News
Service March 25, 2003
By JOHN DARLING
for the Mail Tribune
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has turned down the Sierra Club’s request to list two rare plants on Mount Ashland as endangered species, thus opening the door for the controversial 72- acre expansion of the ski area.
"We are disappointed," said Tom Rose of the Rogue Group Sierra Club. The organization has made no decision about any further strategies in its long effort to halt expansion of the ski area toward the west, he said.
"Sure, we’re pleased," said Jeff Hanson, general manager of the Mount Ashland Association, adding that the club’s request to list the plants has been "one of the techniques to cast doubt on the viability of our plans." The association hopes to construct three new lifts and improve the ski area’s lodge, a project that could start as early as next year.
The Fish and Wildlife Service last month declined to list the Mount Ashland lupine and Henderson’s horkelia, saying they "do not warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, because the two species face few significant threats and their numbers and distribution appear stable."
The lupine is found only on the south and west slopes of Mount Ashland, and the horkelia is found from Mount Ashland to Dutchman Peak, about 10 miles west. Both are "classic alpine plants, low to the ground, windblown and hardy," said Steve Johnson, snow manager, Rogue River National Forest.
"I think the plants will be fine," Johnson said. "I’m not worried about any human impact as long as we follow the conservation agreement, and we’re dedicated to doing that, starting this summer with increased regulations on vehicular traffic, monitoring the plants and also putting up educational-interpretive signs informing people these are rare plants that only grow in this limited distribution, so please avoid them."
The conservation agreement was signed in November by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Klamath and Rogue River National Forests and calls for monitoring to determine population trends and impacts.
"We found that current land management and the new conservation agreement ... will help ensure that the (plants) continue to remain safe from the threat of extinction," said Anne Badgley, Fish and Wildlife regional director, Portland, in the ruling.
"No changes in the plants’ population or distribution have been noted in more than four decades of winter ski operations," she added. "Should an emergency develop that threatens one of both of these species, USFW will act to provide immediate protection."
Although the plants are covered by snow during ski season, the Sierra Club petition cited concerns with road building and maintenance, ski area construction and operation, construction of a cross-country ski corridor, mountaintop facility expansion, fire suppression, cattle grazing, hikers, snowmobiles, off-road vehicles and mountain bikers.
Hanson said the ski association has planned all along to minimize impacts of plants and that "it makes sense to us to solve the problem locally and effectively, rather than have a federal listing. Current activities are having no effect on the plants and we’ll work to keep it that way. We should be able to move ahead with expansion plans now."
The second Environmental
Impact Statement for the expansion should be published this spring by the Forest
Service, followed by a 60-day public comment period. A final document could be
released by early summer, and construction of the lifts and lodge improvements
could start next year and stretch over a 10-year period, said Hanson.
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