It’s a reality how precious and fleeting an undeveloped ridgeline can be, how loss seems to be the most visceral reminder that human decisions can alter an ecosystem in as little as 7 days. How in the matter of one social media post, the future of Little Cottonwood Canyon (LCC) changes forever.
UDOT thinks it can bulldoze over our community by offering no opportunity for public review of the Mt. Superior Avalanche Mitigation Project, which includes 16 Wyssen Avalanche Towers, a form of Remote Avalanche Control Systems (RACS), from Mount Superior to Cardiff Peak.
We can’t accept UDOT’s actions. Whether you’re one who supports the move to avalanche towers, or wants to see Howitzers used to continue mitigation efforts, we can all agree — we must demand a process that involves the public in detailed Environmental Review with advanced notice for any development affecting our access to the Wasatch Mountains.
Make no mistake - while the decision to build these towers has been made already, your voice can affect the outcome of future projects in Little Cottonwood Canyon if you use it now.
What Is Happening To Mt. Superior?
On Monday, July 1st, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) announced the construction of 16 Wyssen Towers, or Remote Avalanche Control Systems (RACS), on the Mt. Superior ridgeline above State Route 210. UDOT began construction on the project on July 8th, 2024, only a week after noticing the public that it was planned, during a holiday week, and shut down access to trails in the project area until October 2024. This timeline and lack of public engagement during the environmental review process is unacceptable - UDOT and permitting agencies must give the public further advanced notice, and should have conducted a more thorough environmental review of the towers with opportunities for the public to engage, such as an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
UDOT’s unilateral decision-making process has sidelined the voices of those who cherish and utilize Mt. Superior. Public engagement is a cornerstone of environmental protection, ensuring that the interests and concerns of the community are considered in any development project on public lands. All land management agencies must fully comply with laws and ordinances which apply to construction in much of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The process UDOT used to approve construction of 12 of these Wyssen towers is unclear at best, and did not involve the public. After direct requests from Save Our Canyons, UDOT posted their environmental review documents, referred to as a “Categorical Exclusion”, which provides for the least amount of environmental review and public engagement of any environmental review process .The United States Forest Service (USFS) also conducted an environmental review of four of the 16 planned towers in November, 2023, and determined that the four towers nearest the Mt. Superior peak, proposed within National Forest lands, could be “categorically excluded” from an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement process.
Land ownership on Mt. Superior is a complicated patchwork of public land and privately held lands, subject to environmental review regulations by different land management agencies. Categorical Exclusions (part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process) provide the fewest opportunities for public engagement during any environmental review, and this decision represents the latest development in a disturbing trend of land management agencies providing little opportunity for the public to engage with decisions which affect the beauty and wildness of the Wasatch Mountains, as well as our access to public lands. For projects that will have significant visual and environmental impacts on Mt. Superior and Little Cottonwood Canyon, UDOT should have provided more opportunities for the public to engage, as well as earlier notice that construction was due to begin, far in advance of the week of notice that the public was actually given.
