Forest Service: no snowmobile playground at Echo Summit
The Placerville Ranger District (Eldorado National Forest) has rejected a proposal from Adventure Mountain for a new snowmobile playground at Echo Summit on Highway 50.
District Ranger Duane Nelson concluded that the snowmobile track would not fit the long-range management plan, which categorizes winter uses of the Echo Summit area as primarily non-motorized recreation.
Adventure Mountain is a 40-acre family-oriented winter park featuring a groomed sledding hill and snow-play area nestled against a backdrop of beautiful snow-covered mountains. At the site of the now defunct Echo Summit SnoPark, it continues to provide parking for crosscountry skiers and snowshoers in addition to snow play. It operates under a Forest Service "special use" permit.
Snowlands Network, working with the Sierra Nevada Alliance, led the opposition to the introduction of snowmobiles, pointing out the threatened increases in noise and air pollution. Further, the proposal is aimed at introducing children and adolescents to snowmobile recreation at the same time as the American Academy of Pediatrics warns against snowmobiling at these ages. There are already opportunities for snowmobile rides nearby in Meyers on non-Forest Service lands.
The proposal also included a request to build "eco-ziplines" at Echo Summit. Operators claim that these give people the opportunity to see nature in the canopy of trees. Web-site descriptions and images, however, make it clear that these operations are nearly entirely thrill-related and that ecological emphasis is at best minor.
Ranger Nelson indicated that the Forest Service would give further consideration to the zip-line proposal, but that possible implementation would require an environmental analysis, paid for by the concessionaire. That might be enough to stop Adventure Mountain from pursuing the ziplines.
The snowmobile and zipline proposals together suggest that the concessionaire wants to convert the Echo Summit area into a "fun zone" with "rides". That is far from what was envisioned when the Forest Service solicited proposals for the area in 2006.