By Hal Bernton and Beth Quinn,
The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
Nov. 4--A new federal policy under final review in Washington, D.C., would dim prospects for building the Pelican
Butte ski area in Southern Oregon.
The draft document requires that any development within the 7.1 million acres of federal forests given special
protection under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan be "neutral or beneficial" to old-growth forests.
Winema National Forest officials supported development of the $34 million Pelican Butte ski area near Klamath Falls
in a draft study the U.S. Forest Service released last fall. That study conceded, however, that the development
potentially could harm old-growth forests that are home to bald eagles and northern spotted owls.
The study also cautioned that final approval would hinge on clarification of development policy for the 7.1 million
acres of protected areas known in the Northwest Forest Plan as late successional reserves.
Since then, the ski resort project has emerged as a test case that could help define the boundaries of development
within those areas. The reserves consist of old-growth forests, which have never been logged, and younger forests
expected to mature into old growth.
Forest Service officials who backed the ski area had hoped that any public benefits of the project could be considered
when the federal government determined whether to allow the ski area to spread into 162 acres of protected old
growth.
The proposed ski area in the Winema National Forest would be about half the size of Mount Bachelor in Bend and
eventually could attract 300,000 visitors annually. But the draft of the new development policy says the magnitude
of such benefits can't be a factor in the decision.
"That's one of the basic cornerstones of the policy," said Joan Jewett, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service in Portland. "The decision can only be based on the resource -- not economic or recreational
interests."
Forest Service officials acknowledge that the new policy could make final approval of the ski project more difficult.
"I wouldn't say that the policy categorically prohibits a ski resort, but it doesn't make it any easier,"
said Frank Erickson, a Winema National Forest spokesman.
The Northwest Forest Plan was a landmark agreement intended to increase protection for species in federal old-growth
forests. The plan covers more than 24 million acres of federal land in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.
It set the development guidelines that are being further refined in the new policy.
Federal agencies have been working on the revisions for the past year. The Fish and Wildlife Service, which has
primary responsibility for protecting endangered species, has sparred with the Forest Service over its wording.
"We feel strongly that late successional reserves were set up to preserve the biological diversity of old-growth
forests," Jewett said. "This is a 100-year plan, and we're five years into it, and already there is an
attempt (by developers) to pick away at it. We have to make sure that the plan stays intact."
The policy was to be released Nov. 1, but its release has been postponed while the draft is circulated in Washington
for review by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S.
Interior Department and the Forest Service.
The ski area has been years in the planning. Many in the Klamath Falls area support it as a new source of recreation
and as an economic boon that would help the town rebound from a downturn in logging on federal land.
Officials of Jeld-Wen Inc., the developer, said the project would be undertaken with special sensitivity to the
old-growth forests. Although some ski runs would cut through old growth, most of the development and skiing would
occur outside those areas.
Jeld-Wen officials repeatedly have said that they would be willing to do mitigation work to try to cause no net
damage to protected old-growth areas. "We do have a significant responsibility to do it right, and we don't
take that lightly," said Bob Kingzett, a company spokesman.
What mitigation would be acceptable is one of the issues being worked out in Washington, Jewett said.
The Forest Service's final decision on the Pelican Butte project is expected to be released next summer.
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