Not by Accident…
This timeline highlights some of the actions the Methow Valley Citizens Council has taken over the past fifty years to protect the Methow Valley’s natural environment and rural character. The valley we enjoy today is the result of decades of dedication by countless individuals and organizations working to safeguard this place—whether standing behind or alongside MVCC.
Here, we focus on major campaigns involving Early Winters, Arrowleaf, and the Methow Headwaters. It’s important to note that much of MVCC’s work is less visible in a timeline format: the steady effort of reviewing plans, commenting on proposals, and challenging policies affecting zoning, growth, shorelines, and water rights. Protecting a place over time requires the commitment of an entire community, and this timeline reflects only a portion of that shared work.
Circa 11,000 BCE. The earliest known people inhabit the Methow Valley. The Methow people steward this landscape for millennia through fishing, hunting, and gathering, guided by values of gratitude, reciprocity, and responsibility to future generations.
1880s White settlers arrive in the Methow from the Eastern U.S. Mining, and then logging, become central economic drivers in the valley. The Methow people are forcibly removed to the Moses-Columbia Reservation, and, later, to the Colville Reservation. Land and water become privatized and monetized, setting the stage for formal regulation and management by the U.S. Government.
1969 After forming the Methow Valley Winter Sports Council, part-time Mazama resident, businessman and ski instructor Doug Devin meets with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to indicate interest in developing a ski resort at Sandy Butte.
1972 North Cascades Highway opens to the public, increasing access to the Methow. Land prices in Mazama soar, along with tourism and land speculation.
1974 Aspen Ski Corporation purchases 1,200 acres at the base of Sandy Butte, believing it could be a highly profitable ski resort; feasibility studies begin.
1975 A broad coalition of community members meet in response to rumors of recreational development at Sandy Butte, now called the Early Winters Ski Resort
1976 Methow Valley Citizens Council forms as an organization, submitting comments on the Forest Service Draft Environmental Impact Statement which considers Sandy Butte for a Ski Area. The statement of purpose of MVCC is “to maintain the rural quality of life and agricultural character of the Methow Valley and to keep the valley a wholesome place for family life.”
1976 MVCC members become involved in the Methow Valley Plan. The Methow Valley Addendum to the Okanogan County Comprehensive Plan is adopted, initiating the framework for concentrated development and focusing on retaining rural character.
1978 After Aspen abandons the project, Methow Recreation Inc. (MRI) forms and applies for a Special Use Permit on Sandy Butte to pursue the ski resort development.
1979 MVCC and supporting community members successfully advocate for the development of the Methow Review District, a protective zoning code forbidding strip development and requiring a 5-acre minimum lot size in the valley (20 acres in the uplands). The Review District is later adopted, despite strong opposition from Methow Valley real estate developers.
1984 The Forest Service signs a Record of Decision to issue a permit for up to 8,200 skiers on 3,900 acres of public land on Sandy Butte. MRI plans to develop 1,200 acres of private land at the base of the hill into a ski village.
1985 MVCC enters into talks with Hosey and Associates, contracted with MRI, about acceptable development scenarios for the ski village. These talks soon break down over the size of the resort—up to 4,120 dwellings on the 1200 acres. Upon breakdown of negotiations, anti-MVCC signs appear throughout the valley protesting MVCC’s obstructionist tactics. With local unemployment high, some valley businesses and residents are in full support of the ski resort development.
1985 MVCC appeals the adequacy of the Early Winters EIS to Federal District Court. After they are ruled against, MVCC attorney David Bricklin files a complaint with the Ninth Circuit Court (1986).
1987 The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of MVCC. The EIS is ruled as inadequate in addressing alternative sites, mitigation, and impacts to air quality as well as highly sensitive mule deer herds.
1988 U.S. Forest Service (USFS) appeals the Ninth Circuit decision on Early Winters to the U.S. Supreme Court
1989 David Bricklin and his legal team argue Robertson v. MVCC at the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite not ruling in MVCC’s favor, the court leaves the majority of the Ninth Circuit decision in place on the inadequacy of the EIS, an ultimate victory for MVCC.
1992 The Early Winters project is dissolved, resulting in the land’s foreclosure and sale at public auction to R.D. Merrill, the sole bidder, for $830,000.
1992 MVCC and the Western Washington-based Friends of the Methow challenge Okanagan County’s new Zoning Ordinance in Superior Court on the grounds that it failed to identify and protect critical and sensitive areas, and was inconsistent with its Comprehensive Plan.
1993 MVCC and Friends of the Methow sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with R.D. Merrill allowing the smaller Wilson Ranch Planned Development (at the location of the existing Freestone Inn) to proceed with a number of provisions, including agreeing not to pursue a downhill resort, retaining the right to challenge any Planned Destination Development (PDR) and a right of first refusal on purchase of the property.
1995 R.D. Merrill changes plans and pursues a Planned Destination Resort (PDR), that includes a golf course and up to 689 housing units. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Arrowleaf PDR is released in November, revealing significant environmental impacts from the project. Negotiations break down with R.D. Merrill about development of the Arrowleaf PDR and MVCC files an Administrative Appeal on the adequacy of the Final EIS (1996).
1999 In R.D. Merrill Co. v. Pollution Control Hearings, theWashington Supreme Court upholds a ruling in favor of Okanogan Wilderness League and co-plaintiff Aaron Burkhart, allowing only three of Merrill’s five proposed water rights changes for the Arrowleaf project. The Department of Ecology then determines the project lacks sufficient water rights to proceed, and Merrill abandons the development plans.
2000 Merrill agrees to relinquish questionable water rights associated with the Arrowleaf property paving the way for a conservation buyout arranged by the Trust for Public Land.
2014 A Canadian mining company proposes exploratory drilling on Flagg Mountain above Mazama as a first step toward a potential open-pit copper mine.
2016 MVCC helps launch the Methow Headwaters Campaign, backed by hundreds of local businesses and organizations supporting a permanent mining withdrawal. Senators Maria Cantwell (D) and Patty Murray (D) introduce the Methow Headwaters Protection Act to protect 340,000 acres of National Forest from large-scale mining.
2018 Representative Dan Newhouse (R) urges federal agencies to pursue a 20-year mineral withdrawal in the Methow headwaters. Despite a low environmental voting score at the time, his support highlights the broad bipartisan backing built by the Headwaters Campaign.
2019 As part of a public lands package led by Senator Maria Cantwell, 340,079 acres in the Methow Headwaters are permanently protected from new mineral exploration and mining.
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After the Headwaters Campaign…
In this current decade, MVCC continues to inspire accountability around Okanogan County through watchdogging, community engagement and programming that brings awareness to the challenges facing our region today. In 2019, MVCC fully absorbed Clean Air Methow, whom it had fiscally sponsored for six years, to address emerging public health concerns around both summer and winter smoke. Then, after two years of collaborative community planning, the Climate Action Plan was launched in 2021, spearheaded by the fiscally sponsored Resilient Methow (now part of MVCC). Most recently, MVCC has taken on the Dark Sky Coalition, advocating for local lighting ordinances that minimize light pollution to protect human health, help local wildlife, and keep the stars visible for future generations.
Since 2022, MVCC has appealed Okanogan County’s Comprehensive Plan (adopted under the Planning Enabling Act in December, 2021) citing serious deficiencies that affect water availability, wildlife habitat, critical areas, agriculture and wildfire safety; just this June, the court handed down its decision in favor of the County. This is not the end.