The Yukon Conservation Society isn't standing in opposition to a proposed winter road along the Wind River Trail, says the society's mining co-ordinator.

Lewis Rifkind said this morning the application by ATAC Resources Ltd. is nothing like the October 2007 proposal by Cash Minerals Ltd.

The proposal prompted a torrent of resistance from Yukoners.

ATAC applied for and received a permit in 2010 to use the first 40 kilometres in the winter, but never did. It's proposing to transport up to 140 tonnes of fuel, equipment and supplies by bulldozer train in each of the next two winters, and perhaps a third winter.

The company is anticipating three to seven trips per winter.

The ATAC application, Rifkind pointed out, is to use the first 40 kilometres of the Wind River Trail through an area north of Keno City which is no stranger to mining roads.

He said Cash Minerals plans to use 178 kilometres of the trail to get at uranium claims well inside what has since been designated as the Peel River watershed.

The ATAC proposal does not reach into the watershed, as the ore body it's proposing for advanced exploration is still south of the Peel boundary, he pointed out.

Rifkind said the conservation society will, however, be keeping a close eye on the review announced this morning by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB).

When the proposal by Cash Resources was recommended for approval by the YESAB and eventually permitted by the territorial government, stringent conditions were attached, he pointed out.

Rifkind said there were requirements for a minimum amount of snow cover to ensure protection of vegetation, ice bridges, as well as requirements for contingency plans to deal with fuel spills.

It's absolutely certain, he said, that the conservation society will be making submissions as the application proceeds.

Cash Minerals never did use the Wind River Trail. Approval came just months before the 2008 economic crash which pummelled the company and many other junior exploration companies around the world.

The permit issued in January 2008 by the Yukon government was only good for five years, and officially expired last winter.

The assessment board is seeking public input into the application.

The deadline for comments is the end of the day Sept. 4.

Up until October 2007, no other YESAB application had drawn as much public debate as the Cash Mineral's Wind River proposal.

The assessment board's office in Mayo received 124 submissions in what amounted to a divisive debate between the pro-mining and pro-conservation communities.

The same division lives on today in the passionate debate over the future of the Peel watershed.

The origin of the Wind River Trail as a transportation route dates back to the 1950s, though it hasn't been used as such in years.