Work on Snowbowl upgrades set to begin in mid-July By CYNDY COLE AZ Daily Sun [ write a letter to the editor | email this story ] The Forest Service has yet to finalize how it will thin or remove 47 acres of trees to add skiing terrain, said Peaks District Ranger Gene Waldrip, but plans on starting work on the ground around July 18. Groups opposing development will now seek a longer-lasting injunction, according to their lawyer, Howard Shanker. The Hualapai Tribe, a Navajo medicine man and a Hopi leader filed their own lawsuit against snowmaking Friday. The thinning would be the first bit of work started at Snowbowl since it won a decision allowing snowmaking with reclaimed wastewater earlier this month. A pipeline almost 15 miles long carrying reclaimed water from Flagstaff to the Snowbowl would be built beginning in February or March barring an injunction, Snowbowl General Manager J.R . Murray said. If work goes ahead as planned, the area suitable for skiing and snowboarding would increase by 47 percent to 204 acres in winter 2006, adding mostly intermediate-level terrain. But Snowbowl was uncertain what the Forest Service would decide on the upgrade and so has yet to finish engineering the pipeline at this point, Murray said. "We're really moving along just what I would call step by step," Murray said. The Sierra Club, Save the Peaks Coalition and tribes have argued against more development, saying snowmaking could impact threatened plants and animals like the Mexican Spotted Owl. The owl was last seen in an area 11Ú2 miles from Snowbowl Road but habitat has been specially set aside for it in sites closer to the ski area. Tribes and environmental groups opposing the decision now have 20 days to persuade a U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix to order to delay construction until a decision is reached on their lawsuit. The Navajo Nation, Sierra Club, Flagstaff Activist Network were among six plaintiffs to sue the Forest Service last week for allowing Arizona Snowbowl to make snow with reclaimed wastewater and add other development there, charging that the Forest Service ignored Native Americans' religious rights and violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Cyndy Cole can be reached at ccole@azdailysun.com or at 913-8607. |