Ashland, OR – A court has granted a request filed by attorneys representing Mt. Ashland to lift an injunction blocking the Oregon ski area’s planned expansion.

In the latest battle in the war between Mt. Ashland and environmental groups, U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner ruled on Friday that the U.S. Forest Service had adequately addressed errors in its approval of Mt. Ashland’s expansion cited in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in 2007 to issue the injunction.

The expansion, first approved in 2004 and last reviewed by the Forest Service in May 2011, calls for two new chairlifts and 71 acres of new largely novice and intermediate runs in Middle Fork in the western portion of the resort’s Special Use Permit area, plus three new buildings, an expanded parking lot and a  snow tubing area. If built, the ski area’s overall vertical drop would increase from 1,150 feet to approximately 1,700 feet.

Environmental groups led by the Rogue Group Sierra Club contend that the planned expansion will adversely impact the Ashland watershed and habitat of the Pacific fisher, a relative of the mink not listed as rare or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They later cited as well the effects of climate change and economic feasibility of the project.

Opponents of the Mt. Ashland expansion say that they plan to appeal Friday’s decision.