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Sierra Club: Scrap ski area EIS Report on Mount Ashland ski area expansion is flawed, says environmentalists By PAUL FATTIG ASHLAND -- The Forest Service ought to go back to the drawing board when it comes to its draft environmental impact statement for the Mount Ashland ski area expansion proposal. That's the conclusion of the Rogue Group Sierra Club leaders after poring over the bulky document. "There are dozens of things seriously wrong with it," said Charlotte Holzkamper, the group's chair. "We have read the 600-page document and found it replete with inaccuracies, misleading statements, omissions, miscalculations, lack of important data, puzzling suppositions and opinions without supporting data." The club wants the draft EIS withdrawn, she said. It will hold an in-depth discussion of the draft EIS at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Headwaters Environmental Center, 84 Fourth St., Ashland. The public is invited. 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 Forest Service's scaled-back version that addresses issues raised by the public and the agency during its scoping process. 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. For its part, the Mount Ashland Association says 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. After the new document was initially released, the local Sierra Club spokesman said the group intended to take the Forest Service to task if it felt the draft EIS came up short. The group has 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. The draft EIS fails to look at a reasonable range of alternatives as required by federal environmental laws and has ignored public comments in recent years supporting expanding into an area known as the "Knoll" instead of the roadless area, Holzkamper said. Tom Rose, the group's coordinator for Mount Ashland issues, agreed. "The Knoll has few of the environmental issues found in the controversial area being proposed for expansion," Rose said. "The Knoll does not have major streams, riparian areas or wetlands." Rose is also concerned that more than 20 acres of trees would be cut in wetlands or unstable areas if the expansion goes forward as planned. That would include a stand of Englemann spruce, a rare tree in this region, he said. All told, some 81 acres would be clear-cut, he noted. The group also believes that the document ignores President Clinton's roadless policy announced last year, would allow expansion in crucial wildlife habitat and contains economic assumptions that lack support data. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA