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Heli-skiing company objects to new ski area

INVERMERE, B.C. -- A heli-skiing company is arguing against a proposed new ski resort near Invermere called Jumbo Glacier Resort. Tom Brinkerhoff, co-owner of RK Heli-Ski, argues that British Columbia resorts are only operating at half-capacity.

INVERMERE, B.C. -- A heli-skiing company is arguing against a proposed new ski resort near Invermere called Jumbo Glacier Resort.

Tom Brinkerhoff, co-owner of RK Heli-Ski, argues that British Columbia resorts are only operating at half-capacity. This proposed resort, he says, would displace helicopter skiing form the company’s "bread-and-butter terrain."

Invermere Valley Echo’s editor Ian Cobb estimates that 65 to 70 percent of people there are opposed to the project, with 15 to 20 percent favoring it, while the rest don’t care. He says he has been accused of being biased against the project, but he accuses the project developer, Oberto Oberti, of wanting to be treated like "some kind of messiah by the media, and whenever news items are less than flattering about this proposal, he lashes out and attempts to discredit journalists." Both CBC television and radio journalists have also been subjected to Oberti’s ire, he says.

Glacier crevice claims life of Canmore skier

CANMORE, Alberta — A Canmore man was killed while skiing on a glacier in British Columbia when he fell into a snow-obscured crevasse.

Bob Enagonio, 48, fell into the crevice on the Deville Glacier in Glacier National Park as he and four other skiers were on a week-long trip in the Rogers Pass area. They were doing a variation of the classic Bugaboos to Rogers Pass ski traverse, described in Chic Scott's book "Summits and Icefields," as one of the most magnificent in western Canada. Enagonio had done that route twice before.

A former teacher in Vermont, he was described not as the sort of athlete whose name and activities are frequently reported, but rather one of those "who measured his accomplishments in the outdoors by sharing his unbounded enthusiasm with his friends."

Aspen looking to ban offices at ground-level

ASPEN, Colo. – A thin majority of Aspen City Council members want draft legislation that would prohibit new offices on the ground floor in the city’s 10-block commercial core.

This directive to town staffers comes two years after the Aspen council became alarmed when time-share sales showrooms went into quarters previously occupied by drug and clothing stores. Aspen’s concern rippled to other resort towns, several of whom have also talked about similar prohibitions of real-estate offices.

In 1974, Vail enacted a similar ban against offices, except for banks, on ground-floor levels. The ban is in effect in the two primary commercial areas, Vail Village and Lionshead.

Aspen’s move was set off by findings of retail consultants who concluded that any spread of ground-floor offices should be prevented. The Aspen Times reports that three council members called for the law, saying it is essential to maintain a rewarding experience for visitors, while two members, including Mayor Helen Klanderud, see the prohibition as an unnecessary intrusion.

Developer shut down by setback from river

HAILEY, Idaho — In theory, setbacks from rivers are lauded in ski resort valleys. In practice, local governments often are permissive.

But in Blaine County, where Sun Valley is located, a developer’s project was shut down because his construction crews were clearing property in violation of the county’s mandated 75-foot setback from rivers, reports the Idaho Mountain Express.

Poison planned tokill non-native trout

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Poison may be applied for the next three years to a creek in the Sierra Nevada in an effort to protect what is considered the rarest trout species in the United States if not the world.

On Silver King Creek, which feeds into the Carson River, the Paiute cutthroat trout, which is on the U.S. list of threatened species, is being crowded by trout introduced by settlers in the last 160 years. Biologists last year shocked, netted and transplanted about 500 of the non-native trout.

But to rid the stream of the non-natives, California fish biologists say they need to apply low levels of a fish poison, Rotenone, on about 11 miles of the creek and tributaries. An environmental assessment done by the Forest Service condones the plan by California’s state biologists after concluding that the "use of chemicals to remove nonnatives from historical Paiute cutthroat habitats is the only method that is likely to be successful."

The Animal News Center in February noted that Rotenone was used in an unsuccessful attempt to eradicate northern pike from Lake Davis in the Sierra Nevada in 1997. Non-native Silver King Creek trout have also survived prior Rotenone poisonings in 1964, 1977, and 1991-1993. There is no explanation in any of the current accounts as to why biologists think the poisoning now being planned will prove any different.

Even if it does prove effective, not everybody is persuaded this is the right thing to do. At least one retired professor of aquatic ecology has protested. But one operator of a fishing ranch, Brad Davis, agreed. "You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. " he told the Tahoe Daily Tribune. "We love the fish in there, but in order to take the Paiute cutthroat off the threatened species list, that’s the way to do it."

If the proposed recovery plan's projections are correct, the trout could be removed from the endangered species list by 2013 when it has reached a stable, self-sustaining population level.

Foresters see paintball refuse as akin to litter

FRISCO. Colo. — The U.S. Forest Service is looking for the combatants in a paintball battle near Frisco. Dozens of trees were marred with paint, and hundreds of uncharged paint balls were left lying on the forest floor.

In the sport, which is growing in popularity, teams of players engage in a game similar to tag, but use guns called "markers" to shoot balls of vegetable-based biodegradable paint.

Just how damaging to the environment is it? From the comments by foresters to the Summit Daily News, the paint is seen as akin to litter. The owner of a store in Frisco that sells the paintballs noted that the paintballs are biodegradable. However, neither rain nor snow removed all the paint from trees and rocks. Aluminum cans are also biodegradable, noted Forest Service employee Ken Waugh, but it takes 50 years.

Violating the ‘Law of the Secret Spot’

DURANGO, Colo. — Will Sands, editor of the Durango Telegraph, calls it the "Law of the Secret Spot." Under this law, the location of special places — secret hot springs, hidden canyons, and special overlooks — are not to be revealed in articles, in conversation, or in any other way.

The thinking, of course, is that drawing attention to special places makes them non-special. But Sands says he has decided otherwise. Over the course of some years he has seen trails obliterated several times because there were no users to speak up for them. "The secret spots vanished not because of over-use," he says, "but because they were forgotten or voices were silent when the earth movers arrived."

His logic, incidentally, is the same logic used by John Muir to create the Sierra Club a century ago.

Company gets big contracts in Iraq

HAILEY, Idaho — The ski valleys of the West have experienced first-hand the horrors of war. Earlier this year a ski instructor at Winter Park who had gone to work for a civilian contractor died in a firefight in Iraq.

A different side of the war is found in a report by the Idaho Mountain Express. A company called Power Engineers Inc., which is partly based in Hailey, a down-valley town to Ketchum and Sun Valley, has been awarded three contracts totaling $1.5 billion. The company is to provide engineering to help get the Iraqi electrical supply and distribution system back online.

Trailers for sale but not rent at Sun Valley

WOOD RIVER VALLEY, Idaho — Every year there’s another couple of stories from ski valleys about trailer parks evicting their tenants. The first one this year comes from the Sun Valley area, where the owners of one of the remaining eight trailer courts has decided to find another use for the land rather than invest in a deteriorating sanitation system.

For some residents, moving the trailers would cost about as much as the trailers are worth. Given that the cost of housing has been rising much more rapidly than wages, the outcome is predictable. Tenants are reported by the Idaho Mountain Express to be reviewing their options with lawyers, but they appear to have very few.

Seabiscuit lead horse pasturing at Telluride

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Many ski resorts have official vehicles, but Telluride has a horse, the lead model in the movie Seabiscuit.

In the movie, the role of Seabiscuit was played by several horses, but Fighting Ferrari stood out as the director’s choice. The producers of the film, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, own property outside of Telluride and thought the horse would have a nice life on the adjoining guest ranch, Skyline Ranch. From there it was one short gallop to becoming the official horse for the local convention and visitors’ bureau.

All items save sack of dog poop returned

SILVERTON, Colo. — Silverton is a mountain big enough to have a morning exercise class but small enough that when somebody leaves a pickup tailgate down, the spilled items will be returned even if they’re unmarked. The exception to this, says a gratified resident in a report filed with the Silverton Standard, was a bag of doggy-doo.

Containers survive to become bear resistant

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. — A Coleman cooler? Get real, For a 920-pound grizzly bear, it’s like a cardboard box of cookies.

But five containers tested by the eight product-testing grizzly bears at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center have now earned the tag "bear resistant" from the Living with Wildlife Foundation. Other products failed, but need only minor alterations to shore up weaknesses.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide explains that the certification program is designed to help landowners properly store trash pet food, and other attractants. By ensuring storage containers are truly "bear resistant," the new program should reduce property damage and keep wild bears out of trouble.

The federal government has long had inspection programs for containers used on public lands, but no such program existed for containers used on private lands.

Sunrise ceremony heals the earth, at least for now

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A rainbow’s coalition of 200 people — white, Hispanic, AmerIndian, black, and Asian — gathered at sunrise in an attempt to heal the Earth of the stresses man has put onto it. Organized by Bennie LeBeau, an elder in the Shoshone tribe, the medicine wheel ceremony attracted people from across the West.

LeBeau bemoaned the development and loss of balance with nature, comparing America’s current state to the lost city of Atlantis. "If we don’t stop what we’re doing, we will perish as they did," he said.

After the ceremony, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide, LeBeau said he thought the ceremony had succeeded. "The earthquakes, the shaking and rattling will cease," he said. "I believe we accomplished our goals, but it’s up to the people of the world to understand the energies and the importance of earth knowledges."

Tuberculosis victim put into quarantine

GRANBY, Colo. — A woman from Africa employed at a resort between Granby and Winter Park has been identified as having an active case of tuberculosis. As required by Colorado regulations, she will be quarantined for six months in a trailer or in a room, but if in a room it cannot share a ventilation system with any other rooms. Also, the women can have no visitors inside the room. Health officials, reported the Winter Park Manifest, are testing the 275 estimated people who had contact with her.

Starbucks rumored to be on way to Vail

VAIL, Colo. — You can’t walk around the block in a big city or stumble into a grocery store without seeing a Starbucks, so why should Vail be different? Despite corporate denials of such plans, rumors indicate two Starbucks — with room for cream — are on their way, reports the Vail Daily. Although the town has a few fast-food franchises along its periphery, it has no franchises — not even clothing-type stores — in its interior.