Over the past two decades, the White Pass Ski Corporation has three times tried to expand its operations into the heart of roadless areas adjacent to the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area just southeast of Mt. Rainier in Washington State.

Twice federal courts have blocked these attempts to commercially exploit some of the last remaining fragments of temperate rain forests in North America. The Forest Service issued a Record of Decision that calls for building a parking lot in a Riparian Reserve and one of the two Inventoried Roadless Areas ("IRA") directly affected by the expansion.

The expansion calls for cutting 22 acres of timber in the heart of the other affected IRA and would allow development on such a scale that the Agency admits that it would cause the removal of 767 acres of the White Pass IRA from future wilderness area consideration. The Agency intends to allow commercial expansion directly into habitat for Northern Spotted Owl, wolverines, mountain goats, lynx and potential recovery areas for wolf and grizzly bear.

These actions clearly violate the Roadless Rule. Additionally, the development will occur in a Tier I Key Watershed in a manner that violates the Northwest Forest Plan.

Representing the Hogback Basin Preservation Association and the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club, WELC is working to block the expansion of the ski area into these roadless lands.

Attorney: Dave Bahr