Write to:
Loren Kroenke,
Holy Cross Ranger District,
P. O. Box 190,
Minturn, CO 81654.

Letters should be postmarked by May 19. Oppose all three proposed amendments to the Forest Plan. Cite the terrible precedent this would set. Insist that the project be changed so that it stays out of the roadless area and complies with the forest plan. State that Vail is plenty big enough already.

Conservationists in Colorado strongly urge people to protest the proposed expansion of the Vail Ski Area, already the second largest ski area in North America, into the Two Elk Roadless Area. This area is one of the last undeveloped lands around Vail, Colorado. It is home to numerous "forest interior" species of wildlife, whose habitat would be destroyed by the proposal to construct three ski lifts and many ski runs in the area.

Even more importantly, the roadless area and general vicinity is the place where most of the sightings of lynx in Colorado have occurred in the last 50 years. Habitat for this secretive, nocturnal species of cat is very good in the are proposed for ski expansion -- old growth forests for denning, young forests for catching the lynx' favorite prey, snowshoe hare. Ski runs would destroy or fragment most of this habitat, destroying any remaining populations of lynx and making their future reintroduction impossible. A recent court federal decision requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to prepare a proposal for listing the lynx nationwide as a threatened or endangered species.

The proposal would violate the White River National Forest Management Plan because it would not comply with standards protecting the quality of wildlife habitat and riparian areas. Thus the Forest Service has proposed to amend the plan to accommodate the project by reducing habitat protection for all species in the project area and lowering the quality of riparian areas there. The latter is so a restaurant could be built. However, it could just as easily be built elsewhere.

This is a terrible precedent -- anytime anyone with money wants to do a project that violates the Forest Plan, the Plan will be amended to conform with the project rather than the reverse. This would make any plan standards for protection of any resource meaningless if they could be amended away at the whim of a developer.