The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The two sides will meet—eventually
The Snodgrass issue appears to be in wait-and-see mode. Both Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) and regional U.S. Forest Service officials agree there will be a meeting between the two, but no date has been set and the meeting isn’t likely to occur in any hurry.
U.S. Forest Service chief Tom Tidwell’s office last week upheld previous agency decisions to not allow lift served ski expansion onto Snodgrass, as proposed by CBMR. The original decision was made by Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest (GMUG) supervisor Charlie Richmond last fall. The Tidwell ruling was the final administrative appeal on the matter and CBMR is now weighing its future options.
“The decision calls for Charlie to get to us and give us some potential options with Snodgrass. So we will give him good-faith time to get with us,” said CBMR president Tim Mueller. “We read chief Tidwell’s decision as we are obligated to wait on that.”
GMUG forest external affairs officer Lee Ann Loupe said Tuesday that Richmond was out of the office but they all anticipated having a sit-down meeting with CBMR officials, once the passion and emotion over the issue had subsided.
“Basically we plan to set up a meeting to open up some dialogue,” Loupe said. “We want to let things settle down a bit. As Charlie said last week, this is an issue that has stirred a lot of passion on both sides. We want everyone to have the chance to digest the Tidwell decision. That decision just came out last week and folks need to figure out where everyone is with the decision. I am sure we will sit down with Tim and Diane and talk about the future. I just don’t know when that will happen yet.”
Loupe said that if the Muellers feel an “urgent need” to open the dialogue sooner rather than later, they can call the Forest Service “but as time allows, we will move forward. We have some internal dialoguing to do over this as well,” Loupe said. “There is still a lot of passion and emotion associated with Snodgrass.”
Tim Mueller said they would respect the cool-down period and give Richmond a chance to formulate some options the ski area might consider with Snodgrass. “We are willing to listen to his ideas,” said Mueller.
“As we read it, this decision puts the ball in his court. We’ll call him if we don’t hear from him but we think he should have time to respond to the chief’s instructions.”
Mueller re-emphasized the resort’s disappointment with the Tidwell decision. “We wanted the Forest Service to look at the substance of the arguments on both sides and not simply the procedure,” he said. “It appears to us that in the Tidwell decision, the only evidence he remarked about was the evidence against us. There are always two sides to a story and we feel both sides should be considered and not just one. As an example, Charlie had cited public support and geology as two main issues and we have a letter from Charlie saying that we had essentially cleared those hurdles. But Tidwell didn’t seem to even consider that part of the evidence.”
Mueller said as far as moving to court for another appeal, that decision has not yet been made. “We will talk to Charlie before making a decision about court,” he said. “No one wants to go there if we can avoid it.”
Loupe said a meeting with CBMR and the Forest Service is the next logical step after everyone has a chance to fully digest the Tidwell decision. “I don’t know the proper time period but I’m sure we’ll be talking,” said Loupe. “When the time comes, we all want it to be a constructive discussion.”
FOSM and CLS measured in their response
Advocate groups for both sides of the Snodgrass issue are keeping an eye on the next moves. In fact, the Coalition for Lifts (CLS) on Snodgrass will be holding a meeting to discuss the situation this Sunday. In a prepared statement, the CLS admitted disappointment in the Tidwell decision.
“CLS is disappointed in the decision. It didn’t address several of the arguments made by CBMR. For example, the decision didn’t explain why it was fair to give more weight to the opposition from the Town of Crested Butte than the support from the Town of Mt. Crested Butte, the Meridian Lake Homeowner’s Association, and CB South area,” the statement read. “The Forest Service also didn’t explain why it was fair to reach a decision on the amount of public support for the proposal when there had been no official public comment period.
“We continue to support CBMR’s efforts to get the Richmond decision overturned and we will continue to build our membership so that when a NEPA review does come, we can show how much support there is for the proposal,” the CLS statement continued. “To that end, we are having a membership meeting this Sunday, July 25, at Trackers Bar located in the Lodge at Mountaineer Square at 6 p.m. for all members and people who want to be members. Tim and Diane Mueller and other CBMR executives will be there to answer questions.”
Friends of Snodgrass Mountain said that Tidwell, like Richmond last fall, made the right decision. “The Forest Service rejected CBMR’s proposal because Snodgrass Mountain has inherent limitations that make it fundamentally unsuitable for lift-served skiing,” FOSM stated in a prepared statement. “Those inherent limitations have been thoroughly and repeatedly documented by the GMUG for years, including in this latest review. They have not and will not change. Snodgrass is hard to access, has widespread geologic instability and the expansion would have caused extensive environmental damage to forests, slopes and water sources. Open space, backcountry recreation, wildlife habitat, ranching and RMBL would all have been damaged while increased potential for landslides and avalanches would have endangered life and property. Extensive USFS review shows that the GMUG adhered to all procedures and laws during the analysis that led to the rejection of CBMR’s proposal.
“CBMR has USFS approval to significantly expand and upgrade the existing ski area on Crested Butte Mountain,” FOSM concluded. “Those improvements, once implemented, will create a more attractive, competitive product. That should be the next step.”
What the next step actually will be is yet to be determined.
