SAM Magazine-Crested Butte, Colo., June 17, 2010-The U.S. Forest Service will conduct a formal review of a recent appeal decision that nixed Crested Butte's proposal to expand onto Snodgrass Mountain.

The associate deputy chief for the National Forest, Gloria Manning, will review the earlier decision, which upheld forest supervisor Charlie Richmond's refusal to consider the Snodgrass proposal in a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. Manning's decision is due by July 14, within 30 days of the date of the notice, June 14, 2010.

The current chain of events began when Richmond turned down Crested Butte's proposal in November 2009. Crested Butte appealed that decision in December 20009. In May, deputy regional forester James Peña affirmed Richmond's refusal to consider the Snodgrass Mountain expansion proposal.

CBMR then asked U.S. Forest Service chief Tom Tidwell to review the decision and set it aside based upon the issues identified in CBMR's original appeal: that the Forest Service did not follow its own regulations, and forest supervisor Richmond made a fundamentally unfair decision in a private process that violated federal law and excluded the public from a watershed public lands decision that determined the future of the ski area and the community.

The proposed Snodgrass Mountain expansion would increase the amount of intermediate and advanced terrain at CBMR with 276 acres of skiing served by three lifts, a beginner carpet, and a connector gondola from Crested Butte Mountain.

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