S. Fork Brackett Creek: Wild country and wolverine habitat at the head of the South Fork of Brackett Creek, near the planned expansion.

Bridger Bowl Expands Into  Roadless Area

Bradley Meadows is in the middle distance. Ski lifts would be constructed here, and ski runs hacked through the ancient forest below the meadows.       Story and Photos         By Phil Knight

Other expansion concerns are threats to old growth forest, wolverine habitat, and a reduction of backcountry skiing opportunities

The Native Forest Network, along with a coalition of backcountry skiing enthusiasts, recently appealed the Forest Service’s recent decision to allow the Bridger Bowl ski area, near Bozeman, Montana to expand.  Bridger Bowl plans to build new lifts and ski runs both to the north and the south of the current ski area. The planned expansion, given the green light by the Forest Service on February 4, would slice ski runs through the largest tract of intact forest remaining in the Bridger Range, destroying dozens of acres of ancient fir, spruce and pine. It also threatens to degrade some of the finest wildlife habitat in the entire Gallatin National Forest, and would require skiers who currently ski there for free to begin paying for the privilege.

The appeal shows how the Forest Service, in approving the ski area expansion, has violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Gallatin National Forest Plan, the National Forest Management Act, and the standards for government decision-making under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Phil Knight, a co-founder of NFN and long-time Bridger Bowl skier, explained “We like to ski at Bridger Bowl as much as anybody else, but there are great things in the Bridgers worth promoting and protecting besides just downhill skiing.  Here the Forest Service is allowing Bridger Bowl to expand north into the Bradley Meadows area, where new development will chop up the largest old-growth forest in the Bridgers and will degrade important habitat for wolverine, moose, and pine marten in the South Fork of Brackett Creek.  The Forest Service could have allowed Bridger Bowl to expand to the south into the Slushman drainage, but leave the important wildlife habitat in the Bradley Meadows area undeveloped.  Instead, the Forest Service approved the maximum possible Bridger Bowl expansion to both the north and the south, and that is where we draw the line.”

Knight continued, “The Forest has failed to show why Bridger Bowl needs more ski terrain. The entire plan is based on input from undisclosed ‘skier focus groups’ who supposedly demand that Bridger Bowl expand to provide ‘uncrowded skiing.’ Yet the numbers are not there to show that current ski conditions are crowded, except on rare days. Even though no one can show why it is necessary, the Forest Service has granted Bridger Bowl the maximum expansion acreage.”

Four local backcountry skiers, concerned about loss of traditional public access to skiing in the Bradley Meadows and South Fork Brackett Creek area, also joined the appeal.

NFN also accused the Forest Service of failing to analyze the impacts of this expansion in conjunction with other human activities in the area, such as snowmobiling and four-wheeling. In evaluating the proposal, the Environmental Protection Agency stated, “It is likely that expansion of the Bridger Bowl Ski Area...may hasten and accelerate growth, development, and land use change with resulting indirect environmental effects on air and water and other natural systems, since visiting skiers require vehicles, roads, water supply, wastewater treatment, restaurants, hotels, etc.” 

The appeal is now before the Regional Forester Kathleen A. McAllister.
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