Commercializing public lands

Forest Service Loosens Restrictions on Ski Area Ads

By Bob Berwyn, 3-05-06

For decades, national forests have been a sanctuary from pervasiveness of our 24-7 advertising culture. Part of the reason is that a long-standing U.S. Forest Service policy banning outdoor ads states in very clear language that “outdoor advertising is prohibited.”

But in the last few years, pressure has increased on public land managers to go with the flow. While no one really expects ads to start showing up on remote wilderness peaks (although at least one trail in England is sponsored by Timberland) a few cracks have started to appear in this ironclad prohibition.

Given the high-dollar demographic realities, it’s not surprising that ski areas operating on public lands have become a prime battleground in the fight to plaster every last square inch of the commons with commercial messages. And it seems the Forest Service has relented to a degree, proposing an interim advertising policy that enables resorts to partner with commercial sponsors willing to underwrite public service messages.

The debate ramped up a few years ago, when the Aspen Ski Co. got Forest Service permission to launch a pilot program, allowing local entrepeneur Matt Jay to install MapLinks on chairlift safety bars. The plastic panels facing skiers on the lift include a trail map of the ski area, flanked by ads for a variety of products.

Jay’s proposal was initially rejected by the agency, but he persistently lobbied top agency brass and elected officials until local rangers were ordered by their Washington, D.C. bosses to approve the scheme.

The decision raised the ire of some Forest Service winter sports rangers, including Eric Martin, a senior ski area expert with the White River National Forest, home to some of the country’s biggest and best-known resorts, including Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone and Copper Mountain.

Martin, close to retirement at the time, fired off a series of passionate emails to colleagues in the agency, explaining in detail how the decision violated the agency’s existing ad ban.

“When I think about the most beautiful places I’ve been, none of them includes outdoor ads,” Martin said, going public with his concerns about the policy shift. According to Martin and other Forest Service ski area administrators, the chairlift ads could conceivably open the floodgates to many other types of on-mountain advertising.

Over the years, Martin said the agency was routinely approached by potential advertisers and just as routinely turned them down, based on the outright ban. One car maker even suggesting imprinting freshly groomed snow with logos, Martin said, explaining that this is potentially a big-ticket issue.

After the Aspen decision, the Forest Service assembled a national review team to consider the existing policy and suggest changes. The new interim policy, released in late November, is the result of that effort. The review was spurred at least in part by direct requests from the National Ski Areas Association, a ski industry trade group, according to top Forest Service recreation officials.

Some Forest Service officials, including Rob Deyerberg, based in New Mexico as a ski area ranger, have said the policy review will help them eliminate unwanted ads and work with desirable sponsors to help pay for useful on-mountain services.

"This will help us prevent unwanted outdoor ads at ski areas and it explains and validates the good sponsorship arrangements that are out there,” Deyerberg said part way through the review process.

Other top Forest Service winter sports program leaders said that terrain parks, mid-mountain lodges and mountain-top adventure centers have become increasingly urbanized. The Forest Service aims to concentrate permitted sponsorship arrangements in those zones, according to Beth LeClair, leader of the ad policy review team, and Ed Ryberg, recently retired from his post as the leader of the agency’s Rocky Mountain winter sports program.

But not everyone is happy with the new policy. The Aspen Times reported that some critics see the chairlift ads as an incremental step in the commercialization and privatization of public lands. And during the first season the ads were on the chair, some became targets for vandalism – to the point that handwritten signs in the loading area warned vandals of the potential penalties.

According to the interim policy, ads for products and services are permissible inside buildings and other interior spaces operated by permit holders like ski areas. The policy defines chairlift safety bars as such interior spaces because the ads are only visible to passengers.

The interim policy, and any subsequent final version, will apply to ski areas all across the country operating on National Forest lands, so look for chairlifts ads at your local resort soon.

Read the Federal Register notice and comment of the policy at this EPA web page. The comment period ends March 27.

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