uly 5, 2001 a 25 person Save Our Canyons' team headed up by trustee Tom Stephens submitted a very detailed and critical response to the Forest Service's Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Solitude Master Development Plan.

Save Our Canyons' is by no means a voice crying in the wilderness. Both the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (Water Department) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have weighed in on the Solitude proposals. Here are a few juicy excerpts:

Salt Lake City

We are very concerned that the proposed plan introduces a new level of impacts on Salt Lake City's watershed in Big Cottonwood Canyon and its environs. The proposed action is designed to use public lands to support not only the skiing but also year around recreation for canyon visitors and residents of the Solitude development. The proposed plan ??? introduce actives such as Alpine slides, and in line skating. With a growing population along the Wasatch Front, such carnival-type activities that can be conducted adequately in the urban environment should be kept out of the alpine watersheds. It seems inappropriate to allow non-alpine activities to be built that are solely designed to import more people to the canyons. The development should be limited to those activities that are truly dependent on an Alpine setting.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) fails to address the real impacts on water quality and the watershed.

The proposed plan seeks to use 3.39 acres of public land to replace parking that Solitude essentially removed from their privately owned property so those lands could be used for residential and commercial developments. We don't feel it's appropriate to relocate the parking on public lands. This is in effect using public lands to support private development.

We are opposed to the Sol-Bright lift and trail. This is the beginning of the ski inter-connect system. The 1989 Salt Lake County Wasatch Canyons Master Plan clearly states that any inter-connect must be part of the larger mountain transportation system.

EPA

EPA is extremely troubled by the trend in the use of ski area expansions as a tool to attract market share from other resorts in a flat skier market as documented in this DEIS." ? "Providing ski terrain on public lands was intended to meet the demand for public skiing, not to create the demand. Given the well-documented, environmental impacts associated with ski area expansions, it seems an unnecessary abuse of the public's environmental resources to allow ski expansions for the sole purpose of attracting skiers from other resorts. The other resorts then feel pressure to expand once again to attract "their" skiers back. Under this scenario, even if the skier market decreases over time, we will continue to see our public lands swallowed up by a never-ending string of expansions, with their requisite and irreversible environmental impacts.

We note in the DEIS, several proposals to located new ancillary facilities, including parking, housing, an alpine slide and a skating rink. EPA offers a caution against placing ancillary facilities on public lands, where those facilities could result in the loss of natural or forest character in the area.

My staff have coordinated with your office on the issues. EPA is rating the Draft Solitude MDP as EC-2 (Environmental Concerns, Insufficient Information) due largely to the concerns regarding the impacts to, or analysis of, water quality, water quantity, aquatic and wetland habitat, wildlife habitat, alpine tundra and development of facilities potentially inappropriate for USFS lands.

Articles

Solitude: Lift Is Ideal Way to Upgrade Transportation link removed*
The Salt Lake Tribune April 15, 2002.  The base area of Solitude Mountain Resort sprawls for almost a mile along Big Cottonwood Creek, raising a problem for operators hoping to modernize a ski area that has seen no significant on-mountain improvements in 12 years.

Yes and No For Solitude Expansion link removed*
The Salt Lake Tribune January 17, 2002.  Solitude Mountain Resort and Utah environmentalists have things to cheer and jeer in the U.S. Forest Service decision this week on the Big Cottonwood Canyon ski area's proposed master development plan.

Forest Service backs some Solitude projects
Deseret News January 16, 2002.  Major improvements to Solitude Mountain Resort are but a chairlift away.

Solitude Seeks to Escape Seclusion
Salt Lake City Weekly July 26, 2001.  One of the four major ski resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, Solitude has always been envious of--or rather, searching in its own right for--an image that could market its appeal and somehow capitalize on the name that actually describes the mountain quite well.

Canyon Threat link removed*
The Salt Lake Tribune July 5, 2001.  Public Forum article by Dee Dee Richardson

Oppose Resort Expansion link removed*
The Salt Lake Tribune July 5, 2001.  Public Forum article by Charles T. Bintz

Solitude Fact Sheet
June 21, 2001.  Save Our Canyons' guide to writing individual comments on Solitude's MDP

Solitude Ski Resort Proposes Expansion link removed*
The Salt Lake Tribune June 5, 2001.  New and upgraded lifts, an alpine slide and day lodge expansions are among the dozens of improvements Solitude Mountain Resort has in store for the ski area operating on a mix of private and U.S. Forest Service land in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Solitude puts plans up for scrutiny
Deseret News May 3, 2001.  Following on the heels of its canyon neighbors Alta, Snowbird and Brighton, Solitude Ski Resort has its proposed master development plan on the table for public scrutiny.

SOC Response to Solitude MDP Scoping Document
April 3, 2000.  

Solitude Plan Includes New Lifts, Alpine Slide link removed*
The Salt Lake Tribune March 21, 2000.  ...Now Solitude's second generation of chairlifts is on the way out, too, under a recently released master development plan that calls for lift upgrades using high-speed, detachable-grip technology, three new lifts, a pulse gondola "people mover" to connect the resort's three base areas, expanded day lodges and dozens of other improvements.

*Link removed:   The original URL link for this article has been removed, as the article is either no longer available free of charge to public view (but may still be found by headline and/or date in a for-fee publisher website archive), or has been permanently removed from Internet access.