Advocating for A Sustainable, Ecologically Friendly Ski Industry
Skiing in Colorado, while an appropriate (and fun!) use of our National Forests, can threaten the forests, rivers, and our mountains’ magnificent beauty − often the very attributes that drew us here in the first place. With skier numbers stagnant nationally for over two decades, some ski companies continue to greatly expand terrain simply to retain “market share” over other ski areas also in our National Forests – destroying wetlands, old-growth, and pristine mountain valleys in the process. Driven by the lure of real estate development profits, many resorts also over-develop exclusive ski-in/ski-out homes, further destroying Colorado’s natural beauty and harming crucial lynx, bear, elk, and deer migration corridors.
As the founder and nationwide leader of the nationwide Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition, Colorado Wild is the only group working state-wide to curb environmentally harmful or real estate driven ski area expansions. With our partner organizations throughout the western U.S., we grade ski resorts each year on their environmental friendliness with the Ski Area Environmental Scorecard – a widely acclaimed, user friendly tool thousands of skiers use to make a real difference.
The controversial proposal to expand Breckenridge Ski Area onto Peak 6 in the Ten Mile Range continues to make slow progress. The Forest Service plans to release a draft EIS for the proposed expansion sometime in August or September.
Though he previously tried to accomplish it legislatively, Red McCombs has taken the advice of Congressman Salazar and many of you, and has applied for a land exchange from the Rio Grande National Forest via the Forest Service administrative review process. The proposed land exchange would grant McCombs additional developable land and access to the state highway in return for protecting wetlands and moving the development further from the base of Wolf Creek Ski Area. What happens next remains uncertain, but one thing is for sure: McCombs’ hopes of avoiding public scrutiny (again) of his proposal through a legislative land exchange have been dashed.
On Wednesday, February 17th Congressman John Salazar convened a meeting in Alamosa with the principal groups involved in the Village at Wolf Creek. Colorado Wild was in attendance and we wanted to bring you an update from that meeting.
