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91 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, July 14, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 16, 2003 Mount Ashland ski area general manager Jeff Hanson, with ski runs in the background, says a fund-raising campaign could reasonably expect to raise at least $2 million to fund new ski trails and chair lifts. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Ski expansion debate enters new phase By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Richard Nixon was thinking about his re-election campaign when people first started talking about building new ski trails and chair lifts on Mount Ashland. Thirty-two years and six presidents later, they’re still talking about how to expand Southern Oregon’s publicly owned winter sports area. The Mount Ashland ski area’s long march enters a new phase next Thursday. That’s the deadline for public comments on the U.S. Forest Service’s environmental study of expansion proposals that could add as many as 15 new ski and snowboard trails to the mountain. Advertisement Those comments will shape the final expansion plan, which is scheduled for release sometime next spring. Environmental activists and ski-area proponents have been studying the two-volume, 660-page treatise since mid-summer, analyzing the nuances of five different ways to provide more space for skiers and snowboarders. Almost everyone acknowledges that the ski area needs more trails for beginning and intermediate skiers. "The need has been recognized for a long time," says Jeff Hanson, general manager of the Mount Ashland Ski and Snowboard Resort. "The ski area is the same size it was in 1963. It’s in better shape, but the runs are the same." "We definitely support improvements up there," says Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, an Ashland-based environmental group. There’s little common ground, however, when it comes to deciding where to build those trails. The Mount Ashland Association, which operates the ski area, wants to build new trails and a chair lift north and east of the existing ski area, in a tiny watershed drained by a small stream known as the Middle Branch of the East Fork of Ashland Creek. The new trails in the association’s proposal (Alternative 2 in the environmental impact statement) would reduce crowding on busy days and give beginning and intermediate skiers and snowboarders more terrain to gain experience, says Rick Saul, marketing director for the ski area. "We want to make it better for the people who are our core customers," Saul says. Vaile and other environmental activists generally oppose tree-cutting in the Middle Branch. They support a more modest expansion that stays largely within the footprint of the existing ski area. Adding more ski trails in the Middle Branch isn’t worth invading pristine meadows and cutting more trees in Ashland’s municipal watershed, Vaile says. "There’s an increasing awareness that we’re down to the last wild places, and that we shouldn’t log old-growth forests or enter undisturbed watersheds," he says. The Forest Service has proposed an expansion plan (Alternative 6) that incorporates many features of the Mount Ashland Association’s proposal. The Forest Service’s proposal, however, shifts some trails and chair lifts to reduce the potential for erosion and to minimize intrusion into sensitive wetlands. It also adds a second major chair lift to provide additional access to new trails. The area slated for development was anything but controversial back in 1991, when the Forest Service created a master plan for future development on Mount Ashland. At that time, environmental groups and backcountry skiers opposed proposals to build chair lifts on the south side of the mountain. The compromise that emerged at that time eliminated plans to develop the south side, but allocated two other areas for development — the Middle Branch and "the Knoll," a hill east of the existing ski area. Some environmental activists soon regretted the compromise, says Tom Rose, an Ashland resident who worked against the south- side expansion and now opposes development in the Middle Branch. "We walked down through (the Middle Branch drainage) and it looked like no human had ever set foot in there before," Rose says. "Up to that time, in our mind the whole fight had been over the south side. "It’s hard to find unhackneyed adjectives to describe what’s there," he says. "It’s pristine, beautiful, and uninhabited. It’s the essence of what this area all must have looked like way back when. "Over time, more and more people have become aware of the area and attracted to it and gotten interested in preserving it." Rose and the Sierra Club favor Alternative 5, the option that concentrates most development within the existing ski area. Ski area managers say that proposal won’t provide enough of the beginning and intermediate terrain that’s one of the prime reasons for expanding. Moreover, they say, the Sierra Club’s favored alternative costs nearly as much as Mount Ashland’s own plan — about $2 million for the trails and chair lifts. Alternative 5 "just doesn’t make sense from a ski-area-design point of view," Hanson says. "Its capital costs are just as high as (Mount Ashland’s own) Alternative 2 without really increasing the area’s attractiveness significantly." The Sierra Club and others who oppose Mount Ashland’s plan have questioned how the ski area would pay for it. The full tab for Mount Ashland’s own proposal, which includes a new lodge at the top of a new chair lift, could run to $6 million. Hanson says the ski area could expand in phases, adding new chair lifts and trails first and other amenities later. "The first phase includes the key acreage — the runs that really make a difference in the ski area," he says. "It’s common sense to build the things first that enhance the ski area the most. That helps you fund the other upgrades in quality and facilities and take the next steps." Hanson says the ski area commissioned a fund-raising study by a Roseburg consultant who determined that $2.2 million would be a "feasible" goal for a community-based campaign. People who led the 1991 effort to buy the ski area say donors will deliver the necessary cash when the Forest Service finally approves an expansion plan. "I’m not worried at all about finding the money," says Bob Matthews, owner of Medford’s Rogue Ski Shop. Matthews led the campaign that raised more than $1.2 million to buy the ski area when the previous owner put it up for sale. As the Forest Service begins work on its final plan, environmental activists are firmly resolved to preserve the Middle Branch intact. "It’s a uniquely beautiful area we’d hate to see despoiled by a commercial ski area," says the Sierra Club’s Rose. He discounts the notion that the ski area would invade only a tiny fraction of the Middle Branch watershed. "That’s a simplistic argument that doesn’t have much appeal to me. It’s statistics used in an Orwellian way." Spreading the word Information about the Mount Ashland expansion proposal and a wide range of opinions about the plans can be found on Internet sites. For specific information about the U.S. Forest Service’s draft environmental impact statement, visit the site at www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue/ The Forest Service site includes instructions for commenting about the proposals via e-mail. The deadline for comments is Oct. 23. Environmental activists who oppose the ski area’s expansion plan have created a Web site at: www.mountashland.com For the ski area’s stance, see the Web site at: www.mtashland.com Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times