Assessment of Need

ASSESSMENT OF NEED

FOR SUBPART B-PROHIBITIONS IN AREAS DESIGNATED BY ORDER

CFR 261.53 – SPECIAL CLOSURES

FOR AREA CLOSURE OF THE UNOFFICIAL SLEDDING HILL

AT THE OLD MIDLAND GRAVEL QUARRY (SEC. 14, T2S, R75W)

ARAPAHO NATIONAL FOREST, SULPHUR R.D.

Purpose of Order

There is an access road along the entire base of the hillside that is plowed by the Denver Water Dept. to access their water facilities above. The plowing of this road by Denver Water creates snow berms that have the potential to lift sledders into the air and deposit them on the roadway.

Parked vehicles along the roadway along the bottom of the hill create obstacles that are hazardous to sledders going too fast and cross the snow berm.
Parking congestion along the roadway and non-organized parking in the wide areas creates problems for the public, Denver Water vehicles, and emergency vehicles to maneuver through and turn around.
Occasional use of snowmobiles on the hillside when people are sledding creates a potentially hazardous situation with collision potential.
Natural rocks of various sizes are scattered across the hillside. At varying depths of snowpack, they can create obstacles that are potentially hazardous to sledders.
Steep slopes and short run-out distances increase the inherent risks that naturally occur with sledding activities.
Lack of caution exercised by the public to be responsible for themselves and their activities can result in injuries.
No restroom facilities are present to provide for public sanitation.

There is a Risk Management Assessment (updated 12-06-01) in the file, which evaluates the issues and hazards related to public use of the hill, the risk to the agency from potential claims for injury, and options for management. Currently, the area is being managed under the Managed Parking/Back Country Area alternative.

Several occurrences of injury have occurred since 12-06-01, including an impact of two sledders against a rock on 12-29-01 and a sledder going over the berm resulting in a back injury on 01-06-02. As identified in the Risk Management Assessment, this is an area where accidents have previously occurred; it is an area of high public use; the area poses danger to the public; and the natural conditions have been modified. Based on these factors, there is a clear and immediate need to close the area to public use to protect public safety, and to provide the Forest Service time out to evaluate the needs associated with the escalating and uncontrolled public use of the area, and to contract a professional winter sports engineer to evaluate the characteristics of the hillside for its future suitability as a potential developed snow play area.

Scope of Order

This area closure order would apply to all people attempting to use the area known as the “Unofficial sledding hill at the old Midland Gravel Quarry” located in T2S, R75W, Section 14, and as identified on the attached maps. People exempted from the order would include employees of the Denver Water Dept. in the performance of their duties, Forest Service employees in the performance of their duties, law enforcement personnel in the performance of their duties, and emergency personnel (EMT, Search & Rescue, Fire) in the performance of their duties.

The order would be in effect seasonally, from first snowfall until all the snow is melted from the hillside (as determined by the District Ranger) or until the potential snow play area suitability study is completed and a decision regarding its actual winter management status is rendered and effected.

Implementation of the order will temporarily curtail public winter use of the hillside and the road/parking facilities, to protect public safety, agency liability, and resource impacts from human waste.

Enforcement Plan

In order to inform the affected public and effectively implement the provisions of the order in a manner that results in public acceptance and safety, the following actions will be taken:

Contact Denver Water Dept. to notify of the closure and arrange for them to use their front end loaders to make a snow berm to block the area from vehicle access. Notify Denver Water Dept. legal counsel contact.
Contact CDOT and the State Patrol to let them know of the closure and possible effect of people trying to park along Highway 40 to access the hill.
Notify local Forest Service Law Enforcement and the County Sheriff’s Office.
Contact the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce to notify them the hill is closed and to get their assistance to pass the word to the local community.
Contact Forest PAO John Bustos to get his assistance in drafting and distributing a Media Release for the Front Range newspapers.
FAX the news release to the towns of Hot Sulphur Springs, Granby, Grand Lake, Fraser, and Winter Park, and to the Chambers of Commerce of Granby, Grand Lake, Kremmling and Winter Park.
Contact the Winter Park Ski Area, Town of Winter Park, YMCA, Mile High Snowmobile Club, Grand Adventures Snowmobile Tours, Trailblazer Snowmobile Tours, and the Fraser Tubing Hill.

In order to implement the closure, the following actions will be taken:

The access to the road and hillside will be blocked with snow berms and the parking areas plowed-in by Denver Water Department.
The singular road access point will be barricaded with a removable barricade and signed on the barricade “THIS AREA CLOSED TO PUBLIC ENTRY, PLEASE OBSERVE AND RESPECT CLOSURE.”
The closure area will be plowed so that a snowmobile trailer can pull up to the barricade, read the information, back up with adequate space, and pull out in a forward approach back to Highway 40.
The closure area will have “NO PARKING” signs placed around the vehicle turn-around area and facing Highway 40.
Smaller (8.5” x 11”) “CLOSED TO ALL ENTRY” signs will be placed along the entire perimeter of the closure area, and one placed on the middle of the hillside.
One copy of the Closure Order and one copy of the News Release will be laminated and placed on a signboard at the barricade.
One map showing “Alternative Snowmobile Access Points” will be highlighted, laminated and placed on a signboard at the barricade. Another similar map will be provided to the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce for displaced snowmobile recreationists looking for alternative access, and one will be provided to VIS staff at the Sulphur Ranger District.
“NATIONAL FOREST ACCESS” signs will be placed on Highway 40 north and south approaches to FDR 149.G through the “Lakota” development where the Forest Service holds a right-of-way for public access.

In order to enforce the closure, the following actions will be taken:

The first weekend following the closure, Forest Service employees will station themselves at the closure area and talk directly to people that pull into the turn-around area and explain the reasons for the closure.
The second weekend following the closure, Forest Service employees will post a box with Grand County Trail Maps and copies of the News Release. The area will be checked by Forest Service Law Enforcement at least once that weekend.
The third weekend and all following weekends until spring snow melt, Forest Service employees will visit the closure area at least one weekend day. Forest Service Law Enforcement will sweep the area on randomly selected weekend days to check the closure effectiveness.
In addition, the Sheriff’s Office out of the Town of Winter Park will be contacted to make occasional sweeps of the area to determine if the closure is being observed.

Civil Rights Impact Analysis

The people affected by this closure are estimated to be predominantly from the counties of Grand, Larimer, Boulder, Gilpin, Denver, Adams, Douglas, Jefferson and Clear Creek. Additional users come from out-of-state and are primarily single-time users who are staying in the Winter Park area to go alpine skiing at nearby Winter Park and Mary Jane Ski Areas.

U.S. Census Bureau data (from 1999) indicates that approximately 82 percent of the people from the affected areas are Caucasian, 11% Hispanic, 5% African American and 2% Asian. Approximately 52% of the population is male and 48% female. Five percent of the population is considered disabled and 20% are estimated to be below poverty level. Underserved populations in the affected area are estimated to include ethnic minorities, people with incomes below the poverty level, children and the elderly.

The primary users of this unofficial sledding hill and the parking areas associated with it are sledders and snowmobilers. The sledders tend to be fairly evenly represented in gender, largely children and parental aged adults, are of all listed ethnic types (in those same approximate proportions), and range widely in income levels. Many people have stated that they used this hill over the Fraser Tubing Hill ($12/adult/hour, $10/child/hour) because it is free, easily accessible, and has no waiting timeframes (the Fraser Tubing Hill can have waits of up to 2 hours to get in). The snowmobilers tend to be more of the male gender (about 70%), are primarily Caucasian, include a wide range of age groups, and are primarily in higher income levels.

The action of temporarily closing the area from public use will affect all of the user groups described above. The snowmobilers used this area as a primary trailhead for access to the “waterboard road” (FDR 128), which ties into an extensive groomed trail system up the Moffatt Road (FDR 149). Signs and maps directing snowmobilers to alternative National Forest access points should help reduce the impact somewhat, but not entirely. The sledders used this area extensively. There could be as many as 100-200 people on the hillside on a busy weekend day. There is no good alternative site of similar characteristics for sledders to use. The only area being suggested and identified on maps and by the local Winter Park Chamber of Commerce is the Fraser Tubing Hill, however, it is not suitable for all sledder needs. People will go off looking for similar sledding opportunities on and off public land. The recently closed Berthoud Pass Ski Area has already seen sledding use this winter, and will most likely see that use increase as this closure goes into effect.

File Code: / 2300 / Date: / January 11, 2002
Route To: / (2300)
Subject: / Special Closure of the “Sledding Hill” at the old Midland Gravel Quarry
To: / The Files

There is an open hillside directly adjacent to, and visible from, US Highway 40, on the east side of the road. The hillside is the site of an old gravel quarry that has been filled with sediment from the Fraser River sediment trap and fill material from Berthoud Pass road improvement work. There is a road that traverses the entire base of the hill, which is plowed and used by Denver Water Dept. for access to water facilities above the hill. The road has plowed wide areas for parking that is used by sledders and snowmobilers. The hill is used as a sledding hill extensively by the public in the winter. Currently, there are several issues with the amount of concentrated public use in this undesignated and unmanaged snow play area. The issues are related to public safety, health and sanitation, parking, conflicting uses, access for Denver Water Dept., and lack of personnel to appropriately manage the area at its current level of concentrated use.

There is a Risk Management Assessment (dated 12-06-01) in the Sledding Hillside file, which evaluates the issues and hazards related to the public use of the hill, the risk to the agency from potential claims for injury, and options for management. Several occurrences of injury have occurred since 12-06-01. As identified in the Risk Management Assessment, this is an area where accidents have previously occurred; it is an area of high public use; the area poses danger to the public; and the natural conditions have been modified. Based on these risk factors and the issues identified, there is a clear and immediate need to close the area to public use until the Forest Service can evaluate the characteristics of the hillside for its future suitability as a potential developed snow play area and snowmobile access trailhead.

The proposal is to immediately close the area to public use, by means of snow berms and signage. There are no concerns with effects to botanical, biological, soil and water, or cultural resources because of this action. The social effects are stated in the Civil Rights Impact Analysis above.

The Environmental Policy and Procedures Handbook (FSH 1909.15, Chapter 30) identifies categories of actions that normally do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment and therefore may be categorically excluded from documentation in an EIS or an EA. Specifically, Section 31.1b, Number 1, identifies “Orders issued pursuant to 36 CFR Part 261…to protect public health and safety.” Therefore, I am approving closure of the hillside and road.

/s/ Paul E. Cruz

for: CRAIG MAGWIRE

District Ranger