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Headwaters opposes ski plan Board echoes Sierra Club request By PAUL FATTIG ASHLAND -- The Headwaters environmental coalition board of directors is asking the Forest Service to withdraw its draft environmental impact statement for the Mount Ashland ski area expansion proposal. The announcement follows a similar request made earlier this week by the Rogue Group Sierra Club. "The data and the scientific analysis just isn't there to support the conclusions they draw," said Chris Bratt, chairman of the Headwaters board. "However, at the same time, Headwaters wants to engage the Forest Service, the Mount Ashland Ski Association and the community in exploring other viable ski expansion alternatives." Board member Roger Butterfield, an after-school ski program coordinator at Mount Ashland, had originally supported expansion plans. "But after hiking the area and learning about it, I realized that that ground was so unusual, so incredibly rich and sensitive," he said. "We should explore whatever other alternatives might work." And board member George Badura, a retired Rogue River National Forest soil scientist and consultant to the expansion proposal, agreed. "Their understanding of site-specific soil types and surface soil erosion issues was entirely inadequate," Badura said. While the group comprises environmental activists, it also represents a broad spectrum of the community, noted Robert Lonsdorf, conservation policy coordinator for Headwaters. "Headwaters supports an expansion plan, just not one in that area," he stressed. "We will work with Ski Ashland and the Forest Service to identify an expansion where it is appropriate. It's just not appropriate in that area." Opponents to the current proposal have been concerned about the planned expansion's impact on the watershed which feeds the city of Ashland. It has also expressed objections to the potential impact on rare plants and the McDonald Peak roadless area. As an alternative, they have suggested the expansion should be in an area known as the "Knoll," an action they say would leave the roadless area largely intact. The Ashland Ranger District last month released the document with three alternatives, including no action. The other two alternatives include Ski Ashland's $3.3 million proposal and the agency's scaled-back version. There is no preferred alternative. The 45-day comment period on the draft EIS ends April 3. A final EIS and decision is expected late this summer. The agency had approved a 1991 expansion request by the Mount Ashland Association, which operates the publicly owned nonprofit facility. New information that has come out since the original EIS and increased interest in the proposal prompted officials to do a new EIS. Because of the controversy and the potential for a legal battle, agency officials said they intended to produce a draft EIS that covered all aspects of the debate. The Mount Ashland Association has indicated the expansion is needed to provide more novice and intermediate ski trails. It also hopes to build a new chairlift, expand parking and build a 4,200-square-foot, mid-mountain lodge at the bottom of the area known as The Bowl. The Forest Service alternative would expand the main lodge rather than build the mid-mountain lodge. It also would eliminate one proposed ski-way across the bottom of the existing ski runs to the base of the new runs and change where the parking would be added. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA