by SETH MULLER 
Arizona Daily Sun
26 December 2004
   

Nestled in eight, 4-inch ring binders at the Coconino National Forest office on Lake Mary Road are all 4,000 comments submitted on the Arizona Snowbowl's proposed upgrade and snowmaking plan.

Since the day the comment period closed in April, Coconino National Forest staff have culled the variety of opinions and views expressed both for and against the proposal to used reclaimed wastewater to make snow.

"I've read all of those comments that have been pulled," said Coconino National Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure, in a sit-down interview with the Daily Sun this month. "We're working through all of the comments and we are responding to them."

The responses will become part of the final environmental impact statement for the Snowbowl snowmaking plan, which Forest Service staff expects will reach completion within the next two or three months.

The release of that statement is expected to become the biggest news on the Coconino for 2005, and it joins an ongoing effort to prevent catastrophic wildfire, fight invasive weeds and restore flows to a once-dammed creek in topping the supervisor's agenda.

ON HER SHOULDERS

The final decision on whether to allow for artificial snowmaking at Snowbowl -- considered a boon to the local economy but viewed as a desecration by Native Americans -- will fall squarely on Rasure, who will deliberate on comments and information collected from the study.

In February, the Forest Service released the draft EIS, a document drafted under the guidelines set by the National Environmental Policy Act, for Snowbowl that showed the artificial snowmaking was a preferred alternative.

But Rasure can change that in the final document.

"It is possible to come up with a final decision that is different from the preferred alternative in the draft," Rasure said. "It could be a decision that falls between the selected alternatives."

Since April, Rasure has agreed to meet with tribal members who have expressed an outrage over the proposal. A reported 13 tribes consider the San Francisco Peaks sacred, and Native American religious leaders pick herbs and hold ceremonies in the mountains.

The Peaks are a central part of the Hopi beliefs and traditions. The tribal members believe the mountains are the dwelling place of the katsinas, spirits that, among other things, bring the rains and the growing season to the tribal lands.

The proposed plan at Arizona Snowbowl calls for the pumping of reclaimed wastewater from the city of Flagstaff through a pipeline. The water is treated at a plant and meets Environmental Protection Agency standards for snowmaking use. It's also used on city ballfields.

It's an affront to the tribes, but Snowbowl operators say that the artificial snowmaking is important for financially sustaining the 777-acre ski area located on the northern slope of Agassiz Peak. The operation has been dogged by repeated years of poor snowfall, save this season, and industry standards and rising cost mean an inevitable shutdown if the snowmaking plan fails.

"I'm taking into consideration all of the comments along with our interdisciplinary team that's working on this," Rasure said. "We have to weigh all of this information carefully."

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

If reaching a final decision on Snowbowl did not carry enough responsibility, Rasure also has to deal with the continuing danger of catastrophic wildfire, which is expected to remain a threat for several years.

This year, Rasure and her staff start out ahead, as crews that have conducted controlled burns -- designed to take out the forest debris that would become fuel for a major blaze -- managed to treat 4,000 more acres than expected. This was due to optimum burning conditions this fall.

But it's little comfort when an estimated 170,000 acres of the forest falls into a designation called the "wildland-urban interface," where federal forests abut homes and communities. Less than 10 percent of this was treated this year.

"And we still have to look beyond at the whole of the forest," Rasure said. "It's a forever type of action."

However, the Coconino National Forest is expected to have a number of advantages in 2005. The Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership, an alliance working to protect the city and surrounding communities from wildfire, has nearly completed a community protection program that would position it to receive federal dollars under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act.

Also, this fall, climatologists reclassified northern Arizona from being in extreme drought to severe drought as a result of recent moisture in the form of early winter storms. The moisture could help forest conditions and dampen potential wildfires.

WEEDS AND WATERSHEDS

Next year also is expected to bring the Coconino National Forest's plan to eradicate the crop of invasive weeds that have crowded out native plants and impacted the landscape. The Coconino joins two other nearby national forests in a plan to use chemicals and hand-pulls.

"This is another one of those projects that reflects us taking on important resource issues," Rasure said.

In a $12 million proposal to stop the spread of weeds through portions of the Coconino, Kaibab and Prescott national forests, the agency plans to use a combination of 12 different herbicides to thwart 22 identified invasive species across 187,500 acres.

While the forest does battle with the weeds, it will do its part to save fish. The Coconino National Forest has played a vital role in restoring native fish to Fossil Creek, where a dam that has existed for nearly a hundred years will be decommissioned in the coming weeks.

The restoration to the natural flow regime is expected to help several species of native fish, namely the speckled dace, thrive in conditions that existed before the dam, built in the early 1900s.

With the possibility of full flow being returned to the natural drainage, Forest Service staff and biologists working on the project believe the system can quickly return to a healthy, functional ecosystem with the added unique characteristic of extensive travertine formations.

"This is really a unique, once-in-a-lifetime kind of project," Rasure said, noting the Forest Service already started work on reestablishing the native species in November. "This is going to be a major accomplishment.

Along with the work in Fossil Creek, the Coconino has joined the Prescott and Tonto national forests in developing a management plan for the uniquely lush Verde River, which flows along the base of the Mogollon Rim into the Salt River drainage.

Although Snowbowl, fire protection, weed removal and watershed protection are high on the list of Rasure's priorities, the 1.82 million-acre national forest is still home to a bevy of other important issues -- from grazing to recreation impacts to law enforcement -- that staff will have to continue to handle.

"Given the size and scope of the forest, there's always a wide variety of things we have to manage," Rasure said.

Reporter Seth Muller can be reached at 913-8607 or at smuller@azdailysun.com.

Copyright 2004 Arizona Daily Sun