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Headwaters Heritage Initiative
MT. ASHLAND SKI AREA EXPANSION
Getting children out in nature helps create life-long conservationists and
moves us toward a conservation based land ethic. But our desire to create outdoor recreation opportunities must be balanced by what the land needs in order to remain ecologically productive.
The Mt. Ashland Association, a nonprofit organization that operates the Mt. Ashland Ski Area in southwest Oregon, proposes to expand their existing ski area into the MacDonald Peak Roadless Area at the headwaters of the City of Ashland's municipal watershed. The expansion focuses development in the sensitive Middle Branch area, a drainage that is characterized by high elevation meadows, wetlands, rare Engelmann Spruce, and provides habitat for the Pacific Fisher.
Our concern lies in three basic issues regarding the ski area expansion. The first is major development of an inventoried roadless area. Secondly, our analysis of the erosion predictions put forward by the Forest Service has lead us to the conclusion that they have improperly used the Watershed Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model to predict the amount of increased sediment that will travel down the creek from the area disturbed by the expansion. 
Our third concern involves the impact of global warming on the ski area due to the existing climate, its geographic location, and the very real possibility that temperatures will continue to rise in the foreseeable future. A report entitled "Mapping 'At-Risk' Snow in the Pacific Northwest" published in the Journal of Hydrometeorology in February of 2006 indicates that the Mt. Ashland Ski Area is one of twenty ski areas at risk of significant decreases in snowpack should global temperatures continue to rise over the next decades as predicted.
Less snowpack means a less financially viable ski area. With the future of the ski area already at risk, the highest and best use of this the area is management of the watershed for drinking water in combination with a more sustainable ski area proposal that addresses the threat of climate change to the region.
Recognizing that some skier services and terrain improvements could be made with significantly less ecological damage than the project that was being proposed, our staff worked for
2 years with skiers and snowboarders on an alternative that
would allow significant skier services improvements and new terrain development outside of the
sensitive Middle Branch area.
It was our hope that by creating an alternative that could meet the needs of the ski area while protecting the mountain's ecology, we might serve as an example to other communities that find themselves embroiled in a similar controversy around ski area development or expansion. The Mt. Ashland Association was invited to participate in the development of the community alternative but declined.
The Community Alternative was presented to the Forest Service, which created an alternative
that incorporated many, but not all, of the components of our community
alternative. In the draft Environmental
Impact Statement, analysis of this alternative (#3) indicated that not only would
our alternative reduce the ecological impact of the expansion dramatically, it
would do so while servicing a comparable number of new winter recreationists
with less capital expense and therefore, less financial risk to the ski area.
In the end, the Forest Service chose to bypass this better alternative and approve the expansion alternative supported by the Mt. Ashland Association that will degrade the pristine Middle Branch area at the top of a municipal watershed and potentially cause serious future flooding problems for the city.
Despite our best efforts to help create a proactive solution, we
have been left with no other alternative but to litigate to ensure credible environmental analysis is performed by land management agencies in evaluating projects such as this.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Chris Winter of Cascade Resources Advocacy Group and Marianne Dugan.
All photos this page by Tonya Graham.
