Sherry Roche’s job can involve some cold fingers, but it’s worth it. Roche, a visual resources specialist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the cold comes with the job of figuring how wind transmission lines and turbines look from varied distances and in a variety of settings.

That means she and her team working on the BLM’s twin view-impact studies spend a lot of time outdoors as winter deepens.

“It takes a lot of time, let me tell you, and it’s really cold out there,” she said in a telephone interview, a warm smile in her voice.

The view impact study is one of several studies under way by the BLM. Others will examine the best place, from a land-use perspective, to locate wind farms. MORE …