{"id":67741,"date":"2017-03-14T00:55:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T06:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foia-request-filed-for-comments-on-silverton-mountains-heli-skiing-expansion\/"},"modified":"2017-03-14T06:55:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T06:55:25","slug":"foia-request-filed-for-comments-on-silverton-mountains-heli-skiing-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foia-request-filed-for-comments-on-silverton-mountains-heli-skiing-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"FOIA request filed for comments on Silverton Mountain\u2019s heli-skiing expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"San
San Juan Citizens Alliance filed a Freedom of Information Act after the Bureau of Land Management denied to release public comments regarding the expansion of Silverton Mountain\u2019s heli-ski operations.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After being denied access to public comments made on the proposed heli-ski expansion near Silverton, the San Juan Citizens Alliance has filed a request to force their release.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn ten years of working with public lands agencies, I\u2019ve never before been forced to file a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) to access public comments that are ethically and legally destined for transparent public review,\u201d Jimbo Buickerood, a program manager for SJCA<\/a>, said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

Last fall, the Bureau of Land Management was accepting public comments on a proposed land swap that would effectively increase Silverton Mountain<\/a>\u2019s available heli-skiing terrain by 10,696-acres, for a total of 25,074 acres.<\/p>\n

The proposed exchange caused a heated debate. Those who support the swap say it would increase Silverton Mountain\u2019s business, thereby benefiting winter tourism in the town of Silverton.<\/p>\n

Those opposed argue it would compromise prime backcountry ski terrain, and in the process, simply provide a financial boost to Silverton Mountain, and it\u2019s clientele would not likely spend money or stay in Silverton.<\/p>\n

During the public comment period, 300 to 400 people submitted a response to the proposed land swap that\u2019s included in a draft Environmental Assessment compiled by the BLM\u2019s Gunnison field office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When The Durango Herald asked for the individual public comments in February, Gunnison Office Field Manager Elijah Waters denied the request, saying it\u2019s \u201cnot the way we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a public comment summary, and make that available,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of personal identifiable information in there, and we want to protect people\u2019s right to privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The public comment period closed Dec. 12. Waters said the \u201cpublic comment summary\u201d would be available by March 3. But as of March 13, the document was not available.<\/p>\n

Other agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Forest Service, make public comments, as well as personal information, readily available online.<\/p>\n

Steven Hall, director of communications for the BLM\u2019s Colorado state office, could not expound Monday why the agency would not make public comments available for review.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak for other federal agencies,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our position on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silverton Mountain is about six miles north of Silverton. The company is owned by Aaron and Jen Brill, who in 2008 purchased Helitrax and began offering heli-skiing in certain areas of the San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

The Brills submitted a request to the BLM to remove five active permit areas for heli-skiing that total 5,556-acres in exchange for four other areas around Silverton, about 16,250 acres.<\/p>\n

Grouse Gulch, Cinnamon, Houghton, Poughkeepsie and Ross Basin would be removed from Silverton Mountain\u2019s recreation permit, and Illinois\/Hancock, Southeast, Round and Minnie\/Maggie gulches would be added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinter economy in Silverton is tough,\u201d Aaron Brill said previously. \u201cAnd heli-skiing is absolutely critical to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waters said the BLM is aiming for a final decision on the land swap around the first week of April.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur timeline is self-imposed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more important to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal agencies usually have 20 business days to respond to a FOIA request. By that time frame, if the FOIA the SJCA made on Friday is granted, public comments would be released April 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic comments are routinely made public without FOIA requests,\u201d SJCA said in a news release. \u201cSan Juan Citizens Alliance continuously works on and reviews public comments through various agencies across two states and at no time in recent memory has access to such comments been denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to make public missives available for review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,2740,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-67741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-nordic-skiing","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67741"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=67741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}