Wasatch Backcountry Skiing Permit to come?
30 November, 2010
SO Forest Service Office
Intermountain Forest Service Supervisor Harv Forsgren
Forest Service, USDA
8236 Federal Building
125 South State Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84138
Tel. 801-236-3400
Fax. 801-524-3172
Uinta-Wasatch-Cache Forest Service Supervisor Brain Ferebee
324 25th Street
Ogden, Utah 84401
Tel. 801-625-5306 (Ogden Regional Office 4)
Fax. 801-625-5359
Forest Service Legal Council Ken Paur
507 25th Street
Ogden, Utah 84401
Tel. 801-625-5112 (Ogden Ranger District)
Fax. 801-625-5914
RE: PETITION FOR EQUAL SKI TAXATION (Tri-Canyon backcountry Forest Service ski permit fees) by private land owners to require Forest Service permits for all backcountry skiers in Tricanyon
area (Big Cottonwood Canyon, Millcreek Canyon, and Little Cottonwood Canyon), to perform Forest Service's backcountry avalanche control responsibilities, and to get a fresh Salt Lake District Ranger
Dear Forest Supervisor Harv Forsgren,
As you know, there has been years of conflict between Cardiff Fork landowners and backcountry skiers in the Cardiff bowl area of Big Cottonwood Canyon. We would like to propose a long term solution.
We would like the Forest Service to require permits for skiers using Forest Service property in the Tricanyon area (Tri-canyon backcountry ski permit). A proposed fee schedule of $3 per day or $300 per season could generate an additional $100,000 with just 350 season permits. That's a 10% increase in the total Forest Service ski fees collected in Utah from backcountry ski users who have heretofore been non-payers. The permits would be available only to those who have acknowledged the private land
inholdings of the backcountry ski permit area, have been supplied information about the boundaries of these inholdings, and sign a liability waiver in favor of the Forest Service, State, County, and private landowners. We believe that this simple step would provide a permanent solution to the recurrent and
sometimes severe conflict that occurs in this area.
Silver Fork, Cardiff Fork, and Day's Fork offer world renowned backcountry skiing. Myself, Kevin Tolton, Cyle Buxton and others are private land owners in Cardiff Fork and Day's Fork.
We lease our land to Wasatch Powderbirds. Our lease rates are devalued by the Forest Service artificial heli-skiing ban on Sundays and Mondays. The Forest Service has for many years, participated in a pattern of harassing private canyon property owners in an attempt to get their land for cheap. In many cases, the Forest Service has teamed up with dubious environmental groups like Salt Lake City Public Utilities. As part of this scheme the Forest
Service has neglected and failed to perform key Forest Service land management responsibilities essential in providing backcountry user safety. For example, the Forest Service has failed to conduct thorough land title research which would lead to proper cadastral surveys to be able to accurately define and mark Private Property-Forest Service boundaries.
This in turn has led to needless conflicts between private canyon land owners and backcountry users who are intentionally un-informed or mis-informed about the demarcation between private and public lands. The Forest Service has also failed to conduct the legally required title research specified by the
Forest Service Manual which would show the valid, legal, existing rights-of-way to private property inholdings. In the case of Cardiff Fork, we have private property surrounded by a Forest Service
inholding. This failure by the Forest Service has lead to public land user conflicts with private canyon land owners and contention that has also put the Forest Service in a position of violating its own
regulations. The current policy of deferring to the
