State turns down heli-skiing proposal
Richard Hanners / Whitefish Pilot
By RICHARD HANNERS
Whitefish Pilot
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation turned down requests by two Whitefish businesses to allow helicopter skiing on parts of the Whitefish Mountain Range.
Brian Manning, unit manager of the Stillwater and Coal Creek state forests, cited considerable public opposition to the proposal after receiving 316 comments, most of them opposed to helicopter skiing.
Concerns included noise and effects to winter recreation, wildlife species and adjacent landowners, and the potential for trespass on federal lands, Manning told Triple-X Helicopter and Valhalla Adventures in a Dec. 4 letter.
“Given the amount and breadth of the concerns that have surfaced with the proposed activities and the general nature of the proposals, DNRC will not consider any helicopter skiing operations this season,” Manning wrote.
Adjacent federal land agencies — Glacier National Park and the U.S. Forest Service — were given heavier weighting, Manning told the Pilot. He said the Coal Creek State Forest is rather small, about 15,000 acres, and it was possible commercial ski operations could end up on Forest Service land designated for non-motorized uses only.
On Aug. 19, Triple-X submitted a proposal to DNRC for heli-skiing on both Stryker Ridge north of Whitefish and on Coal and Winona ridges in the North Fork drainage.
About the same time, Valhalla Adventures proposed heli-skiing on the 35 square miles of state land on Stryker Ridge where they are currently licensed to operate a “cat-skiing” business.
DNRC special-use forester Nicole Stickney commented in late September that the request came to them rather late for approval this season.
An environmental assessment was not conducted, and Manning made the decision, he told the Pilot. He said the proposal was a test case, but the agency was provided with little specifics on how the business would operate.
DNRC was “committed to researching the proposal to determine if an opportunity exists to all the activity this season on a very limited basis,” he wrote the companies. “This would help determine the proposals’ economic viability and compatibility with other forest management and recreational activities.”
Commercial winter recreation opportunities already exist on the two state forests, Manning pointed out. The Flathead Snowmobile Association grooms 57 miles of trail, Valhalla Adventures runs cat-skiing operations, there are two commercial snowmobiling guide services and two commercial dog-sledding operations, and Stillwater Mountain Lodge grooms 20 kilometers of cross-country trails.
Manning said further research is needed on heli-skiing. DNRC is “contacting other land management agencies in the western portion of the United States that have helicopter skiing operations to learn how the activity is managed and the challenges and benefits they have experienced,” he wrote. “This effort will continue.”
Two days before Manning issued his decision, the Flathead County Board of Adjustment approved a conditional-use permit to allow Triple-X to establish a helicopter school and tour business on a 10-acre site along U.S. 93 near the county landfill.
Triple-X is in the process of buying the mid-valley site and hopes to be in business there by early spring.
The five-person company has been operating from a site nine miles north of Whitefish since April and ran tours in the Whitefish area over the past Fourth of July weekend.