Summit County Citizens Voice

An Aspen-area group says they're having success protecting smaller chunks of forest from pine beetles with selective logging and verbenone treatments.

This week’s mountain news roundup includes stories about a slightly controversial trail re-naming in Aspen, plans to rebuild a historic Telluride bakery and the long-running battle over a ski area expansion in Crested Butte

Telluride still Phish-ing for concerts

This week’s mountain news roundup starts in Telluride, where locals are still debating the potential impacts of some planned Phish concerts this summer, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 9 and 10.

The Telluride News looks back at a similar event — a pair of Grateful Dead concerts held in August 1987, that got mixed reviews from locals. Some shops reported selling out of supplies during the Dead shows, while other locals complained of aggressive panhandling. Read the Telluride News story here.

Real estate comeback?
Real estate sales in Telluride Mountain Village have bounced back from last year based on real estate transfer tax figures, according to a story in the Telluride News. The Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association reported that sales in the resort complex have generated about $1 million year-to-date, compared to $310,000 during the same period last year.

Since Dec. 1, 2009, seven non deed-restricted houses have sold in the Village, with a median price of $2.85 million. One home sold for $10.1 million, a million off its initial asking a price. Most of the sales are cash transactions. Read the full story  on recent news from the Telluride real estate market here.

Small win in beetle battle
A small-scale effort to reduce pine beetle impacts in Smuggler Mountain in Aspen is showing signs of success, according to a story in the Aspen Daily News. A report released last week suggest that removing brood trees and treating remaining lodgepoles with verbenone “significantly reduced the probability of lodgepole pine trees being attacked by mountain pine beetle.” The 250-acre project cost about $110,000 and shows there are ways to combat beetle-kill on a localized level. Read the full story here.

Re-baked in Telluride
The owner of a landmark Telluride bakery says he wants to rebuild on the same spot, if he can get the landowner’s permission. Baked in Telluride burned down about a month ago, and Jerry Greene’s plan is to try and construct a new building that would look like the original one, covered in corrugated red tin siding. The property is owned by the three children of Telluride ski area funder Joe Zoline. Read the story here.

Pitkin foreclosures up
The Aspen Daily News is also reporting that foreclosures are more than triple of last year at this time, with 22, as compared to six in 2009. There were 105 foreclosure filings in 2009, with 20 properties going all the way through the process. The numbers seem to suggest that the economic downturn is still sending strong ripples through the real estate markets in Colorado’s mountain resort towns, a DOLA report showing that “most of the new growth in foreclosure activity is taking place outside of the Denver Metro area.”

Vonn-troversial?
Just over the pass in Eagle County, the renaming of a ski run on Vail Mountain for Lindsey Vonn stirred up a bit of controversy. Apparently, at least a few locals thought Vail should have kept the old name, International, in honor of the many international ski events held in Vail. But a pair of long-time Vail journalists at RealVail argued that Vonn has been so dominant in recent years that the new name is justified. Read David O. Williams’ take on the name game here.

Tom Boyd also blogged about the re-naming, calling the criticism a “cheap shot” at Vail Resorts, intended or not. Boyd says the Vail Valley can benefit world-wide from the exposure, by using the name of America’s all-time best women’s skier in its marketing campaigns. Read more here.

Sno-mo heaven
The Durango Herald reports on a high-elevation snowmobile event at Molas Pass, where X-treme Mountain Racing, a circuit that covers Colorado and Wyoming,its annual Southwest Colorado event this past weekend. According to the Herald, 37 racers competed in trail and drag races, including kids as young as 10. Read the story here.

More sage grouse protection?
The Colorado Division of Wildlife may add new protection for the Gunnison Sage Grouse, the Crested Butte News reports. The birds are listed as a state species of concern. Federal officials recently decided that Greater sage-grouse are qualified for the endangered species list, but that they will have to wait in line behind other species. The Colorado Division of Wildlife may add new protections in the Gunnison area as soon as May. Get the details here.

Crested Butte expansion controversy
Forest Service officials have responded in writing to an effort by Crested Butte Mountain Resort to force the agency to conduct a full environmental review of a proposed expansion. The Forest Service studied the project in a pre-NEPA process and decided not to accept the proposal, leading to cries of outrage from the ski industry.

Forest Service officials say the proposal is not in the public interest and that there has been plenty of chance for public comment without entering into a long and costly environmental analysis. According to the forest supervisor, the resort did not follow through in gaining overall community support for its plan to expand onto Snodgrass. He wrote that the resort does not have a guaranteed right to a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) review.

“NEPA does not and did not apply, and would, in our view, produce no better answer than we already have. A perpetuation of the debate for several years would serve only to deepen division in the community,” the forest supervisor wrote.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort responded in a press release: “CBMR is disappointed that the Forest Service continues to overlook its obligation to following longstanding laws and policies regarding public lands. The Forest Service’s position deprives the resort and local citizens of a full and fair review of CBMR’s proposal, and directly affects CBMR and the economic health of the surrounding community.”

Read the full story here.

View the Forest Service statement here .

Filed under: mountain news roundup Tagged: | Aspen beetle battle, Aspen foreclosures, Crested Butte expansion, mountain news roundup, Telluride, Telluride Phis concert, Telluride real estate