SAM Magazine-Durango, Colo., Sept. 15, 2008-Durango Mountain Resort (DMR) and Colorado Wild have approved the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and a Record of Decision on the resort's Mountain Master Development Plan. Colorado Wild and DMR agreed to encourage the U.S. Forest Service to implement the majority of the planned improvements, while deferring a decision on the proposed lifts and trails in the Ice Creek area. The San Juan National Forest's approval will allow DMR to move forward with on-mountain improvements, including new lifts, trails and upgraded snowmaking systems.

Decisions regarding the proposed new Ice Creek beginner trails and lifts have been deferred to allow further study into environmentally preferable alternatives. The site is known to be habitat for the Canadian Lynx, which was reintroduced to Colorado in recent years; DMR and Colorado Wild are seeking development alternatives to protect this area and still meet DMR's need for additional learn-to-ski terrain.

The cooperative approach is not new for DMR and Colorado Wild. "We formed a strong working relationship with Colorado Wild during the approval process for our 2002 development agreement," said Gary Derck, CEO of Durango Mountain Resort. "And we have maintained continued collaboration with this important local organization on numerous issues and interests.

"We hope that this agreement will demonstrate DMR's commitment to doing the right thing…and to showing how conservation organizations and the ski industry can work together to find mutually beneficial resolutions to allowing mountain improvements that are very much desired by our local and destination customers."

For its part, "Colorado Wild is pleased with the level of analysis that was done and comfortable with the project moving forward," said Ryan Demmy Bidwell, director of the Durango-based Colorado Wild. "DMR has taken care to address environmental impact issues for the majority of the plan."

The resort's Master Plan includes initiatives to help reduce and mitigate a variety of environmental impacts, such as historical logging, grazing and related practices that were permitted within or near the resort's Special Use Permit area. Initiatives include re-vegetation of logging and grazing access roads, erosion and sediment controls installed on new trails, drainage improvements, and the creation of a Lynx mitigation fund intended to improve Lynx habitat in southwestern Colorado. \