Time’s Running Out To Comment On Ski Resort’s Development Plans In Colockum

Hunting and wildlife advocates are warning about impacts to an elk calving area, hunting access and more as public comment on a draft environmental impact statement for a multi-faceted 1,090-acre development by Mission Ridge ski area above Wenatchee draws to a close in the coming days.

Plans call for the construction of new chair and surface lifts, creation of new year-round housing, commercial buildings and infrastructure, and new and upgraded roads on a mix of private, WDFW and federal lands just north of the existing ski area. The project drew questions from the state Fish and Wildlife Commission of staff at last month’s meeting.

This week, Kevin Kane, treasurer of Wenatchee Sportsmen’s Association, one of the state’s oldest conservation organizations, says it’s “somewhat misleading” to call what’s known as the Tamarack Saddle LLC Development a ski area expansion when the “reality” is it’s a “real estate project (that) would effectively place a city the size of Chelan (about 4,200 people) atop the Stemilt and Squilchuck Basins.”

The housing – a mix of condos, duplexes and single-family homes – and commercial buildings would be built on privately held land, but one of the new lifts would load on Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest ground and cross WDFW ground – what’s known as Section 25 – before unloading right on the other side of the state boundary.

“This area serves as a migration corridor for the Colockum elk herd and likely mule deer,” says Kane. “Trail camera studies by Friends of Mission Ridge confirm that it’s also a fawning area for deer and calving ground for elk, with photos showing golden eagle, goshawk, black bear, coyote, marmot, weasel, and other animals present.”

He says a wildlife study with backing from WSA, RMEF and Chelan County showed that the more people around, the fewer elk, and above a certain level of disturbance, elk, deer and other critters will stop using an area.

“Introducing a year-round population of about 4,200 people with activities such as hiking, biking, motorcycling, and possibly even alpine slider rides into such will inevitably degrade conditions for wildlife, especially where elk calving and deer fawning occur, and migration corridors exist. If built, the resort would likely reduce hunting opportunities, as the new community may lead to restrictions on hunters near the resort,” Kane adds.

At that September Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting, following open public comment from a member of Friends of Mission Ridge and subsequent questions from commissioners, WDFW Regional Director Brock Hoenes explained that an agreement reached between WDFW’s predecessor agency, USFS and the ski area back in 1986 does allow for the expansion of a chair lift on WDFW’s property, and he said that in 2021 WDFW and DNR were tasked by the state legislature to explore a land exchange because using the land to support a ski resort fit better under DNR’s bailiwick than the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s remit.

However, Hoenes said an initial land appraisal was done incorrectly and that cost of the exchange was badly underestimated – it would be more like $700,000 to $1 million than the $40,000 ballpark figure initially thrown out.

He said that because WDFW’s Section 25 had been purchased with hunter-and-shooter-funded Pittman-Robertson Act funds, a conversion would require an environmental review, which would eat up about half of the new estimated cost.

“So it’s kind of been tabled at this point. Right now we’re not in active conversations with DNR to figure out how to move that forward,” Hoenes told the commission.

Kane isn’t a fan of a state land swap.

“In my view, exchanging for lands already set aside for conservation is unwise; replacement lands should instead be purchased from available private lands available and managed for wildlife conservation and to include hunting. The resort and its expansion, along with up to 10,000 daily trips from Wenatchee, pose significant threats to local wildlife and habitats,” he says.

Proponents of the expansion point to the project’s ultimate economic impact for the county and region. According to Wenatchee World and NCW News articles last month, that includes an estimated $48 million annually in economic output after all parts are finished, $29.4 million in new sales tax revenue, $116 million in new property tax revenues over 20 years, and $7.6 million in annual tax revenues – which alone represents a 12.5 percent increase for the county – plus 280 jobs, mostly in construction.

“We believe this expansion will be a game-changer for our community and the region, and we’re excited to continue moving through this process,” said Larry Scrivanich, Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort president, according to NCW News.

Ages ago now, a ski resort planned in the next county to the north, Okanogan, would have impacted mule deer range in the Early Winters area of the upper Methow Valley, but it fortunately never got off the ground.

This is a different project, one that adds to an already existing ski hill by tacking on new housing, commercial and other amenities, all while continuing to push development further and further up the mountain into wildlife habitat. Nearby lands are being cleared and planted for high-elevation cherry orchards, a fight covered in this magazine in the past.

Last month, WDFW’s Hoenes indicated the agency would be submitting comments on various portions of the Tamarack Saddle DEIS, but didn’t tip their hand.

“We want our formal comment to carry the water on that,” he said.

Comment is open up until 5 p.m., Tuesday, October 21. Kane says that Conservation Northwest has created an easy portal for filing your input via this link