Sugarloaf’s Roddy Ehrlenbach clears trees in the Cant Dog Glade area. Ehrlenbach will lead the cutting and thinning crews in the Bracket Basin terrain. (Sugarloaf photo) CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Cut a tree; make a dollar. Cut another; make another. And at the same time, create the perfect path for skiers and riders to carve through deep powder among the trees in Sugarloaf’s newest glades.

Sugarloaf recently announced that it’s doubling its size in the coming years by expanding across the Brackett Basin of Burnt Mountain, ultimately offering the largest terrain east of the Rockies.

Under a 10-year plan called Sugarloaf 2020 which includes significant capitol improvements such a lifts, base improvement and added snowmaking, Sugarloaf will double its size in an environmentally and economical way to offer the latest rage —glade skiing.

“It is a huge expansion that will be done in a way that is both environmentally friendly and esthetically pleasing for those who come here,” said Stephen Kircher, the President of Boyne East which operates Sugarloaf. Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Aug. 31, he added that the huge glade expansion is much more exciting than any other terrain that’s been unveiled in the last 20 years in the east.

“This is an exciting niche that is expanding and certainly where the growth of the industry has gone,” Kircher explained referring to glade skiing.

The 655-acre expansion will be completed in three phases.

Phase I will be ready this winter. The new skiable terrain can be accessed from the top of King Pine Chair or from the snowfields.

A couple of years later Phase II will be completed which will get skiers and riders on the peak of Burnt. Visitors can either hike there from the King Pine area or utilize a snow cat service for access.

Phase Three will allow access to the north face of Burnt.

The upper, more environmentally sensitive areas will be thinned by hand.

“Were doubling it but in a green way. There are no excavators up there, there’s no stumping. Just brush cutting and tree cutting,” said Sugarloaf president John Diller.

The lower portion of the expansion will undergo sustainable forest management practices similar to what the Town of Carrabassett has done over the past five years. Phase I, which started last week, will include the start of the sustainable timber harvesting in the lower phases.

The town of Carrabassett has had a forest management plan in place for nearly 1,400 acres of town-owned land. Since 2007, the town has received over $300,000 in stumpage. According to town manager Dave Cote, the majority of that revenue goes back into the trail system.

“It’s been a great situation for us. We’re improving the forest with a good sustainable management plan while producing revenue that we’re able to use for significant trail improvement,” Cota said.

“I think that everybody believes this is all great news,” Cota said of the Sugarloaf expansion. “It will help the resort grow in a tough economy and at the same time the community will see growth,” Cota explained. “Everything being proposed is being done in an environmental and economically sustainable model.”

Diller explained that the snowfields will also see significant work this fall and early winter, “We’re going to get the snowfields back to where they were 30-40 years ago. We’ve had a lot of growth up there and even though it doesn’t get tall, it gets thick,” said Diller.

The addition of the Upper Gondi snowmaking lines last year, with the help of friendly winds, will get skiers on this terrain earlier in the year.

“We’ve been talking about Burnt Mountain for 59-1/2 years,” Diller said. When Mother Nature delivers her first significant natural snowfall, portions of Burnt Mountain and the Brackett Basin will be ready this season.

Kircher explained, “As I’ve said, the possibilities of being the largest ski area east of the Rockies is a huge moment in time for this ski area and for Maine. It’s the bragging rights of everything you’d want in a ski area and certainly a tourism destination.”

And this is being done without significant investment, without major esthetic changes to the “Sugarloaf DNA” as Kircher put it, and in an environmentally sustainable manner.