Who's Out There? Doing What?
December Conservation Report
Trip date: 12/17/2007
Reported by: Jeff Lambert
The meeting was attended by Lorna Ream, Jace Bylenga, Todd Dunfield, Holly Weiler, John Latta, Paul Eichin, Suzi Hokonson, Laura Fleming, Ken Mondal, Paul Evans and chaired by Jeff Lambert. [Jace is the environmental outreach coordinator at Gonzaga University.]
1. Conservation Futures Tax - Spokane County: The Conservation Futures tax was approved by the voters in Spokane County with 62% of the vote. The ballot proposition was poorly written and stated clearly that the rate would be 6 cents/$1000. But the County Assessor Ralph Baker had a different intrepretation - a rate of less than 5 cents. Thus ensued a mild controversy that played out mostly in private over the meaning of the approved proposition.
The Conservation Committee wrote a letter to the County Commissioners asking for the six cents rate after our meeting of Nov 19. President Fred Oberdorfer signed the letter and I mailed a copy to each of the Commissioners. Lorna Ream read the letter at the budget meeting on December 3. The Spokane County County Commissioners received advice that the ballot measure as approved could not legally establish a rate higher than the current rate. The difference to the Conservation Futures program was about $500,000 a year ($1,577,573 versus $2,067,653.76 if at 6 cents). The CF program will continue to collect about $1,600,000 per year indefinitely. This seems like a lot but the Antoine Peak property acquisition will cost about $11,000,000.
Privately I had pointed out to the Commissioners that not all of the available CF tax was levied. Additional investigation and calculations at the Assessor's office were conducted. Additional monies were found to have not been collected. In a symbolic gesture, the County Commissioners voted 2 to 1 to not levy $7,899.25 or so that could be collected for the program because additional monies "were not needed". While the amount is trivial overall, I take this as an indication that I have to do a better job promoting the CF program.
2. Mt. Spokane Ski Area Expansion: The expansion has been proposed for the west side of Mt. Spokane; this is the beautiful forested slope visible from Spokane north to Deer Park. The west side forest has been designated by both State Fish and Wildlife and State Natural Resources as a forest that should be protected. Both of these agencies have written to State Parks asking that the west side forest be permanently protected. John Roskelley as our representative asked the Parks Commission to discontinue the ski area expansion at their meeting in Quincy on April 26, 2007. Instead the Commission approved analysis of a proposal to expand alpine skiing into as part of the Mt. Spokane Master Facilities Plan and its associated environmental review. We have heard nothing on the progress of the "analysis" until ten days ago.
Now State Parks is anxious to start a comment period on the scope for the Environmental Impact Statement on the environmental impact of the Mt. Spokane Ski Area expansion. A Determination of Significance on the environmental impact has been made and will be issued soon. This is a good thing because a complete Environmental Impact Statement will be required. I was advised by Bill Koss the Parks manager-in-charge that the Determination would be released Monday December 17 and a 30-day comment period would begin immediately. The December 17 date has passed and now there is uncertainty when the comment period will start and when the scoping meetings will be held. Mr. Koss last told me that the comment period would start on Wednesday December 19 but they are waiting on Mt. Spokane 2000 the ski area concessionairre. I have expressed considerable disappointment that the comment period will straddle the holidays.
Both the Conservation Committee and Trustees voted unaminously to oppose the ski area expansion. We do support spending considerable Parks monies on improving the existing facility. We want the Mt. Spokane Ski Area to succeed but not at the expense of the west side forest. I attach the letter we wrote to Parks early in 2007. [Unfortunately anyone who receives this via the Club listserv will not receive the letter since it 104k in size and there is a 100k limit on emails via the Club listserv.]
After making the decision to further study the ski area expansion in April of 2007, now they can't possibly wait until after the holidays to start the comment period and scoping meetings. The time of year will make it difficult for anyone to study the proposal and make meaningful comments on the EIS scope during the comment period - except the concessionaire. Lorna Ream and Paul Eichin have agreed to work on a scoping comment submittal. Anyone else is welcome to join us. Let me know if you would like to be involved. John Latta has asked for a topo map of the area. [I do not find one other than the high resolution color map with no detailed information on their website.]
3. The Conservation Committee has agreed to support the Inland Northwest Trails Coalition efforts to promote the County-wide trails plan ($1000), the Friends of Scotchman Peaks in gaining wilderness designation for that area of the Idaho Panhandle and Kootenai Forests ($500), and the Washington Trails Assn in sponsoring east-side kids working on east side trails ($500). Several Mountaineers are involved in these projects. Each donation is targeted to a specific purpose of interest.
4. A decision was made to forward an informal suggestion that left-over funds from the CF campaign to use for trails and signs on the CF properties. Lorna Ream has forwarded that information to Lunell Haught who managed the campaign along with Dean Giles.
Jeff Lambert cell 509 999-5100
Conservation Chair
Spokane Mountaineers, Inc
16 E 39th Avenue
Spokane, WA 99203
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