September 24, 2007

Ashland, OR - Conservationists won an important victory today in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals protecting the city of Ashland’s clean drinking water supply from logging and development. The ruling stems from a legal challenge brought by conservation groups over the proposed expansion of the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. For years, local citizens expressed concern that the Ski Area planned to expand into a neighboring roadless area containing old-growth forests.  Building roads and ski lifts along with clear-cutting for ski runs threatened the watershed that supplies the City of Ashland with drinking water.

A coalition of groups came together in an effort to protect the old-growth forest and municipal watershed, including: Oregon Wild, the Sierra Club, and the National Center for Science Conservation and Policy.

“This is an important victory for Oregonians who value clean drinking water, old-growth forests, and wildlife,” observed Steve Pedery, Conservation Director for Oregon Wild.   “This court ruling will help protect Ashland’s drinking watershed from logging and development.”

The case came before the court after the U.S. Forest Service approved the planned development inside parts of the Rogue River and Klamath National Forests. The court ruled that the Forest Service failed to protect the Pacific fisher, a key species that depends upon old-growth forest for habitat.  The Forest Service initially thought that no fisher inhabited the expansion area, but Eugene Weir, a Forest Service biologist, documented fisher within the project area.  The Forest Service refused to change the plans and insisted on clear-cutting ski runs right where Mr. Weir captured photographs of fishers.  

“As we have always said, we are ready to sit down with the Mt. Ashland Association in order to work out a reasonable, affordable expansion, that stays out of the Middle Branch and that meets all environmental laws,” said Sierra Club’s Tom Dimitre, adding that an expansion of that kind would be a great thing for the community as a whole.

The court also ruled that the Forest Service failed to adequately protect unstable lands in the ski area, which could potentially fail and dump harmful sedimentation into the municipal watershed.  The Forest Service planned to clear-cut ski runs on steep, unstable soils without managing these areas as Riparian Reserves as required by the Northwest Forest Plan.

Chris Winter, an attorney with the Crag Law Center, which represented the groups in the litigation added, “This ruling should be a wake up call for the Forest Service.  Courts will not stand idly by while the Bush administration clear cuts old-growth forest in our last remaining roadless areas.”

Contacts:
Steve Pedery, Oregon Wild (503) 283-6343 x212
Tom Dimitre, Sierra Club (541) 890-5022
Chris Winter, Crag Law Center (503) 701-6002