April 2000

Ski Area Expansions May Intrude on Backcountry Recreation

Copper Mountain is looking to increase its permit boundary in the White River National Forest.

The increased expansion threatens coveted backcountry ski areas including the Guller Gulch route to Janet's Cabin.

We need your letters!

Since 1988, Copper Mountain has envisioned placing lifts and cutting ski runs in Guller Gulch, the gateway to Janet's Cabin. Currently, only the portion of Guller beginning about two miles below Janet's cabin and going down to near I-70 is under the management prescription allowing ski area development. Copper mountain is requesting that all of Guller Gulch be zoned for developed skiing, including Jacque basin, which drains into Guller. They are further requesting the Tucker Creek Drainage along CO Highway 91. Placing lifts and cutting ski runs in Guller Gulch will scar much of the drainage that serves as the main gateway to Janet's cabin.

While restricting ski areas to the current permit boundaries, Alternative D will still allow additional expansions on Peak 7 at Breckenridge, at Keystone in Jones Gulch (a crucial wildlife movement corridor), at many areas at Copper Mountain, and at Ski Sunlight which can more than quadruple in size. Despite skier acreage increases greatly outpacing skier visitation increases, ski area managers seek yet more terrain. Keystone is pressing hard to have 5,000 additional acres zoned for developed skiing on Independence Mountain to the east, and Breckenridge is looking at forests on Peaks 5 and 6 - also home to a portion of the Colorado Trail.

Ski area expansion proponents rightly claim that they only seek to have additional sections of forest above zoned for developed skiing. Once a region of forest is zoned for ski area expansions however, many factors practically guarantee that those sections of forest will eventually be developed for downhill skiing once the ski area requests it. Tellingly, no amount of scientific evidence or public opposition has ever caused the White River NF to deny an expansion request. With tremendous human and capital resources invested in an expansion proposal, proponents both within the Forest Service and the ski company are unlikely to simply drop a proposal they have spent years analyzing and promoting, regardless of the impacts to wildlife or backcountry recreation, or public opposition. Even more ominously, it is well known that many ski area expansions are driven by the lure of real estate development profits - likely the case at Keystone, Breckenridge, and Copper Mountain.

Take Action! Write Your Letter by May 9.

The only way to guarantee that the gateway to Janet's Cabin is preserved for backcountry recreation is to have Guller Gulch zoned for non-motorized, non-lift-served skiing. That can only happen with the Forest plan revision process underway right now. Write your letter to the Forest Service by May 9. Include some or all of the following points:

  • Voice strong support for the preferred Alternative D.
  • Suggest that NONE of Guller Gulch be placed under a developed skiing management prescription. Rather, it should ALL be placed under the "1.31" Backcountry non-motorized prescription. This will help keep development away from Janet's cabin.
  • Ask that Keystone's Jones Gulch be removed from the developed skiing prescription given significant wildlife concerns; all of Independence Mountain should also not be zoned for developed skiing.
  • Express support for limiting ski areas to their current permit boundaries, with the exceptions noted above to Guller Gulch and Jones Gulch.

Mail, fax, or e-mail your letter to:

Martha Ketelle, Forest Supervisor
White River National Forest
PO Box 948
Glenwood Springs, CO 81602
Fax: (970) 945-3266
e-mail: fpc/r2_whiteriver@fs.fed.us
(include your snail mail address with your e-mail)

For more information, including additional maps of the area, see http://www.coloradowild.org/wrnf/wrnf.html.

For a copy of the Draft Plan, go to the WRNF's website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/whiteriver/

For more information on the BSA's position, see our White River National Forest Plan Update