[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 9025-9026]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           SKI AREA RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITY ENHANCEMENT ACT

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Madam President, I wish to highlight an 
important milestone in our work in Congress. I speak of my legislation 
to create year-round, sustainable jobs in mountain communities around 
the country while expanding opportunities for Americans to enjoy the 
great outdoors through the expansion of summer recreational 
opportunities at ski areas. On April 17, 2014, the U.S. Forest Service 
issued its final directives for implementing my Ski Area Recreational 
Opportunity Act, a law that allows and encourages ski areas on national 
forests to offer new activities for all seasons, such as expanded 
hiking and mountain biking, Frisbee golf, climbing walls, mountain 
coasters, zip lines, ropes courses, special events, and other popular 
activities.
  I am proud to have led this bipartisan effort, from my time in the 
House, where I first introduced the Ski Area Recreational Opportunity 
Enhancement Act, to here in the Senate, where we saw the president sign 
it into law in 2011. After its passage, I worked with stakeholders and 
the U.S. Forest Service to make sure that the law's implementation 
empowers site-specific decisions that are appropriate for ski areas and 
local communities. This allows for the greatest opportunity for success 
in achieving the bill's main goals: boosting rural economies and 
promoting outdoor recreation. I would like to thank my colleagues 
Senators Feinstein, Heller, and Barrasso for working with me to ensure 
this would happen.
  Ski areas across the country and especially in my home State of 
Colorado have embraced the new flexibility provided by the Ski Area 
Recreational Opportunity Enhancement Act. Since its passage, they have 
been proposing projects to create activities for all seasons. I 
encourage the U.S. Forest Service to quickly review these proposals and 
to reach the best decision for each local project and community. That 
includes allowing for public input as prescribed by the National 
Environmental Policy Act. The local U.S. Forest Service land managers 
have a strong record of successfully working with ski areas to manage 
these long-running partnerships and that record is one of the reasons I 
advocated for a flexible directive empowering local decisionmaking.
  I want to thank the U.S. Forest Service for finalizing a directive 
that provides that flexibility.
  The U.S. Forest Service estimates that expanded recreational 
opportunities at ski areas will increase summer visits to national 
forests by 600,000 people each year, create 600 full or part-time jobs 
and inject nearly $40 million into mountain communities. I think we all 
can agree these are substantial gains for rural economies and a 
testament to the importance of these ski areas to the recreation 
community and the American public at large.
  I also would like to recognize the important support of our other 
cosponsors: Senators Murray, Bennet, Risch, Shaheen, Enzi, Cantwell, 
Ayotte,

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Sanders, Reid, Leahy, and Stabenow. It was a strong bipartisan effort 
and I know we are all eager to see projects get underway to benefit 
rural economies and the recreating public.

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