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<br />'Plan will have II clear Oimpact on jobs' .
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<br />WHITE RIVER from SA
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<br />pon~ any action on the plan by
<br />adding three months to a public-
<br />comment period that has stretched
<br />about two years and now will con~
<br />elude May 9. The lawmaker> said
<br />t!tey ..vant to give the' public more
<br />time to study the l,700-page pro-
<br />posal.
<br />Mcinnis said the Forest Service
<br />should pay more attention to the
<br />economic impact of its decisions.
<br />"This plan will have a clear
<br />
<br />impactonjobs:' he said. "Right now,
<br />two-thirds of the forest is used for a
<br />. wide variety of recreational activi-
<br />ties. One third is locked up as
<br />wilderness. This would, in effect,
<br />change the predominant use of
<br />reaeation to a biological preserve.
<br />Somelxxiy's got to stand up and talk
<br />about the driving economic factor of
<br />recreation," .
<br />The revision process is part of
<br />the National Forest Management
<br />Act, passed in 1976 to ensure that
<br />America's most prized public lands
<br />
<br />
<br />are properly Used and administered,
<br />with new land-use plans created .
<br />every 15 years or so. Of the 155
<br />national forests, 12 are entirely or
<br />partly in Colorado.
<br />New land-use plans already have
<br />been drawn up in three of Col-
<br />orado's national forests - Arapaho-
<br />Roosevelt, Routt and Rio Grande.
<br />None of those plans, officials said,
<br />depart nearly as dramatically from
<br />current land-use patterns as the
<br />proposals now under consideration
<br />in the White River National Forest.
<br />Among the key provisions:
<br />. Restricting hikers, bikers and
<br />motorized.vehic1e users to marked
<br />trails.
<br />. Limiting some trails to specific
<br />kinds of recreation use.
<br />. Reducing the nwnber of aC"es
<br />available to snowmobilers.
<br />. Returning some trails to wet-
<br />lands, meadows and forest.
<br />Republican Sen. Wayne Allard
<br />also opposes the plan. He suggests
<br />the Forest Service is taking admin-
<br />iSl:r.ltive action to alter the nature of
<br />a place whose motto is engrained in
<br />the minds of many Coloradans:
<br />."Land of many uses."
<br />"This wasn't set up as a wilder.
<br />negs area," Allard said. "It Was des-
<br />ignated as a forest area with multi-
<br />ple uses. They're pushing it toward
<br />criteria that would set it aside as a
<br />wilderness area"
<br />Aside from powertuI politicians,
<br />opposition is coming from another
<br />heavyweight - Colorado's ski in-
<br />dustry. The state's three largest ski
<br />areas - Vail, Keystone and Breck.
<br />enridge, all owned by Vail Associ-
<br />ates - oppose the plan because it
<br />would not allow futw'e expansion.
<br />"I would hope the Forest Service
<br />would look to a more balanced alter-
<br />native or a blending of alternatives
<br />to meet a variety of future needs,"
<br />said Harris Shennan, a Denver
<br />lawyer who represents several of
<br />the ski areas in the forest. "1ms
<br />plan would result in more-crowded
<br />ski slopes, higher' ticket prices and a
<br />lesser quality of ski experience."
<br />Yet the Aspen Wilderness Work-
<br />shop, another environmental group,
<br />said the resorts still have thousands
<br />of acre; within their wrrent bound-
<br />aries that could be developed for
<br />skiing. The group argues that there
<br />is no need for new terrain because
<br />skier visits has leveled off in recent
<br />years.
<br />The Colorado Wildlife Federation
<br />rejects the notion that the plan dra-
<br />matically restricts recreation in the
<br />forest, saying that more than 1,600
<br />miles of roads and motorized trails
<br />would remain open under the plan.
<br />FQrest 5,ffiice officials are quick
<br />to point out that the current propos-
<br />al is a tentative draft that could
<br />~es~amtlybyilietimethe
<br />revision is approved.
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