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Ski area comments flood USFS Ashland district must review more than 1,200 By PAUL FATTIG -- More than 1,200 comments were received by the U.S. Forest Service during the public comment period that ended Thursday for the Mount Ashland ski area expansion proposal. Ashland Ranger District employees had catalogued 1,000 comments by late Friday afternoon, but more than 200 were yet to be categorized, said Steve Johnson, the district's project leader for analysis of the proposed expansion. "They really came in a flurry the last few days," he said. The number of comments for the expansion proposal is the most received for any Rogue River National Forest project since its lengthy forest plan process in the late 1980s. About 3,000 comments were received then, Johnson said. The Mount Ashland Association, which operates the publicly owned, nonprofit Ski Ashland, has proposed expanding the facility to provide more skiing space as well as upgrading ski structures. The draft EIS contains three alternatives, including no action, Ski Ashland's $3.3 million proposal and the Forest Service's scaled-back version. The document contained no preferred alternative. Expansion supporters say the plan would reduce crowded conditions while creating more intermediate and novice ski trails. But others, including the Rogue Group Sierra Club, which has submitted a 50-page-plus comment, oppose the proposed expansion. They say it would damage the fragile watershed supplying the city of Ashland, threaten rare plants and cause serious erosion problems. They also object to Ski Ashland's proposed expansion into the McDonald Peak roadless area. They have suggested any expansion should occur to the east in the area known as the Knoll. A week ago, when only about 600 comments had been received, Johnson had estimated that about 70 percent of the comments received had supported some form of expansion. But it will take a long time to study all the additional comments, he said. "The sheer volume will make it very time-consuming to go through them all," he said. "We have to sit down and analyze all the comments." A final EIS and decision on the proposal are expected later this year. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA