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News
| 12/18/2007 10:09:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Vermont To Restrict Skier Access To Big Jay Mountain
Robin Smith
Staff Writer
JAY -- An illegal clear cut of more than 1,000 trees on public land on Big Jay Mountain this summer has prompted the state to close skier access to the area.
The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, in cooperation with the Green Mountain Club, Jay Peak Resort and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, announced the decision last week.
A meeting explaining the decision was Saturday at Jay Peak Resort's stateside base lodge.
Skiers and snow boarders will be able to ski in or snowshoe into the woods from Route 242 and then ski and ride down, state officials said in a statement issued Dec. 11. They will not be able to ski over to the Big Jay side from the groomed trails at Jay Peak Resort. No one will be allowed on the clear-cut area.
Big Jay is the highest peak in the Green Mountains without a maintained ski trail system, and is part of the Jay State Forest, state officials said. It is the area where a skier was lost Dec. 8 and found the next day.
The state bought the property in 1993 to protect the Long Trail and natural habitat, with the help of The Green Mountain Club and the housing board.
It's a popular back country ski and hiking area, but it is not within the Jay Peak Resort ski area and is not serviced by the ski area, state officials said.
"While we have been concerned about some light cutting in the past by back country skiers and riders at Big Jay, this new cut goes way beyond that and poses significant environmental and safety concerns," said Jonathan Wood, commissioner of the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
"We feel it is necessary to keep people off the illegally cut trail, for their own safety as well as to allow for restoration to occur," Wood said.
Two area men have been charged with cutting the 2,000-foot swath that is nearly 60 feet wide in places down Big Jay.
Paul Poulin, 41, of Newport City and Alan Ritter, 46, of Jay pleaded innocent in September to felony unlawful mischief, according to records in Orleans District Court.
Judge Robert Bent released them on condition they not go to Big Jay Mountain.
If convicted, they each could face a maximum of up to five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine each.
The men cut hundreds of trees down, according to an affidavit by Warden Sgt. Bradley Mann. The swath cut on Big Jay runs down a cliff face, across a brook, and ranges from 16 to 65 feet across, according to reports from state foresters, Mann said.
Poulin told Mann that he had skied off trail at Jay Peak Resort in the past, Mann said.
Officials had said that the men were apparently trying to build a private ski trail on the mountain.
A tram operator at Jay Peak Resort in July saw the clear cut in the state forest and called the state, Mann said.
State and Green Mountain Club officials saw fresh cuttings on July 15 and found equipment. They later found the two men at the equipment and followed them, according to affidavits.
The two eventually admitted what they did, officials said.
State forester Jim Horton estimated the value of the cut trees at $47,883, including $11,500 for trees four to 16 inches in diameter, Mann said.
Neither Poulin nor Ritter has a record.
Poulin is a self-employed contractor, and Ritter is a self-employed financial advisor, records show.
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