Stop expanded snowmaking and parking at Arapahoe Basin
Arapahoe Basin 2026 Improvement Projects
U.S. Forest Service· White River National Forest, Dillon Ranger DistrictU.S. Forest Service project page ↗
Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
The groups on this fight
4 groups work Colorado
By footprint, from the same match the STAND matchmaker runs; none is linked to this decision in our record yet. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Center for Biological Diversity
Works Colorado: led the coalition suit against the Uinta Basin Railway, whose oil trains would run the river corridors below the monument.
- Rocky Mountain Wild
Works Colorado: joined the formal challenge to the January 2026 replacement lease sale and previously sued BLM over the Roan Plateau leases.
- San Juan Citizens Alliance
Works Colorado: shaped the 2010 management plan, has fought oil and gas leasing decisions inside the monument for two decades, mobilized against the 2017 monument review, and states it continues to defend CANM..
- WildEarth Guardians
Works Colorado: named petitioner against the Uinta Basin Railway over habitat destruction in the basin.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
Arapahoe Basin wants to remove water use limits and add major infrastructure on White River National Forest land.
What’s at risk
A longstanding 25% cap on snowmaking water use could be permanently lifted, allowing Arapahoe Basin to draw far more water from the watershed. Two new parking lots and a pedestrian overpass would also reshape the public forest landscape.
If this goes through
The ski area gains uncapped snowmaking rights and new permanent infrastructure on public land, with no guarantee these changes can be reversed.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
4 holes in the agency’s own analysis
What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- The Forest Service should not lift the 25% cap on snowmaking coverage that was established in the 1999 A-Basin Master Development Plan EIS and Record of Decision without rigorous environmental review.
- Removing this longstanding snowmaking withdrawal limitation on White River National Forest land could significantly expand water use within the Arapahoe Basin Special Use Permit Area.
- The proposed addition of two new parking lots and a pedestrian overpass represents a major infrastructure change on White River National Forest land that deserves full public scrutiny in the Environmental Assessment.
- I urge the Forest Service to carefully evaluate the installation of Remote Avalanche Control Systems within the Arapahoe Basin Special Use Permit Area as part of the required NEPA process before any decision is made.
Show all 6 points from the document
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
Arapahoe Basin proposes to: Remove the 25 % withdrawal limitation from the 1999 A-Basin MDP-EIS and Record of Decision to allow expanded snowmaking coverage within its state law water rights. Install Remote Avalanche Control Systems. Add two new parking lots and construct a pedestrian overpass.
The reporting behind this
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