Ranger gives update on new chair lift, bike trails, Jesus statue

Tally Lake District Ranger Lisa Timchak expects a number of projects on the forest to be moving forward this year.

Timchak spoke to a dozen people Jan. 11 during a breakfast meeting at the Pin & Cue. She talked about ongoing recreation projects on Big Mountain and around the Tally Lake district, as well as pending timber projects.

On Big Mountain, several projects are in the works involving Whitefish Mountain Resort.

The resort has plans to add a new chair lift on the north side of the mountain to give access to Flower Point. The proposed expansion was approved by the Forest Service in 1995 as part of a larger master plan that included expansion into Hellroaring Basin, although this particular project was never implemented.

The original plan has been amended and Timchak expects analysis of the Flower Point chair to be completed in April. She noted that some of the areas of analysis have changed since the original plan, such as looking at the impacts to lynx, wolverine and fires that have occurred in the area.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has to look at those changes,” she said. “So far we look like we’re on track though.”

Preconstruction work is expected to take place this summer and final construction summer of 2014.

Another addition on Big Mountain is five miles of new mountain bike trails. Trail work began in August and is expected to continue for opening this summer.

Timchak said she is unable to speak on the Jesus statue issue except to say the lawsuit “goes to court in March.”

A lawsuit attempting to remove the six-foot tall statue of Jesus from Big Mountain has been filed in U.S. District Court. The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit challenging the legality of the statue’s location on national forest land. It has been maintained there by the Knights of Columbus for about 60 years and is considered a memorial to World War II veterans.

A commercial thinning timber project near Round Meadow is continuing in an effort to reduce the spread of a Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak. The Round Meadow Recreation Area has been closed because of safety concerns. Alternate ski trails have been groomed and open to the public approximately three miles west of the recreation area.

“We knew we couldn’t close the ski area without an alternative,” Timchak said. “The community has been great about using this — it doesn’t have as many trails, but it’s a nice alternative.”

Timchak said this is the last winter of the closure and Round Meadow should be open to use next year.

The Hellroaring Mountain Bike Stage Race was held last August following opposition from a local environmental group that claimed the race would promote unsafe conflicts with wildlife. The Forest Service ultimately OK’d a permit for the race that used Forest Service roads and the Reid Divide and Bill Creek trails near Tally Lake.

Timchak said the Forest Service will likely approve the race again if organizers submit another permit.

“We support all recreation,” she said. “We can see doing that race again in the future.”