Barbara Lawlor, Nederland/Eldora. On Sunday afternoon, March 22, a spring break beach party atmosphere hovered over Eldora Mountain Resort as guests basked in the sun and swished down the sugar snow at the bottom of the mountain.

As skiers and snowboarders left the muddy slush of the parking lot, they were hailed by Eldora employees, armed with buckets of water and squeegees, offering a free windshield wash, "To make sure everyone gets down the hill safely," said AJ Tallo. He said they will continue to wash windshields during the muddy season.

EMR administrators and employees were in a celebratory mood. Last Tuesday, the United States Forest Service announced that they were allowing Eldora to proceed with its expansion plans. The process has been in the works for several years. EMR planning director Jim Spenst has said that the expansion is essential to the resort remaining a viable business. Those who have opposed the proposal say the boundary expansion is unnecessary, a negative environmental impact, and could lead to future expansions.

The proposal calls for New Jolly Jug and Placer detachable six-chair lift, which would allow for the lifts to slow down at loading but then be whisked up the mountain at higher speeds. Corona  will be replaced with a six-chair lift, and Challenge and Cannonball will be replaced with a single chair lift.

The expansion will allow for an additional 66 acres of trails and 77 acres of tree and glade terrain with modifications to 42 acres of existing terrain.

Just below the top of the Indian Peaks Lift, a new 850-seat facility, a 20,000 square foot restaurant,  the Challenge Mountain Lodge, will be built, while the existing 3,000 square foot

Lookout lodge will be expanded up to 9,700 square feet.

Most people in opposition to the expansion don't have a problem with these upgrades within the resort boundaries. The issues involve the expansion of the boundaries, which would increase by 70 acres to the north and 18 acres to the south.

The release of the Draft Record of Decision and final Environmental Impact Statement proposed that to allow the expansion to the improvements on national forest land. Three alternatives were considered, states the press release: "After reviewing numerous comments from the public and input from natural resource specialists, the draft decision incorporates components from both Alternative 2 and Alternative 3."

This decision enables Eldora to expand to the north and south and includes 66 acres of new skiable trails; 119 acres of new and improved tree and glade skiing; 186 acres of added terrain in intermediate, advanced intermediate, and expert ability levels.

USFS Forest Service Supervisor Glenn Casamassa said that Eldora has been a part of Boulder County's recreation tradition for over 50 years, that the expansion would provide enhanced opportunities for the snow-sports public to enjoy the downhill experience within an hour from Denver.

Casamassa also said the decision would improve the safety and reliability of the chairlifts and terrain during windy days. He admits there will be impacts from the construction of the lifts and terrain expansion. "But they will be limited in scope and duration and can be minimized through strict mitigations and design criteria."

Last Sunday, a group of three families from Denver enjoyed a barbecue tailgate party at the end of the day. "We are taking lessons in this kind of awesomeness," said Byron Hittle. When asked how he felt about the expansion, he said, "I am excited about having more terrain, but I hope the expansion doesn't make Eldora too crowded. Right now, it has a welcoming, family area-feel and I wouldn't like to bring in too much traffic."

EMR Mountain Operations Director Paul Fillion said that he is happy the expansion is going forward with the process. "There is a good energy among the employees. They are excited about the process." Fillion says that portions of the upgrade could be in place by next season.

The Ignite Adaptive Sports executive director Finn Murphy says he is looking forward to the expansion of intermediate  terrain, which will be helpful to the population served by the facility.

"The Jolly Jug lift will open up new Blue terrain, which was identified in the EIS as being needed. I personally love the idea of thinning out the trees. We have some great tree terrain that hasn't been explored. The expansion won't change our facility much, it probably won't allow us to bring in more students, but it will allow us to better serve the ones we have. The new detachable lift will measurably increase the opportunity for our sit-skiers to be independent, which is their main goal. They will be able to access the rest of the mountain on their own."

At the Eldora Nordic Center, a group of cross country skiers from Eldorado Springs celebrated the sunshine by wearing their tank tops onto the trails, which, they say, were still in good shape. In reaction to the expansion, Deb Batson said, "I wonder why everything has to always get bigger. I am not a fan of more people. Eldora is a great experience, a small, quiet area that doesn't need to be any bigger."

Nordic Center director Nancy Colton says that the expansion will have very little effect on their facility. "The Nordic skiers will always come here and so will the world class skiers that enjoy training here. This a sensational area and the Nordic Center is the gem of Eldora"

Objections and concerns

At every public meeting about the expansion, environmental groups have voiced their objections to the extension of the boundaries on the north and south. The southern boundary will expand to include the Jolly Jug Lift and downhill trails, which will intersect the Nordic and backcountry ski trails.

Bill Ikler, a volunteer and wilderness chair for the Sierra Club, says that the Jolly Jug trails will diminish the backcountry skiing experience, creating safety issues. "Four ski runs will cross Porcupine Park and the Deadman's area, which are now quiet, wooded areas. I was extremely disappointed, but not entirely surprised about the Forest Service decision. They have approved almost every ski expansion proposal."

Ikler says that the Sierra Club came up with an alternative plan that would accomplish the ski area's goals without going beyond the current boundary, but the proposal for infill was rejected. None of the options was adopted. He says the Sierra Club had no objections to the upgrades within current boundaries, to the lifts, the glades, or the restaurant, but there were major concerns about the environmental impact on the north expansion down to Hesse and over Middle Boulder Creek.

Ikler says that when the Indian Peaks lift was constructed, the Sierra Club was assured that there would be no more expansions. If that promise can be reneged, then there is the possibility that this expansion will open the gate to further expansion permits to the west. "We are apprehensive that the area will try to move into the Lost Lake area. They say they don't intend to go there but that doesn't mean that some future owners won't. This expansion could lead to other expansions."

This concern is echoed by Dave Hallock, the coordinator of the Boulder Middle Creek Coalition, which is strongly averse to the north boundary expansion. Hallock says he is disappointed but the decision was not unexpected, even though the Boulder County Commissioners, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and the Nederland Parks and Recreation Advisory Board were against the proposal.

"The expansions should have been taken off the table. They never took in our infill request and the Forest Service didn't take local concerns into account. They like ski areas and have maintained a long-time working relationship with each other. They gave us one day of meeting up here. There was no full noise analysis. We feel the Forest Service was leaning toward approving from the beginning."

Hallock says the impact on resources should have been a red flag, but it wasn't. The BMCC is contemplating legal action and hopes that the County will be a major player when it comes time to approve the bridge access across the creek. The area has been identified as a part of an elk migratory path as well as habitat for moose and fox and other wildlife.

According to the EIS, the construction of the north side lift and the removal of trees for the glades could mean up to 628 lumber truck round trips, most of them coming in the first two years of the expansion. The residents of the town of Eldora have publicly and loudly voiced their objections, citing the impact on their quality of their lives.

"This not a done deal," says Hallock, who lives in Eldora in the summer. "We will keep hope and optimism out there. This is a significant change and once there is a toehold, expansion could extend toward Hessie. This all goes against what we have tried to do to hold our human footstep steady."

The draft decision is subject to a 45-day objection period. While the public is always welcome to provide comments and feedback at any point in this process, objections will only be accepted from those who have previously submitted timely and specific written comments regarding the proposed project during scoping or other designated opportunities for public comment.

The decision to expand the permit boundary to the north and the south also requires an amendment to the Forest Plan, which would allow all National Forest System lands within the special use permit boundary to be managed as part of the ski area. This amendment is subject to a 60-day objection period, beginning the day the legal notice is published.

The legal notice with more details about the objection process, the draft decision, the final Environmental Impact Statement and all natural resource specialist reports will also be available online at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/arp/eldora, or www.eldoraeis.com.