Politics Trumps Both the Public Will and Wildlife

Logging | Ski Areas | The Rules that Govern Projects

In 1999 and 2000, Colorado Wild participated in a major campaign to press the Forest Service (FS) to adopt an ecologically sound management plan for the White River National Forest (NF).  Our spirited defense of the FS’s proposed modest improvements engendered immense political pressure fronted by 3rd Congressional District Congressman Scott McInnis, who hired former White River NF Supervisor Dick Woodrow to draft his own plan.  Unfortunately, politics trumped both FS stewardship and the public’s wildlife preservation desires (demonstrated by an overwhelming majority of both detailed, lengthy comments as well as shorter post card type comments).  The Final Plan adopted many of Congressman McInnis’ demands at the behest of the water development, ski area, logging, and off-road vehicle industry groups.

Subsequently, Colorado Wild spent much time during summer and fall of 2002 reading the final plan and associated Final Environmental Impact Statement, filing and reviewing the response to our extensive Freedom of Information Act request , and reviewing the administrative record at the Forest Service office in Glenwood Springs.  Colorado Wild then wrote or edited significant portions of a 174 page appeal (628 kB!) submitted by many forest protection groups, specifically on ski areas, logging, wildlife, and economics.  Executive Director Jeff Berman authored the ski areas appeal section challenging the Forest Service’s baseless conclusions used to justify additional skiing acreage, while Forest Watch Campaign Director Rocky Smith authored the logging section. We also assisted the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies in preparing intervention responses to White River NF Plan appeals filed by Vail Resorts, the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Copper Mountain Resort, Colorado Ski Country USA, and the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition.

Logging

Logging in the next decade is now planned to rise from 8.9 million in the draft plan to 12.4 million board feet.  (A logging truck will hold about 5,000 board feet, or about 2,500 logging trucks per year)!  68% of roadless areas recognized by the White River NF were allocated (i.e. zoned) to allow or encourage logging; while 49% of roadless areas identified as eligible for wilderness designation and overall 50% of the White River NF was assigned to logging-friendly zoning.  Thirteen roadless areas totaling 82,000 acres were recommended for wilderness – a considerable improvement over the draft plan’s recommendation of 47,200 acres in five areas.  However, that represents only 28% of the roadless areas considered eligible for wilderness designation, and only 8% of all roadless areas recognized (the Forest Service failed to recognize hundreds of thousands of additional roadless acres).

Ski Areas

The ski areas of the White River NF were granted almost every acre of zoning for future ski area expansions they sought.  As with the Draft, the Final plan used faulty assumptions in rationalizing that there isn’t enough skiing acreage, and that skier numbers would rise significantly.  Most of the ski area expansion zoning granted is higher altitude terrain, likely acknowledging the impacts of global warming.  And in a complete cave-in, the White River NF acceded to Congressman McInnis’ demand that instream flows not be protected in favor of water development interests, including ski areas likely to seek additional snowmaking with increased temperatures and a shrinking ski season.  Working with partner groups, Colorado Wild will likely file an administrative appeal of the forest plan by the September deadline.

The Rules That Govern Projects

Both good and bad changes were made to the rules that govern logging, grazing, ski area expansions, and other proposed projects.  Some were added to protect wildlife and plant species whose survivability on the White River NF is not assured; others were weakened, such as measures for slope stability evaluation and maintaining aquatic habitat; while others, such as a guideline requiring rest from livestock grazing for deteriorated rangelands in riparian areas, were eliminated altogether.

Download the White River Conservation Coalition's May 2000 comments on the Forest plan revision.
 

White River Conservation Coalition Comments Introduction Aquatic Resources Logging McInnis Response McInnis Response Exhibit Species Viability and Biological Diversity Ski Areas Wilderness

These files are in .pdf format: you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them.

The White River Conservation Coalition is an ad hoc effort to protect the White River National Forest.  The affiliates of the White River Conservation Coalition include: American Lands Alliance , Aspen Wilderness Workshop, Colorado Wild, Sinapu , The Wilderness Society , The Land and Water Fund of the Rockies , and Western Colorado Congress .