SAM Magazine--Mount Spokane, Wash., September 20, 2013--A proposed lift, which would have accessed 279 more acres at Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park, was halted by a ruling this past Tuesday from the state appeals court. According to The Spokesman-Review, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission made a mistake by not requiring a detailed study of how a new chairlift would impact old-growth forest, meadows and wetlands. The appeal was filed by The Lands Council.

SAM Magazine--Mount Spokane, Wash., September 20, 2013--A proposed lift, which would have accessed 279 more acres at Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park, was halted by a ruling this past Tuesday from the state appeals court. According to The Spokesman-Review, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission made a mistake by not requiring a detailed study of how a new chairlift would impact old-growth forest, meadows and wetlands. The appeal was filed by The Lands Council.

Mt. Spokane has leased 2,300 acres from the Mount Spokane State Park since the early 1950s and uses 1,450 acres. The resort had planned on developing the remaining 850 acres, but downgraded its plans to 279, leaving the rest to the Park. In 2011, the Parks and Recreation commission voted to give the 279 acres a land-use designation compatible with recreational use, but opponenets argued that Mt. Spokane had failed to provide an EIS (environmental impact statement). The courts ruled in the opponents' favor saying that decision-makers should "be apprised of the environmental consequences before the project picks up momentum, not after."

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