Mammoth Mountain, CA – U.S. President Barack Obama has approved a land swap that would give Mammoth Mountain Ski Area (MMSA) approximately 21 acres of Forest Service land in the area of the California resort’s Main Lodge.
The exchange, for more than 1,500 acres of public and private land located in several counties, was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that passed the U.S. Senate on December 12. It began life as HR1241 drafted by Republican Congressman Paul Cook, and was signed into law by President Obama on Friday.
Mammoth Mountain CEO Rusty Gregory said that the land swap will enable the leveling and rebuilding of Mammoth Mountain Inn and surrounding base area facilities first built in 1958.
“This approval culminates years of effort by MMSA staff and our Congressional delegation,” said Gregory. “All this and snow too. I couldn’t be more excited. It’s time to start rebuilding Mammoth!”
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process now begins to analyze the land trade’s environmental impact. Mammoth Mountain officials optimistically hope to complete the land trade within the next 12 to 18 months.
Isn’t this the place where only the politions an guest can go on public land on the taxpayers dime? I believe this act was thrown in the recent budget passed bill to loosen restrictions on the EPA. Please correct me if I am wrong.
No, Mammoth Mountain is open to the public. Thousands of people ski there every winter. The area is leased from the Forest Service and the company that runs the resort wants to build their lodge on land that they would own. Therefor they swapped land with the forest service. This seems like a good deal to me, of course I ski there, so I am a little biased.
Mean while back at the ranch, this same authorization also swapped 2400 acres of culturally significant land for 5000 worthless acres of land in Arizona. When the White Mountain Apache tribe voiced their opposition, Congressman Gosar replied “your still wards of the federal government” meaning in essence you have no rights here. Yeah, gotta love Obama and his liberal policy, if it supports what I’m doing, great, if not you can stuff it.