The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Philosophy of the decision; death by a thousand cuts. “No backroom deals”
Forest Supervisor Charlie Richmond admits that his Delta office of the Grand Mesa, Uncompaghre and Gunnison National Forest (GMUG) has been inundated with letters, emails and phone calls from people expressing their opinion on his recent Snodgrass decision.
And while his letter rejecting the expansion of Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) ski lifts to Snodgrass doesn’t allow an administrative appeal, he doesn’t anticipate the issue will just fade away. “I don’t expect it will be over any time soon,” he said Tuesday morning.
“We have gotten, I would guess, several hundred letters and emails, along with dozens of phone calls from people commenting on the decision,” Richmond said. “A lot of people have written thoughtful letters on both sides of the issue. I would say we have received many more letters from people who are against my decision, but both sides have reached out. As difficult as it is, I try to read them all or as many as I can.”
Local and state politicians have also been inundated with letters. Colorado State Representative Kathleen Curry of Gunnison replied to one pro-lift letter writer, “The elected officials have received about 100+ emails on this issue. My computer completely froze up with the incoming mail…” United States Senator Michael Bennett’s office has received so many e-mails, his office is asking that a formal electronic comment document be filled out.
Richmond said that from his perspective, the decision has been made. “It is what it is,” he reasoned. “It will have to play out and the ski area will do what they need to do, but I haven’t changed my mind. I haven’t discounted those that want to develop ski lifts on Snodgrass, but I have made my decision.”
The amount of reaction from the decision has been a bit of a surprise to the agency. Forest Service External Affairs Officer Lee Ann Loupe said she has spent a lot of her time reading the letters that have come in over the last two weeks. “It’s not like a vote but we try to read and respect the varying views,” she said.
While the Forest Service makes hundreds of decisions on projects proposed for forest land every year, the tsunami of reaction generated by the Snodgrass decision is somewhat rare.
“We occasionally get this amount of reaction over something like the Travel Management Plan decisions,” said Richmond, “but not very often.” Richmond pointed out the travel management decision would be coming soon as well. That plan determines trails within the forest and is almost always controversial among different user groups.
For its part, the ski area has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Forest Service to obtain all documentation of anything Snodgrass-related, including correspondence between Richmond and his immediate boss, Regional Forester Rick Cables. CBMR wants all Snodgrass documents from 2000 through October.
CBMR Vice President of Planning and Development Michael Kraatz said the resort wants to understand what they see as a sudden shift in Forest Service attitude over the Snodgrass project. “We were heading down the road together and the discussions we had this summer were to the point they were advertising for a project coordinator to take the plan through the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process,” he explained. “Obviously they were ready to move ahead. We talked with them every month. Then all of a sudden we got the rejection letter. Something had changed dramatically within a couple of weeks and we still don’t know what it is.
“Something doesn’t add up,” Kraatz continued. “Every meeting we had was geared to head to the NEPA process. We had set up an account to fund that process. We were extending our collection agreement that outlined how to pay for the NEPA and pre-NEPA process and Charlie had signed it October 15. The Forest Service was helping to mold the plan. They helped create it. The sudden about-face is strange.”
“There are no secrets here,” responded Richmond. “I’ve been upfront about the process. I certainly talk to my boss about where I am heading with a decision but there are no secrets. We’ll get the ski area all the things they are asking for but there aren’t any surprises.
“I talk to everyone I can when coming to a decision,” Richmond continued. “My staff is divided on the Snodgrass issue as well. They reflect the public opinion over this proposal. It wasn’t an easy decision but I wanted to hear all sides. There weren’t any backroom deals over this.”
Richmond said the philosophy of the pre-NEPA process has evolved over the years and had an impact on his decision. “The proponents have to do the legwork up front and bring us a proposal we can live with,” he emphasized. “If something is controversial, we want it pretty much solved before bringing it to us. We don’t want the Forest Service to be the punching bag.”
He admitted the level of intensity over Snodgrass proposal has been above average. Richmond said any philosophical change toward the national forests with the Obama Administration had “little to nothing” to do with the decision.
Richmond admits there wasn’t one showstopper that resulted in his rejection of lifts on Snodgrass. It was more like a death from a thousand cuts. “My letter lays out my rationale for the decision,” Richmond reiterated. “It’s what it is. I understand there are a lot of supporters for lifts on Snodgrass and people have reacted strongly the last two weeks. But it just wasn’t one thing or two things or seven things. You put all the concerns together and it wasn’t something I wanted to spend the next five to seven years doing.”
As for the charge that the Forest Service led along the ski area for five years, Richmond rejected that. “We have spent a lot of time on this,” he said. “Geology was a major concern all along and that is what took up a lot of the last five years. We did a geology report that indicated some major problems. The ski area didn’t agree so we allowed them a chance to do their own analysis. That took a year. It came to a different conclusion so we felt a third geology report was appropriate and that took another year.
“Community support was similar,” Richmond continued. “I made it clear all along that it was their job to go out and talk to people and get the community on board. It wasn’t our job. We knew it wouldn’t be unanimous and there would be opposition. That’s expected. After I wrote a letter in January saying I felt the community support had reached an acceptable threshold, I got blasted from people opposed to the plan. So the community support issue has gone back and forth several times. It was their job to reach out to the community. In the end, I think the community is more polarized now than the day we started. All these things were laid out with the ski area and we made it clear it was never a done deal.”
Richmond said there is no philosophy to keep Crested Butte a small ski area. He said it just came down to his not being willing to take on the project and defend it in the NEPA process.
“My decision is made,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I think the discussion is over. I expect CBMR will do what they can to get a different result. I don’t expect it will be over any time soon.”
CBMR’s Kraatz agreed with that assessment.
