A decision by the U.S. Forest Service on helicopter skiing has become mired in administrative appeals filed by the guide service, its loyal clients, backcountry skiers and environmentalists.

A new five-year permit, signed by Wasatch-Cache National Forest Supervisor Bernie Weingardt, restricts Wasatch Powderbird Guides' flying season to four months, a month earlier than usual.

It also cuts the western Uinta Mountains out of a flying area and, most painfully for the company, reduces the number of flights it can make in three east Salt Lake canyons — Mill Creek and Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.

Wasatch for All, a group of Powderbird clients, contends the new rules violate the rights of people with disabilities and a Civil War-era law designed to protect established rights-of-way.

The guide service can't fly over its northern powder circuit high in the tri-canyon area on Sundays or Mondays and must limit total seasonal traffic to 650 skier days. Powderbird can't survive without greater flexibility, according to the company's appeal.

"It's like throwing us off the eighth floor rather than the 10th floor," says Powderbird owner Greg Smith. "Either way it's fatal to us."

Smith has asked Forest Service regional bosses in Ogden to overturn Weingardt's restrictions as "capricious and arbitrary."

Challenges also were submitted by wildlife defenders and a consortium of Salt Lake environmental groups who argue the new permit fails to protects nesting sites for golden eagles.

Powderbird may be able to fly once the appeals are resolved this month, but any administrative decision can be challenged in federal court.

Smith's primary antagonist, author Alexis Kelner, praises the two-day-a-week ban on helicopter skiing in the canyons east of Salt Lake City as a step in the right direction.

"When they extend (the closure) to seven days, then we'll be happier," says Kelner, guidebook author of "Wasatch Tours" for backcountry skiers.

Save Our Canyons, an environmental group Kelner founded, insists tougher measures should be put in the permit to safeguard threatened species such as the golden eagle, Canada lynx, goshawk, wolverine and peregrine falcon. Some of the species have disappeared from the Wasatch, but environmentalists hope to see them return.

Kelner's group also complains Weingardt removed a rule that said helicopters and their clients couldn't land or ski closer than 200 feet to backcountry skiers, who must "earn their turns" by climbing up.

But Forest officials said the 200-foot rule served little purpose other than to give measuring-tape-wielding ski tourers an excuse to provoke confrontations.

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Weingardt said the permit has other provisions making Powderbird pilots and guides operate safely.

Helicopter skiing is a tiny part of the ski industry. Powderbird is one of the oldest and busiest of six major operations in the continental United States. The 27-year-old company flies about 1,200 guests a year on two helicopters, about as many people as a single chair lift at Snowbird can serve in a day.

With revenues of around $1.5 million, the company employs up to seven full-time guides and another seven part-timers.

Weingardt says the debate over helicopter skiing has grown polarized and taken an inordinate amount of Forest Service time and money.

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