If the back country of the Wasatch seems crowded, it's not because a helicopter skiing company is flying people to the peaks, says the chief of the U.S. Forest Service.
Rather, back-country skiers are responsible for overcrowded conditions and any resulting turf battles in the mountains, says Dale Robertson, head of the Forest Service in Washington, D.C."The increasing conflict between heliskiers and conventional back-country skiers has not been caused by an increase in heliskiing, but rather by the rapidly expanding population of other back-country skiers," states a letter sent from Robertson's office late last week.
Robertson has overturned two local Forest Service officials' decisions to limit the number of times Snowbird-based Wasatch Powderbird Guides may fly in the central Wasatch.
His ruling is the third to be issued since Powderbird owner Greg Smith, who has operated his heli-ski business for the past 19 years, asked to renew his permit to fly skiers into the mountains near Salt Lake City.
Since early 1990, citizens' groups and individuals have argued that the Forest Service should not renew Powderbird's permit to fly over the central Wasatch, particularly in heavily used Mill Creek, Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood canyons and around Park City.
Weighing the back-country skiers' demands against Powderbird's business needs, Wasatch-Cache National Forest Supervisor Susan Giannettino issued a decision in October 1991 that would curtail some of Powderbird's flights during the busiest winter weekends.
Her decision pleased no one, and both sides filed appeals. In March, Regional Forester Gray Davis slightly eased the restrictions on the number of days Powderbird could fly but otherwise left Giannettino's decision intact.
Still, neither side was happy. "Everybody and his brother requested a review," said Bill Svensen, an appeals coordinator for recreation issues in the Forest Service's national office.
With Robertson's ruling, the local decision has been scuttled, modifications and all.
Robertson's letter states, "There is no indication that heliskiing is causing any adverse environmental effects or adversely affecting public health and safety. Solving what is essentially a social conflict issue by reducing a longstanding legitimate use of national forest land is not appropriate without evaluating other possibilities."
The ruling has left back-country ski advocates gasping.
"It's appalling," said Gale Dick, president of Citizens Committee to Save Our Canyons, an environmental advocacy group that has led the charge against Powderbird.
"I can't even accept the reasoning," Dick said. "It seems to me that (Robertson) is acknowledging one of the arguments that was made, namely that there is an increasing conflict."
The next step is probably to take the issue to federal court, said Wick Miller, Wasatch Mountain Club president.
Smith said Robertson's decision frees Powderbird of the uncertainty that has plagued it for over a year and added that though the ruling may look like it all went his way, it actually will prompt a general tightening of his operations.
"We are relieved that the undue restrictions of the original decision that stifled the future viability of this enterprise have been removed," Smith said.
"But the net result of this long process is that helicopter skiing activities are more tightly defined, restrained and regulated than in the past. And we think that's fair."