Dam flap leads to resignation from Lolo Peak, Montana Bitterroot Resort ski resort committee – Real Estate sales are the key to profitable ski resorts

Bill Worf, a retired U.S. Forest Service regional director of recreation and lands, has resigned from a steering committee for a proposed ski resort at Lolo Peak after the developers refused to discuss a controversy now working its way through the courts.

"I decided last night that, by God, I had my fill of this," Worf said Tuesday. "They’ve had all kinds of opportunities to bring it up and they’ve refused."

At issue was a lawsuit filed last spring by the Carlton Creek Irrigation Co. seeking to define access to Little Carlton Lake to repair and maintain a dam in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Tom Maclay, who is spearheading the effort to develop a destination ski resort at Lolo Peak on both his property and adjoining Forest Service lands, is president of the Carlton Creek Irrigation Co. The irrigation company filed the lawsuit against the U.S. government.

Bitterroot Resort http://www.skibitterrootresort.com/ spokesman David Blair said the Maclay family and the irrigation company are simply trying to protect a historic right that was established well before the area was set aside as wilderness.

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"It looks to me that as far as Tom Maclay is concerned, it’s all one way," he said. "He thinks he’s doing great things for the Missoula community. He thinks the public should give its full support to the project and tell the Forest Service to give him everything he wants."

By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2005/09/14/news/mtregional/news06.txt

Additional Stories:

Ravalli, Missoula leaders mull future of planned ski resort http://www.matr.net/article-14825.html

Federal Grant Would Fund Study on Bitterroot Resort – Maclay Ski Area Plan – Missoula Area Economic Development Corporation http://www.matr.net/article-14775.html

Proposed resort near Missoula would have 10 lifts http://www.matr.net/article-12853.html

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It takes a village to raise resorts’ profits year-round

Mountain real estate: Developers cash in on demand for condos, entertainment facilities at base of ski areas

By Sandy Shore
The Associated Press

A covered wooden bridge spans a sparkling creek spilling past the condominiums, T-shirt shops and restaurants that form the nucleus of this small community at the base of towering ski slopes.

Bill and Nellie Dry of Oklahoma City sat in the shade of an umbrella on a lazy summer day, watching visitors wander from shop to shop as rock music blared from a huge tented stage at the center of the pedestrian village.

”When we first started coming, we hiked a lot,” said Nellie Dry, who has visited this mountain resort with her husband for 17 years. ”Lately, we’ve been laying back and enjoying the peace and quiet.”

With its ski runs blanketed in grass and wildflowers, Copper Mountain has built a blossoming summer business, a strategy mirrored from California to Vermont as resort owners expand their livelihoods beyond the snow by investing in condos, entertainment and, in at least one case, an adventure travel company.

”If you look at the larger companies in the industry, it’s a year-round business,” said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association. ”It’s really a hospitality industry on a year-round basis and we’re in the ski business from December to March.”

Full Story: http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3039958