Last week the TRPA Board voted to allow Heavenly to clear-cut a swath of the North Bowl trees to make room for a new chair lift.
It was a close vote, and unfortunately two of the more environmentally-conscious board members were absent due to the major storm and closure of Hwy 50. Could it have gone a different way? It should have, and it very well could have.
The Board rejected Alternative 4A, which would have built a 'kinked' lift, under heavy lobbying by Heavenly's Andrew Strain and TRPA Director John Singlaub, both of whom misled the TRPA Board to believe that building the 'kinked' lift would somehow be worse environmentally than cutting down these old growth trees, because it would require building a third base station at the top of the existing North Bowl chair, in an area that is already heavily developed.
John Singlaub also lied to the TRPA Board when he claimed that the North Bowl trees weren't old-growth forest, just "big trees," which flatly contradicts TRPA's own maps and documents.
You can watch a video of John Singlaub's misleading testimony by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vvu3LEBods
Stay tuned for further updates. . .
1 comment:
Wow. Listening to your story and what is going on at Heavenly is like deja vu for me! I was very involved in the fight against the Vail expansion into the Blue Sky Basin in Colorado from 1996-1998. It seems you are embarking on the exact same journey here, again with the same corporation. It was so sad , then, to see the Forest Service and the Eagle County Commissioners lie and present false data to the public at Vail's request. It was so corrupt, so horrible to watch then, and now to have it happen again, almost in exactly the same manner... Well I guess some things never change. I wish you the best of luck with your battle. I hope you can win this one for all us who were defeated in Colorado!!
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