The construction of the ski area put renewed development pressure on the mountain, especially as its owners dynamited areas to create steeper trails. A proposal to amend the state constitution and trade land closer to the summit ridge to the ski area for holdings elsewhere was vigorously opposed by environmentalists and failed to pass the legislature in the early 1990s. Governor George Pataki's 1999 designation of most Catskill High Peaks as a state Bird Conservation Area, to protect Bicknell's thrush and other threatened montane bird species, finally put the idea to rest.