings, DEP/USACE docs).
PA Wilds Solar Acres (14,200) — Compiled from developer site plans, zoning submissions, and DEP Chapter 102/105 filings and PA PUC submissions where applicable.
Notes: “Compiled” values select disturbance acres when available; otherwise site/lease boundary. Duplicates removed; withdrawn/denied/decommissioned listed separately outside totals.
Queue totals (PJM/NYISO) reflect visible queue entries affecting the PA Wilds footprint. Black Cherry Wind and Clermont Solar are called out with their intended queue destinations so readers can see how much of the capacity is built to export.
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