Forest Service rejects Snodgrass

Both sides stunned at the announcement

Saying that ski lifts on Snodgrass Mountain “would not be in the public interest,” the U.S. Forest Service has decided to end the debate.

The ski area proposal will not go into the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) review process, and that decision by supervisor of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests Charlie Richmond effectively ends any possibility of lift-served skiing expanding onto Snodgrass any time soon… if ever.
 Crested Butte Mountain Resort officials are disappointed and baffled by the decision. People from the Friends of Snodgrass group also expressed shock at the announcement.
A letter dated November 5 rejecting CBMR’s proposal to expand skiing to Snodgrass was posted on the Forest Service website Monday. According to Richmond, the decision is “not subject to administrative appeal.” The official letter can be seen at www.crestedbuttenews.com. The letter to CBMR president Tim Mueller states that Richmond “is not accepting your Master Development Plan which includes a proposal to develop Snodgrass Mountain for lift-served skiing. A revised MDP, excluding the proposed lift-served skiing on Snodgrass Mountain will need to be submitted…”
Richmond said that means the Snodgrass discussion is over. “As far as lift-served skiing on Snodgrass, we have made a decision, and that decision is no,” Richmond said Monday afternoon from his office in Delta.
“It was not an easy decision. It was a tough one and one that we have been debating for a long time. Basically it came down to the fact I wasn’t willing to take this on as a Forest Service project and defend it in the NEPA process,” Richmond said.
The expansion would have added 276 acres of skiable terrain to the CBMR permit area.
CBMR’s Mueller was shocked by the decision. “It is difficult to express the depth of our disappointment regarding this decision,” he said. “We have worked methodically with the U.S. Forest Service over the past five years to address concerns and meet and exceed requirements with the goal of entering into the NEPA process, as so many of our competitors have done.
“The feedback we have received from the Forest Service up to this point has been both positive and encouraging,” Mueller continued. “We never received any indication that an objective, fair and public process would be denied after so much time and money had been invested.”
Richmond said “public interest” was the determining factor in his decision. Several factors supported Richmond’s public-interest-based rationale for rejection. The amount of public support or lack of it from the town of Crested Butte and the Gunnison County Commissioners; geology concerns; socio-economic impacts; potential lynx habitat; the limitations of the area as a ski mountain; and deepening division within the community over the issue all played a part in Richmond’s decision foundation, according to the Forest Service announcement letter.
Richmond admitted that the Forest Service hadn’t held an official comment period but said the agency had “received 500 or more comments in the last several years. I couldn’t tell you a breakdown in those that supported the project and those that opposed it. It’s not a vote process. But I try to read all that I can. We didn’t get any form letters. Most of these were heartfelt letters that people spent a lot of time writing.”
Richmond said that while some municipalities and government entities within the county wrote letters in support of getting the proposal into NEPA, “We were looking for support of the concept of the CBMR plan to put lifts on Snodgrass. The letters that supported a move to the NEPA process were difficult to us. We were looking for support for downhill skiing on Snodgrass,” he said.
He said that while the Gunnison County Commissioners made it clear that they weren’t commenting on the project, given the fact they might have to make a quasi-judicial decision on Snodgrass through the new Special Development Resolution that govern large projects in the county, their silence had an impact. “We don’t know how the county feels about the proposal, and that is a factor for us,” Richmond said.
Richmond indicated he thought going through NEPA and the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process would have taken another three-to-five years, and to add an additional year with a county review process would take too much time.
Representatives of the Friends of Snodgrass, the organization that opposed the expansion onto Snodgrass, said they were as shocked as anyone by the Forest Service announcement. “We were absolutely surprised,” admitted Chuck Shaw of FOSM. “We think he made the right decision, and the decision helps to protect the recreational and environmental benefits that Snodgrass provides to the community.”
A CBMR press release cites several other ski areas including Telluride, Breckenridge, Vail, Copper, Steamboat and Snowmass, which have proposed ski expansions with support and opposition from the public. “But the Forest Service made the decision whether to approve the expansion after conducting a public NEPA process and asking the public comment on objective studies on a draft and final EIS,” the press release states. “The decision follows an earlier decision from the Forest Service in which they said an expansion is necessary to allow CBMR to successfully compete as a destination resort. The decision to reject the Snodgrass proposal comes after five years and before public vetting of the project.”
Despite the fact that the Forest Service has “allocated” Snodgrass as an appropriate place for downhill skiing, and it is part of the CBMR Special Use Permit boundary, “There was never any guarantee to approve a project on that mountain,” Richmond emphasized. He said the agency is more and more using the type of “pre-NEPA” process CBMR has gone through. “With these big projects in particular, we are saying it is up to the proponent to get the public support and work through the list of potential problems before going into NEPA,” he explained. “Once it’s in NEPA, it becomes a Forest Service project that we have to defend. This was a project I wasn’t willing to take on and defend.”
He said typically once a project is in NEPA, the issues compound and the public support becomes more divisive.
Steve Rice, managing director of CNL Lifestyle Company, which represents the ownership group of the resort, feels otherwise. He said the project would have gained support as it became more clear in the public review process.
“We believe the NEPA process is designed to fully examine proposals like this,” he said. “This move seemed premature and contrary to the way the Forest Service has treated other ski resorts in other Colorado settings. I’ve spent a career in the ski industry and to me, this Snodgrass proposal was very well documented and a lot of the issues were addressed early. We are still trying to figure out the reason for the rejection.”
Rice said approval of Snodgrass was not a condition of the ski area sale last year. “We were aware of where it stood in the process when we bought the area,” he explained. “We were comfortable in our purchase and felt this plan was moving along in a cooperative way with the Forest Service.”
Shaw said it was the desire of FOSM to now look ahead as a community. “We are hopeful that the community will move forward to address some of the other socio-economic and environmental issues that we’re facing, like the proposed mine.”
Shaw too wants to be clear that the protection of Snodgrass was never a campaign against CBMR. “We all moved here to ski and we want the ski area to succeed,” he said. “We are not anti-CBMR in any sense. We hope we can all work together to support CBMR’s efforts to create a polished, thriving ski area on Crested Butte Mountain.”
CBMR is looking at its options to appeal Richmond’s decision.
For more community reaction to the decision, see story on the front page of the site.

To view a copy of the letter from the USFS please click here .