Local advocacy group Powder to the People has asked the Pitkin County commissioners to support a special planning process related to powder skiing on Richmond Ridge, according to a memo written by Pitkin County Community Development Director Cindy Houben. If the county agrees, it could lead to a compromise regarding how U.S. Forest Service terrain on the east side of Richmond Ridge is regulated and used.
Such compromises have been worked out in the past for the Vail Pass area east of Vail and the Golden Horseshoe in Summit County, said Paul Semmer, a community planner in the Dillon Ranger District of the White River National Forest.
“We are loving our backcountry to death, and we are expecting more and more that the local government and the federal government will take care of the problem,” he said, speaking in a telephone interview earlier this year. “But users need to come up with scenarios that show they can play in the same sandbox without throwing sand at each other.”
Powder to the People, a non-profit organization led by Mike Sladdin of Aspen, wants access to more terrain on the east side of Richmond Ridge currently used by Aspen Mountain Powder Tours, which offers snowcat skiing trips for $350 per day. (By way of disclosure, Sladdin is engaged to Aspen Daily News Managing Editor Catherine Lutz.)
“The Richmond Ridge area has been used by the public for motorized access skiing for decades, but in the last several years a large part of this area has been turned into a quasi-private ski area for the wealthy few by a system that has kept in place one exclusive permit holder and discouraged others,” states an “executive summary” prepared by Powder to the People and given to the county commissioners. “Now, with the upcoming USFS Travel Management Plan update, we have a chance to set forth a clear direction for the area, for the good of the managing agencies, the environment and the public at large.”
Powder Tours has a permit from the Forest Service for its operation, and uses snowcats to ferry skiers using over-the-snow roads it sets each winter on the east side of Richmond Ridge.
Those winter-only roads are not open to private snowmobile-skiers, although Powder to the People and the Aspen Skiing Co., which operates Powder Tours, have had an informal agreement during the past two winters to allow snowmobile-skiers to use one of the roads to gain access to the steep McFarlane’s Gulch area.
Powder to the People, however, wants public access to all three over-the-snow roads and to the same terrain as Powder Tours.
Powder Tours managers have said that if that happens, their operation will be compromised and they might be forced to shut down. If they do, they will no longer set and maintain the winter-only roads that Powder to the People wants them to share.
The Forest Service is preparing to issue a draft travel management plan for the whole White River National Forest, and has been considering changing the rules for the Richmond Ridge area. But the district ranger overseeing the area, Irene Davidson, recently said she does not favor open motorized use. Nor does she favor allowing another group, such as Powder to the People, to set or maintain the winter roads in lieu of Powder Tours’ doing so.
So Powder to the People is now calling for a new planning process.
Pitkin County has been part way down this road before. “In 2000 the County joined USFS, landowners and stake holders in a planning process that resulted in the Richmond Hill Ridge Management Plan adopted by the BOCC,” wrote Pitkin County Community Development Director Cindy Houben in a memo dated July 1. “The planning process was very successful at gathering the stakeholders and discussing the issues, but, ultimately, neither the County nor the USFS had the funding to enforce the goals of the management plan.”
In the case of the Golden Horseshoe — an 8,600-acre area east of Breckenridge that was being used heavily by hikers, bikers and motorized-vehicle operators — conflicts between the user groups were common. Nobody was taking ownership of the issue, and people expected the Forest Service to take care of the problem, said forest planner Semmer.
Then the collaborative process was initiated.
“There were a lot of compromises that took place,” Semmer said. “They had to get together and decide how they wanted to share their favorite place. We had to show them this 8,000 acres didn’t need to be all things to all people in one spot.”
Another model might be Vail Pass, where backcountry skiers, a snowcat skiing operation and snowmobile users were having conflicts. After a planning process, a compromise was worked out among user groups.
Vail Pass might serve as a model for Richmond Ridge, as the Forest Service was also considering simply opening the area for users and letting people work issues out on their own.
“On Vail Pass, there were enough people that saw the light and started making suggestions,” Semmer said, which then led to a task force and a new management plan.
Powder to the People plans to make its case for a new planning process to the Pitkin County commissioners at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
bgs@aspendailynews.com
