Snowmobilers, Heavenly, T-D Fire challenge USFS
By Barbara Barte Osborn, Sacramento Bee
The U.S. Forest Service’s refusal to revise existing restrictions on snowmobile use in the Lake Tahoe Basin is one of a dozen objections filed by groups and individuals against the agency’s proposed updated land-management plan.
The objection charges that the current 25-year-old restrictions do not address the effects of additional snowmobile outfitters, permitted by the Forest Service, whose machines allegedly endanger cross-country skiers and snowshoers on popular trails and cause noise, air and water pollution.
The Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District says the plan’s fire suppression tactics in roadless areas near homes, rather than leaving continuous fuels in place, should have community safety as a primary objective. And Heavenly Mountain Resort officials ask that the plan be revised to clarify a 200-acre limitation on development, lest it encourage a development race between resorts.