May 6, 2022

James Duran, Forest Supervisor
℅ Paul Schilke, Winter Sports Coordinator
P.O. Box 110
Questa, NM 87556

Mr. Duran,

My name is Corinna Leeson and I have been a resident of Arroyo Seco for over 30 years. I am very concerned about the proposed changes for Taos Ski Valley.  As I understand it TSVI is operating under a special use permit (SUP) granted from the forest service- please see below: 
"the 1986 CNF Land and Resource Management Plan (1986 Forest Plan) allocated the Taos SUP area as  Management Area 16 – Recreation Sites. The description of Management Area 16 in the 1986 Forest Plan  states, “These are areas of concentrated recreation use. People have been and will continue to be  attracted to these areas because: There is a scarcity of water in the Southwest and thus people are  attracted to water environments. The areas provide climatic relief and a high degree of scenic quality. ”
This from the CNF scoping letter
All of the proposed projects are in direct conflict of this special use permit. These project are only for TSVI’s economic benefit and for the skiing elite and second home owners. Most of the projects are winter specific and ruin the scenic quality not to mention the environmental degradation that will happen with these massive “improvements” and the run off into our water ways- not to mention the sewage. 
TSVI has proven that they are unable to run any sort of restaurant at the base area so why would they need one mid mountain? Driving down from TSVI after a busy weekend you are treated to the stench of “Ocean Blvd” from the waste water treatment facility. Adding more restaurants is not the solution.
Another problem is the traffic. The road is in bad shape due to all the construction and the runoff goes right into the Rio Hondo along with the trash. Living on the Rim Road also known as County road B-080 has become dangerous with semi trucks far too big to be commuting on this county road and the constant hum of winter traffic greets you sunrise and sunset.
The TSVI traffic speeding through the small village of Arroyo Seco and the parking situation at the community center is another concern (not as obvious as the parking problem in TSV). There should be a traffic pattern study done during the winter and one done in the summer.
These projects seem out of the scope of a special use permit and in my opinion degrade any outdoor or wilderness experience one might be seeking. This is our National forest not TSVI ’s private playground to pretend that they are improving upon. Their B-corp status is a smoke and mirror scheme if you look closely. (The most recent action I witnessed was the fertilizer/salt that was spread across the race course for their World Cup event). My family irrigates with this water through our acequia. TSVI’s disrespect for our streams and wildlife habitat needs to be stopped and a thorough evaluation needs to be preformed. 

Overall, I am asking you to cancel some of these projects and take additional time to study the potential effects of the others in detail. In addition to the actions requested above I’m asking the Forest Service to conduct an Environmental Assessment and to also develop an Environmental Impact Statement for these projects. Thank you in advance for acting on my concerns.
   Respectfully  Corinna Leeson