Document text
Photo by Andy Atkinson Protesters gather at the Ashland library Wednesday, holding signs spelling out opposition to the proposed expansion of the Mount Ashland ski area. The protest preceded an informational meeting about the expansion plan. Ski area forum draws protests Environmentalists see Mount Ashland expansion as harmful to watershed By JOHN DARLING ASHLAND -- Skiers called a proposed expansion of the Mount Ashland ski area a much-needed boost in a competitive recreational niche, but environmentalists said the project will damage Ashland's water supply in what began as a contentious meeting Wednesday night. The forum at Southern Oregon University was intended as an informational session by the Chamber of Commerce. However, environmentalists, upset that they weren't invited to sit on the panel with representatives of the city, the chamber and Ski Ashland, put on a 20-person demonstration and parade from downtown before the session and frequently heckled speakers. The audience of several hundred was then invited to break into small groups to pose questions that were then answered by the panel. The expansion, which awaits a decision from the U.S. Forest Service this fall, calls for a quad, or four-person chairlift, five new trails, 61 new acres of now-scarce intermediate and beginner trails, 200 new parking spots and a skier services building at the base of the Bowl to offer food, drinks and warmth to 80 skiers. Mount Ashland faces stiff competition from Mount Bachelor in Bend and the Shasta Ski Area in California, both of which have outspent Mount Ashland on improvements to attract skiers, said Mount Ashland Assistant General Manager Jeff Hanson. With the proposed expansion, he added, business is expected to pick up 10 to 25 percent within the first three years. Business has suffered because "Mount Ashland can be intimidating," Hanson said. "We need easier terrain for beginners. We need to compete as a business." Mount Ashland, he noted, has the highest skier-to-acreage ratio of any ski area in Oregon and just needs more space. But the Rogue Group of the Sierra Club papered the hall with fliers stating "the expansion will destroy an ecosystem, an environment and perhaps a water supply." Ashland's water supply comes from Ashland Creek, whose East Fork runs through the middle of the proposed expansion area. "You have real problems there with sedimentation," said Charlotte Holzkamper of Talent, the Rogue Group's chairwoman and author of the flier. "It's like a piece of Swiss cheese underneath the soil." Her flier said water flows through the expansion area just 4 to 24 inches beneath the surface on its way to Ashland faucets and that "there will be vast sedimentation and landslides because of the water and the instability of the granitic soils." The entire ski area amounts to 1.5 percent of the Ashland watershed; public works Director Paula Brown said she was "comfortable'' with the proposed monitoring of erosion. "There will be some erosion and there are impacts from construction, but these will be negligible in the long term," she said. Forest Service geotechnical engineer Pete Jones said in an interview that he had taken Sierra Club members on tours of the Ski Area's sediment traps and "we found sediment was not leaving the site in significant quantities." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA