Save Our Canyons: Comments on Snowbird MDP DEIS

   

OVERALL IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ON THE WASATCH MOUNTAINS
    The central section of the Wasatch Mountains is unique. Nowhere else in the United States is there an alpine environment so close to an urban area the size of Salt Lake County. One important consequence of the unique cultural geography associated with the Wasatch Front canyons is that they provide a recreational resource that is simply unavailable elsewhere. Indeed, dispersed recreation in the Wasatch Mountains, sightseeing, picnicking, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and the like - is a defining aspect of the high quality of life in the Salt Lake Valley.
    The high alpine environment of the central Wasatch is unique in another way as well: it covers a very small area. Because of this, competition is keen for the resources that are available. Many potential uses are mutually incompatible, now forcing the Forest Service to make determinations about the overall carrying capacity of the range and the priority given to competing plans for using that capacity.
    Throughout the latter part of the 1800's and first third of the 20th century, the Wasatch Mountains were ravished by the effects of mining, timber cutting, and overgrazing. Old photographs of the Wasatch Canyons and the mountainsides provide stark evidence of this abuse. The area began to recover only when visionary public land and water resource managers and officials took action. The debt and gratitude owed to these public officials is immense.
    A new era began with the construction of the Snowbird Ski Resort in 1971. Prior to this time, the Wasatch hosted three relatively unobtrusive ski facilities at Alta, Brighton and Solitude. The developers of Snowbird came with the dream of turning a part of the Wasatch Mountains into a world class downhill ski resort destination with all the resort amenities well-to-do vacationers and conventioneers have come to expect: a multi-level hotel with huge atriums, convention facilities, rooftop swimming pools, health spas and up-scale restaurants.
    The original Snowbird scheme included plans for multiple trams rising to the top of the mountain ridge lines overlooking the resort development. As a result of financial constraints, only one tram was built. In the mid-1980's, Snowbird built a huge addition to the Cliff Lodge, turning what was formerly a relatively modest condominium structure into a huge hotel that sits incongruously and conspicuously near the top of a dramatic canyon carved by glaciers. A significant share of Little Cottonwood Canyon's wild nature was destroyed at that time.
    Snowbird's proposed MDP represents yet another significant escalation of the pressure to develop and irrevocably change the character of the Wasatch Canyons. If Snowbird's plans are approved by our public land managers, the adverse changes in the culture of Little Cottonwood Canyon will be profound, from the placement of a trophy structure at the top of 11,000' Hidden Peak, to the expansion of high capacity chair lifts into Mineral Basin, to the encroachment into the only remaining easily accessible side canyon available for undeveloped, non-commercial winter recreation.
    SOC does not object to Snowbird making certain improvements so as to remain a safe and attractive place for people to downhill ski. We are not at present objecting to the vast majority of the projects in the Snowbird MDP. The following, however, are antithetical to maintaining the uniqueness and natural beauty that define the Wasatch:
  • Hidden Peak facilities upgrade and all related improvements, other than those found necessary for the safety of skiers while at the top of the tram and while descending the immediate mountain top area
  • Gad 3 lift and road construction.
  • Scottie's Bowl annexation to Snowbird's SUP area.
  • Snowmaking development, to the extent it is shown to degrade water quality. [We have read the comments submitted by WUFC (Wild Utah Forests Campaign) and hereby incorporate, by reference and by permission of WUFC, those comments with these, especially with regard to snowmaking on the Baby Thunder run.]
  • Mineral Basin permit expansion.
    We further object to the Forest Service taking actions with respect to the proposed MDP that would have the effect of facilitating developments on private land likely to have significant environmental impact. These include:
  • Mineral Basin lift construction and ski run development.
  • Mineral Basin access tunnel / road construction.
    Finally, SOC specifically objects to all proposed projects that violate Salt Lake County Planning and Zoning Ordinances, including the Foothill & Canyons Overlay Zone (FCOZ). The Forest Service has ethical and legal obligations to disapprove construction projects on public land that violate local planning and zoning ordinances.
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Revised July, 23 2004