The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
HCCA wants more extensive review
by Mark Reaman
A Forest Service decision on a proposal to groom 37 miles of roads and trails in the upper East River Valley could be made by the middle of this month.
The proposal by the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA) was made with fat biking in mind but the groomed areas would be free and open to a variety of winter users, including Nordic skiers, dogs and hikers.
Local environmental group High Country Conservation Advocates (HCCA) submitted a lengthy comment to the Forest Service asking that an environmental assessment (EA) be conducted before any decision is made on the proposal. That would likely postpone the decision for at least a year.
The CBMBA proposal includes 9.4 miles of groomed trail in Mt. Crested Butte, including the North Village, some Crested Butte Mountain Resort trails and the Gothic corridor; 9.9 miles out Brush Creek; and 18 miles out Cement Creek.
Gunnison Forest District ranger John Murphy said the office is considering issuing a categorical exclusion (CE) to authorize the proposed grooming. That decision could come in mid-December.
“Once an interdisciplinary team meets to go over the results of internal and external scoping, we will make a determination as to whether any extraordinary circumstances exist that would cause us to do an EA,” Murphy explained. “HCCA’s letter and comments will be considered like all other public comments received during the public scoping period. I’m not sure whether HCCA’s letter will have any impact on whether a categorical exclusion or an environmental assessment is used to authorize the proposed fat bike grooming.”
HCCA public lands director Matt Reed said HCCA is not opposed to the CBMBA proposal. “The 12-page letter raises issues that we hope the Forest Service addresses in its consideration of the proposal,” Reed explained in an e-mail.
Reed wrote: “I think the operative language from our comment is on page one: ’HCCA is generally supportive of human-powered recreation as practiced in appropriate areas and subject to appropriate environmental review. Appropriate review is critical for ensuring that recreation is compatible with wildlife and other resource values. As such, we submit these comments to highlight important resource concerns and procedural issues the Forest Service must address in its analysis. In light of these important resource issues, an Environmental Assessment (EA) should be used for analyzing the impacts, if any, that CBMBA’s proposal for motorized grooming of over 35 miles of trail across multiple drainages containing sensitive wildlife habitat might have. The value of an EA process is that these impacts, if any, would be fully disclosed and analyzed and can then be prevented, minimized and/or mitigated. This approach sets up the community for a win-win scenario: safeguarding sensitive wildlife and other resources that are important to the forest ecosystem while also providing additional local recreation opportunities.”
Reed said HCCA “was not alone in making this request, nor are the issues we raised in the comment letter new to the Forest Service.”
“We thank CBMBA again for sharing this proposal with us ahead of the comment period and sitting down to discuss it,” Reed commented. “We look forward to continuing such conversations throughout and beyond this process so we can work together to achieve results that are protective of wildlife and natural resources while also providing recreational opportunities.”
CBMBA executive director Dave Ochs said before the proposal was submitted he solicited support from a broad section of the community, including most of the elected officials throughout the county.
“We spent a lot of time reaching out to a lot of different organizations throughout the county about this proposal and had a lot of good feedback,” Ochs said. “We’ve had a great opportunity to sit down with HCCA and talk about shared values, more collaboration, and respect for each others’ organizations. They were gracious enough to share their comment before it went to the Forest Service. We do hope their comment does not impart more burden on the Forest Service and prevent our winter goals that have been proposed in ‘already compacted areas’. Besides Gothic, areas that already see motorized use. We’re just planning to leave a better surface behind, for better experiences for all users. For Gothic, it’s all about a high use area seeing regular maintenance, not dog poop, hardened surfaces, and foot craters. We feel a Categorical Exclusion is a prudent and responsible decision.”
Gunnison County manager Matthew Birnie said the road from Mt. Crested Butte to Gothic is controlled by the county since the Forest Service and the county have an easement agreement in place. Thus the county has the decision-making authority on that part of the proposal. He said the Forest Service controls the Cement Creek part of the proposal while up in Brush Creek, both county and Forest Service permits will be needed.
“This place is a summer trails destination. Let’s be a winter trails destination, too,” Ochs said. Groomed winter trails are “a winter recreation amenity that every user loves… snow-shoers, dogs, skiers, walkers—everybody enjoys this maintained surface.”
