So far, because of current policy and practice, that resort growth has been difficult to fully check. At Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, WA, owner Larry Scrivanich, who also owns an adjacent 800-acre parcel of private land, is proposing a 30-acre ski-terrain expansion to connect the two pieces as part of a larger 500-acre expansion plan that includes parking lots and new lodge facilities, among other amenities. While the 4,000-bed housing development Scrinavich has planned— made up of condos, townhomes and single-family homes— could continue without the expansion, the additional acreage would allow for direct lift access for guests and residents, a selling point for potential investors. Local backcountry skiers, organized by El Sendero Backcountry Ski and Snowshoe Club, say the development, which is slated for a low-water, high-fire-danger area, would, among other things, impact elk habitat and cut into a recently designated winter nonmotorized zone. “[Scrivanich’s Tamarack Saddle LLC] sold it to the commu-nity as a ski area expansion, but really it is a resort expansion,” Gus Bekker, president of El Sendero says. “They’re proposing to develop the private land real estate at the expense of the community and the county.” While the USFS has yet to fully approve the plan, Scriv-anich filed a lawsuit against Chelan County in September, contending that the lengthy permitting process has cost his company $6.4 million dollars. In Idaho, Tamarack Resort is proposing a 3,307-acre ex-pansion into the Boise National Forest that would quadruple the area’s current size of 1,100 acres. Local activists think it’s a real estate move instead of a push for better skiing, and an unnecessary one given the skier population. “A 4,407-acre Tamarack Resort would be the seventh-largest ski resort in terms of acreage in all of North America, juxtaposed with [the nearby town of Donnelly, ID] with a population of 152. The entirety of Valley County has less than 10,000 people,” Sean O’Brien of the Leave Our Lands Alone Alliance says. O’Brien says the Alliance worries the expansion is a play to bring in wealthy second homeowners, cutting off the area’s ex-isting form of public access in the process. “It destroys unspoiled parts of our National Forest system and impacts backcountry users by de facto privatizing public lands. Even though it techni-cally remains public land, if we were to enter the area without a Tamarack pass, they could arrest us for trespassing,” he says. Representatives from Tamarack, on the other hand, say they’re expanding access to new parts of the forest by increasing their acreage and adding more lifts—actions they feel may serve more skiers in the long run. Outer Bounds 055
The Ski Journal Volume 15, Issue 3: Page 55
