Snow pact gets Forest Service approval
"I got to see heroes at work. That conflict is going to go away
now, I firmly believe. There’s no greater example of how a community should
function."
Ed Cannady, SNRA public information officer
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
The Wood River Valley’s winter recreation conflicts appear on the
road to resolution.
Sawtooth National Forest Supervisor Bill LeVere announced at a press
conference yesterday he has implemented measures designed to alleviate long-standing
conflicts between skiers and snowmobilers in the Wood River Valley.
LeVere fully implemented a recommendation from the Wood River
Valley’s Winter Recreation Coalition to divide the northern Wood River Valley into
use-specific areas.
Mediator Bob Werth (podium) was instrumental in helping members of
the Winter Recreation Coalition arrive at an agreement on winter recreation use in the
Wood River Valley, coalition members say. From left to right, Sawtooth National Recreation
Area ranger Deb DesLaurier, Winter Recreation Coalition member Kathy Rivers, Ketchum
Ranger District recreation specialist David Gordon, Winter Recreation Coalition member
Chris Klick, mediator Werth, Sawtooth National Forest supervisor Bill LeVere, Nordic and
Backcountry Skiers Alliance president Sarah Michael, and Sen. Mike Crapo’s
representative Linda Norris.
The pact sets areas closed to winter motorized use, areas closed to winter
motorized use through March 15 and areas that are open to all winter uses.
The Winter Recreation Coalition is a group of five snowmobilers and five
skiers, who have worked together for the past 10 months to hammer out the area
designations.
"Some of these areas were very, very difficult," group member
and snowmobiler Chris Klick told approximately 30 people attending the press conference.
"The future could be tough, or it could be easy. But with the people we have in this
valley, it’s going to be easy."
Roughly a year ago, LeVere visited with the coalition members and told
them to come up with a proposed solution to the escalating winter use conflict by Oct. 1.
If they didn’t propose something by the due date, LeVere said, he would have to made
a decision himself.
And the outlook didn’t look good, he said.
"I wouldn’t have bet a plugged nickel a year ago" that the
group would come up with a solution, LeVere said. "I thought I had a good solution a
year ago, but they had a better solution."
The agreement was recognition by Idaho’s congressional delegation as
well.
"When local users sit down, work out their differences and solve the
problem, the public wins," Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said in a press release.
"This is exactly what should happen all over Idaho."
And perhaps it should happen all over the West, said Sarah Michael,
president of the Nordic and Backcountry Skiers Alliance of Ketchum.
The solution is "very cutting edge," Michael said.
She said the winter backcountry debate is heating up all around the West.
The challenge LeVere issued to the coalition members spurred their successes, Michael
said, and could be used as a model in other contentious areas.
Several speakers praised SNRA public information officer Ed Cannady, who
attended the recreation coalition’s meetings for the past year.
But even during his turn to stand in the spotlight, he remained humble,
and passed the credit on to coalition members.
"I got to see heroes at work," he said. "That conflict is
going to go away now, I firmly believe. There’s no greater example of how a community
should function."
Maps of the new designations are available from the Sawtooth National
Recreation Area (SNRA) headquarters and the Ketchum Ranger District in Ketchum.
