LUTSEN, Minn. – The owners of the Lutsen Mountains ski resort, a popular destination for many Thunder Bay residents, have asked the U.S. Forest Service to defer a decision on the resort's proposed expansion.
The project has been in the planning stages for years.
But Charles Skinner, president of Midwest Family Ski Resorts, and his daughter Charlotte Skinner, chief of staff, requested a delay in a letter to the supervisor of the nearby Superior National Forest.
They said they've decided to pull back their proposal and come up with a modified plan based on negotiations involving federal officials and three Ojibwe tribes in the vicinity.
The resort originally applied for a special-use permit to expand onto 500 acres of forest service land where local tribes retain rights under an 1854 treaty.
This would have nearly doubled the ski-able terrain at Lutsen Mountains and added multiple new chairlifts to the site, which already includes 62 groomed runs and 33 back country runs.
The request for a deferral comes on the heels of the signing earlier this year of a historic memorandum of understanding by the forest service and three tribes, which provides for co-stewardship and protection of the bands' treaty-reserved rights in the area.
At the time, Grand Portage Band chair Robert Deschampe applauded the agreement.
"This is a great tool in the toolbox, moving forward to protect this land that we have very little of left, as we have approximately 20 per cent of our 6.2 million acres of the 1854 Treaty area remaining for access by Tribal members,” Deschampe said.
According to a US Forest Service press release, the agreement recognizes the tribes as original stewards of the lands now encompassing the Superior National Forest, and outlines procedures to ensure that tribal input is meaningfully incorporated into the service's decision-making.
In a statement released Monday, Charles Skinner commended the forest service and the tribes for agreeing to a memorandum of understanding that he said will usher in a new era of government-to-government relations and respect.
"The forest service's approach toward tribal retained rights has changed significantly since we began our process," Charlotte Skinner said. "We welcome the shift to honour tribal rights in our region and believe it is long overdue."
She added that while the company wishes the memorandum of understanding had been in place from the start, it has no timetable and understands that engagement with the treaty parties will require considerable time.
"Our only goal is to take the time that is needed to find a solution that will benefit the Tribes, the community, and the public,"
U.S. media reports note that the expansion of the resort has been strongly supported by the hospitality industry in Cook County, but criticized by northeastern Minnesota tribal representatives, environmental groups and others.
