Mt. Ashland Ski Area has been working with the US Forest Service for years on an expansion plan, and the good ol' boys at Sierra Club have been litigating for years. They had themselves an injunction against the ski area, but now a federal judge (Owen Panner) has done gone and lifted it. Naturally, Sierra Club's hopping mad.
"We intend to appeal," Tom Dimitre, chairman of the Rogue Group Sierra Club, told the Mail-Tribune. "We think clearly that the Forest Service did not comply with the directive of the 9th Circuit. We think Panner erred."
The expansion calls for 71 acres of new ski runs, two additional chairlifts, three buildings, more parking, a tubing facility and other improvements. The expansion of the ski area in the forest's Siskiyou Mountains Ranger District would require removing trees in the expanded area.
Sierra Club maintains that this might negatively impact weasels, specifically the Pacific fisher, and it might contribute to climate change, among other things. Looks more like they're simply opposed to any changes, and can't stand the idea of humans using the area for recreation and employment.
Everybody knows, after all, that southern Oregon's awash in cash and job opportunities - so they don't need any more.
