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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels October 14, 2004 Our View Flawed test gives flawed results Talk about a test designed for failure, the recent Ski Citizen's Coalition annual review of the Mt. Ashland Ski Area was like a multiple choice test with no right answers. Let's see, question No. 1. If you are planning an expansion, will you A) work closely with outside agencies to monitor the development and mitigate environmental denigration, B) offer compromises that will limit the amount of tree removal and protect the watershed, C) don't do expansion, or D) all of the above. So the ski area folks rule out C because the question is about planning expansion. They can't chose D, because that too rules out expansion, and well, that's the point isn't it. A scratch of the head and the frustrated test taker picks B, knowing A is pretty good too. BUZZZZZZZZZZZ. WRONG ANSWER! That's just it. There is no right answer. The Ski Citizen's Coalition readily admitted that any attempts to reduce the environmental impact of a ski area expansion will not help the score. Any expansion, is a bad one, they say, resulting in a D score, the lowest possible. Gee, how helpful is that? Reading between the lines of Wednesday's report on the coalition's negative score of Mt. Ashland reveals that the ski area dropped "one or two letter grades, said Jeff Berman, executive director of Colorado Wild, one of the participating groups. One or two? Which is it? If it dropped one, and the Mt. Ashland Association would have only scored a C based on its typical annual work to protect the environment, then we can have some useful criteria to hold the ski association in account. But if it's two, and a blatantly environmental group is saying the ski area's typical efforts are akin to a B grade, that is useful too. Useful in we can presume the ski area association is doing a pretty good job. But when things like the ski area's watershed restoration projects score a grand total of zero positive points, one starts to wonder about the validity of these so-called grades. These are the murky waters that most of us are swimming in when it comes to the issues related to the Mt. Ashland Ski Area expansion. The association claims it has gone the extra mile and back to care for and protect our natural resources, while balancing them with the need to improve the recreational and economic benefits of the ski area. Local environmental opponents claim the opposite. Then when we look to outside sources for some type of clarity, we are thrown into the molasses-like murk of a test that is designed for failure. A truly independent evaluation of the ski area's environmental efforts could have provided useful information. But a test where the questions are failed from the outset tells us nothing more than we already knew: Environmentalists don't want expansion, the ski area association supporters do. We don't need a test to tell us that. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams