'Resorting to Madness'

For the 150-200 people who showed up to Monday night's film condemning the ski industry's bottom-line mindset, the filmmaker answered many questions about how locals can help protect our quality of life from overdevelopment and corporate greed.

Unfortunately, one major player was mostly left out of the discussion. While producer Hunter Sykes did a fine job of encouraging a commitment to local politics, it is not only the town councils and resorts who control most land grabs, trades and resort expansion. It is often the U.S. Forest Service.

Sykes said he tried to contact the White River National Forest for his documentary, "Resorting to Madness: Taking Back Our Mountain Communities," but the Forest Service would not go on the record. Frankly, we find this curious. Sykes said he left out that important piece because he did not want to embarrass his sources at the Forest Service. Yet, he was not afraid to embarrass the resorts with accusations of outright greed without successfully convincing them to go on the record. The Forest Service should have been let off the hook so easily.

Let us fill in the gaps. Town councils and planning commissions shape the overall look and feel of a town, but protecting public land from private interests is different. It is a long, time-intensive labor of love, and in most cases, requires years of grassroots work through the court system and the Forest Service. Yet, it can happen.

Ski resorts make a living off of pressuring the public process to work in their favor, which is why successful appeals occur at the federal level and involve environmental attorneys, who use decades of case law to uncover helpful technicalities. Most often, only when the Forest Service is ready to give the "Yes" or "No" vote on a land trade with a corporation, do opponents speak up - when it is too late.

Peak 6 in Breckenridge is a perfect example. Expansion to that area has been in the ski area master plan since the early 80s, yet local residents have expressed concern only as the resort gets ready to build. Those wanting real influence must study ski area master plans, and start building agreement with the community, towns and the Forest Service, that there is something irreplaceable in all our pristine forest lands. Some day, it will make a difference.