March 3, 2004

Final ski area reports coming this summer

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

The long-awaited Final Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Mt. Ashland Ski & Snowboard Resort expansion likely will be released to the public in July, with a final decision to follow 30 days later, according to Ashland District Ranger Linda Duffy.

Forest Service officials had made early estimates that the document would be released in the spring.

Duffy said Forest Service staff are continuing to work on a variety of issues that came up during the Draft Environmental Impact Statement public comment period that ended Oct. 23, 2003.

The Forest Service received more than 3,000 letters and cards from individuals, groups and government agencies, and will respond to those comments in the Final EIS.

Acting on a recommendation by Ashland Public Works Director Paula Brown, the Ashland City Council asked the Forest Service to form a Quality Assurance/Quality Control Team to oversee any expansion of the ski area and make sure impacts to the municipal water source are minimal.

The ski area is located at the top of the Ashland Watershed.

"Our team is working with the city to better understand what they're wanting," Duffy said.

The city council also said if the Forest Service approves full expansion, development should be done in two phases, with monitoring to ensure there are no significant negative impacts.

"We are looking at the impact of phasing," Duffy said.

The Forest Service is examining the impacts from allowing some form of ski area expansion but not permitting an expansion of the parking lot in response to council comments, she said.

The council also requested the Forest Service analyze an expansion plan advocated by the Headwaters environmental organization and a group of skiers and snowboarders that would confine new development to one side of a fork of Ashland Creek.

"We don't have a determination of whether we will add that as an additional alternative," Duffy said.

But whether or not the Headwaters' plan is analyzed as a separate alternative, elements of the plan are contained in other alternatives the Forest Service is examining, she said.

The Draft EIS contained a no-expansion alternative and five expansion options. The preferred alternative in that document would allow expansion on both sides of the disputed fork of Ashland Creek, but includes provisions to reduce impacts to an Englemann spruce grove and other natural resources.

Rogue River and Siskiyou National Forests Supervisor Scott Conroy, along with the Klamath National Forest Supervisor, will make the final decision on the expansion. The ski area is located primarily in the Rogue River National Forest, with a small southern portion in the Klamath National Forest