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Agency starts again with plan for Ski Ashland Public interest prompts new statement on environment By PAUL FATTIG ASHLAND -- The Forest Service is starting with a clean slate when it comes to the Ski Ashland expansion proposal. Instead of releasing a supplemental environmental impact statement to the original 1991 EIS later this month as planned, Ashland Ranger District officials announced Tuesday that they have decided to prepare a new EIS. The decision was based on the "high level of public interest in the expansion proposal and the large amount of new information that has been gathered," district ranger Linda Duffy said in a prepared statement. "We feel this information can be better organized and presented in an EIS (rather than as a supplement to the original 1991 EIS) and simultaneously comply with environmental policy and procedure," she added. Last December, the Mount Ashland Association submitted a proposal to expand Ski Ashland by some 350 acres, a move that would nearly double the size of the ski area. Ski Ashland is in the Rogue River National Forest and is community owned. The expansion plans have been met with strong opposition from the Rogue Group Sierra Club, which has cited environmental concerns, including potential harm to the city of Ashland water source. Growing concerns over environmental issues caused the Forest Service to go back to the basics, saidCharlotte Holzkamper, group chairwoman. "They are trying to make it lawsuit proof," she said. "They know we will test it at every point along the way." Both the Forest Service and the Mount Ashland Association say they would make sure there would be no negative impact on the environment if the ski area is expanded. Ski Ashland doesn't have any problems with a new EIS, said assistant general manager Jeff Hanson. "The most important thing to us is that the Forest Service and we and the community work together to do the best analysis of the issues so we end up with a well discussed and researched improvement plan," he said. "We also want one that covers all the legal and technical bases as well. "We feel strongly that the improvements have great merits for the ski area and the community," he added. "Of course, we'd love to see it done sooner than later, but we stand behind good, thorough analysis." The goal is to have the new draft EIS out next month with a final EIS in March. Although the new EIS will not be supplemental to the 1991 EIS, which the Forest Service used to review the impact of the proposed ski area expansion, it will be "tiered" to that original document, explained Steve Johnson, recreational specialist for the district. "There is so much information presented in an EIS," he said. "This way, people won't have to keep going back to the 1991 EIS (to compare documents). We felt this was more fair to the public." But Holzkamper believes the decision to create a new EIS illustrates the agency is worried about the potential of breaking environmental laws. "They know they have some problems with it," she said, citing in particular a portion of the plan that calls for crossing a wetland with a ski causeway. The area is part of the drainage for Ashland Creek, which is the source for Ashland's water, she noted. "What they thought was going to be an easy one is now extremely complicated," she said. "Our taking them to court really did that." She was referring to a legal effort by the group this past summer to try to stop a sewage plant expansion on the mountain. Although the attempt failed, it demonstrated the seriousness of the opposition, she said. "They know the '91 EIS will not hold up any longer," she said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA