Helicopter Skiing in the Wasatch Will Continue
The U.S. Forest Service did not drag its feet on reissuing a permit for a company that provides helicopter skiing in the Wasatch Mountains.
Wasatch Powderbird Guides received a permit last week to operate for the next 10 years in Little Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood and Millcreek Canyons. The current permit was set to expire in 2010.
"This decision will help maintain the diverse, high quality recreational opportunities available to forest visitors," Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest Supervisor Brian Ferebee said in a prepared statement. "Heli-skiing is a recreational activity that is permitted on the national forest and will be regulated through the issuance of a special-use permit."
The reissued permit still bans helicopter skiing in the three canyons on Sundays and Mondays. Wasatch Powderbird Guides, which is based at Snowbird Ski Resort and The Canyons, also cannot use two helicopters in the same area simultaneously.
However, those conditions are not enough to control the impact choppers have on other backcountry enthusiasts, critics say.
"There's a ton of people out there and we have lost a lot of the canyons to the ski areas. So that makes the backcountry terrain even that much more precious," said Save Our Canyons Executive Director Carl Fisher. "There are areas where there are snowmobiles. There are areas where there are helicopters and the envelope just gets smaller and smaller and smaller for people who just want quiet, traditional types of recreation."
Still, helicopter skiers often outnumber other backcountry enthusiasts in the canyon, countered Rusty Dassing, a senior guide at Wasatch Powderbird Guides.
"The idea that there is conflict in the backcountry is really overblown," Dassing said. "We provide opportunity for people to access the backcountry who don't have the desire or skill to enter avalanche terrain on their own."
The survival rate of golden eagles in the canyons was probed as the Forest Service issued the company permits in the past. At issue is whether helicopter pilots have steered clear of nests to not scare the birds away.
"We've done all of the environmental studies that led up to this," Dassing said about the reissuing of the permit. "This is not an environmental issue, this is a social conflict."
Many years ago officials said they wanted helicopter skiing in the forest, he added.
"They decided there are many, many opportunities for people to ski without the helicopters," Dassing said. "If you seek quiet and solitude, avoid the multiple-use areas. Those are places where people can go and do a variety of things."
On some public land courts have determined that people should be allowed to helicopter ski, he said.
"Save Our Canyons lost a suit against the Forest Service," Dassing said. "The court said, this has been exhaustively studied and there is no danger."
Helicopters provide skiers and snowboarders with one of the safest ways to access the backcountry, he said.
"Some people are offended that the helicopter-skiing areas are areas that are relatively easy to hike to," Dassing said. "We mitigate the avalanche hazard and we provide our clients with a recreational experience that they wouldn't be able to get on their own."
But the Forest Service used to issue Wasatch Powderbird permits for only five years at a time. The rules changed about five years ago when federal officials also decided that some recreation outfitters no longer needed review by the National Environmental Policy Act.
"Usually for any action on public lands they use the National Environmental Policy Act. The local environment, it's always changing, so I think there is a reason for every five years," Fisher said. "It was a change in the federal policy that basically allowed [Wasatch Powderbird Guides] to go through this process."
Because the canyons are hotspots for conflicts between helicopter skiers and other backcountry enthusiasts, officials hoped to achieve balance by banning helicopter skiing in the area two days each week, according to Forest Service officials.
"We were hoping through our comments that we could encourage the Forest Service to do additional analysis in some areas," Fisher said. "This is a very, very, very heavily used area in the wintertime and I think any breaks we can give the local environment here are appreciated."
