Wild Mount Ashland News Updates
News and information related to the proposed Mt.
Ashland Ski Area Expansion and Wild Mount Ashland.
For recent news regarding the proposed expansion, please visit http://www.dailytidings.com/mtashland/ .
Headlines
These headlines link to the stories below
Top Story:
Mt. Ashland Ski Area Gets a "D" Grade for
Environmental Stewardship (Oct. 13, 2004)
Ski Ashland's Comments
Opposing Public Participation Uncovered by Wild Mount Ashland (Feb.
9, 2004)
Ashland Citizens Hang
Anti-Expansion Banner Above Mt. Ashland Road near Ski Area (Dec.
19, 2003)
Earth Scientists
Declare Definitive Link Between Human Activities & Climate Change
(Dec. 17, 2003)
Mt. Ashland Ski Area Gets a
"C" on Environmental Scorecard: 2nd Worst in State
(Dec. 14, 2003)
United Nations Predicts Global Warming Will
Adversely Affect Ski Areas (Dec. 2, 2003)
EPA Says Mt. Ashland Ski
Area Expansion Plan Could Harm Wildlands,
Risk Water Supply (Nov. 8, 2003)
Group Calls for Boycott of Mt.
Ashland Ski Area (Nov. 3, 2003) News Stories
Mt. Ashland Ski Area Gets
a "D" Grade for Environmental Stewardship
The Ski Citizen's Coalition annual
review of ski resorts environmental performance gave Mt. Ashland a
D, the area's lowest score ever. D is one letter better than
an F (short for Failure). Read the
article in the Ashland Daily Tidings.
Ski Ashland's Comments
Opposing Public Participation Uncovered by Wild Mount Ashland
(Feb. 9, 2004)
Wild Mount Ashland has uncovered a Ski Ashland
document advocating the removal of an important public participation
mechanism of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In
an August 2002 statement submitted to the US Council on
Environmental Quality, Ski Ashland's General Manager Jeff Hanson
advocated that the administrative appeal process of NEPA be removed
from the law.
"The [NEPA] appeal process in itself is an
unreasonable time consuming process...there is no reason to waste
time and effort with an administrative appeals process. If the
appellant is truly serious, then they will pursue a legal appeal,"
reads Ski Ashland's comments. These comments reflect the ski
area's concern that an appeal of their proposed expansion would be
successful in stopping or altering implementation of the
controversial plan.
The appeal process grants citizens the ability to
request the formal review of decisions made regarding public land
management. For example, the decision to approve a particular
timber sale or mining operation on a local district of National
Forest land can be appealed by the public, requiring a review of the
decision by the higher level Forest Service District Office.
The appeal process is an administrative action and does not involve
litigation. Appeals are responsible for reversing many public
lands management decisions across the country that would have
violated federal law and policy. Decisions determined not to
be in conflict with law and policy are allowed to go forward and be
implemented.
But the removal of the appeals process would have
significant national implications. The public would lose the
ability to quickly and inexpensively request the review of decisions
and would instead have to rely upon slower-moving and more costly
lawsuits in order to test the legality of land management decisions.
Certainly, many timber sales, mining operations, and activities
which grossly pollute and alter public lands would be implemented
without administrative review as a result of the NEPA appeal process
being removed.
Ski Ashland's comments end with the statement
that the cost of completing the Mount Ashland Ski Area Environmental
Impact Statement "may also make it difficult to begin the
implementation of the [expansion] proposal once approved."
This comment reveals the assertion of environmental groups--most
notably the Sierra Club--that the ski area is embarking upon a
financially burdensome expansion that risks the solvency of the ski
area.
Go
here to read Ski Ashland's official comments to the the
US
Council on Environmental Quality (in PDF format - the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader is required).
Ashland Citizens Hang
Anti-Expansion Banner Above
 Mt.
Ashland Road near Ski Area
(Dec. 19, 2003)
Sometime overnight on December 18, a group of
Ashland citizens calling themselves "Citizens Against the Ski
Ashland Expansion" hung a large banner 150 feet above the Mt.
Ashland Road near the ski area. The front of the banner reads
"Stop! Ski Ashland Expansion" and features the large red "X" used to
symbolize opposition to irresponsible ski area expansion. The
back of the banner was reported to feature a giant pink heart.
The banner hang went unreported in local media. More info can
be found on the Rogue Independent Media Center
website.
Earth Scientists
Declare Definitive Link Between Human Activities & Climate Change
(Dec. 17, 2003)
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) today
released a formal "position statement" declaring a certain link
between human activities and global climate change. Among
these changes include increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. Read the
AGU's
Human Impacts on Climate report.
Mt. Ashland Ski Area
Gets a "C" on Environmental Scorecard: 2nd Worst in State
(Dec. 14, 2003)
The Mt. Ashland Ski Area scored poorly on an
independent environmental scorecard of ski areas. The Ski Area
Citizens Coalition, a non-profit organization which ranks ski areas
on a broad array of environmental considerations, has just given Ski
Ashland a "C", making it the second lowest-rated ski area in Oregon.
With a numerical score of only 50.5 out of a possible 100, the Mt.
Ashland Ski Area ranked lower than its regional competitor, Mt.
Shasta Ski & Board Park (which scored a "B" with 74.3 points).
Seventy percent of the ski areas in Oregon, Washington, and
California received a higher environmental score than Ski Ashland.
Go to the
Ski Area Citizens Coalition site>
United Nations Predicts Global Warming Will
Adversely Affect Ski Areas
(Dec. 2, 2003)
The United Nations
issued a report today, predicting that many lower elevation ski
areas will experience a shortage of snow due to global climate
change. The report indicated that many resorts in Europe,
North America, and Australia are likely to be affected.
The Mt. Ashland Ski Area operates between 6,000 and 7,500 feet
elevation and is influenced by maritime weather, making it more prone to changes in winter temperatures
than many other ski areas in the Western US. Go to the
United Nations News Center to read their synopsis of the report.
EPA Says Mt. Ashland
Ski Area Expansion Plan Could Harm Wildlands, Risk Water Supply
(Nov. 8, 2003)
The United States Environmental Protection Agency
has submitted formal agency comments on the proposed Mt. Ashland Ski
Area expansion and has recommended against pursuing the expansion as
proposed by the ski area as well as the modified plan put forth by
the US Forest Service. In a November 4, 2003
letter, the EPA went on to
express concerns over the risk of the expansion diminishing
summertime streamflows in the Middle Branch watershed, an important
hydrologic area in Ashland's sole watershed. Also at risk is
compliance with the Northwest Forest Plan's Aquatic Conservation
Strategy. The EPA recommends a scaled-down version of the
expansion that does not cross the Middle Branch drainage, the same
plan put forth in the Community Alternative created by ski area
users. Read the full text of
the EPA
letter and the
Ashland Daily Tidings story>
Group Calls for Boycott of Mt. Ashland Ski
Area
(Nov. 3, 2003) In a letter to
the Ashland Daily Tidings, local residents Eric Navickas and Tracy
Bungay announced a boycott of the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. Organized by
a group known as the Ashland Watershed Watchdogs, the boycott aims
to highlight a lack of support for the ski area's full scale
expansion proposal among skiers and snowboarders. An
impressive number of area skiers and snowboarders have been quietly
boycotting the area since they first proposed expanding into the
pristine Middle Branch watershed in 1998. Those interested in
supporting this boycott effort can quickly send an email message to
the ski area via the Wild Mount Ashland website by going
here. |
