The Cascades of the Pacific Northwest are a vision of wild beauty and an oasis for the winter sports enthusiast. This Pacific Ring of Fire is home to active volcanoes, high precipitation, towering firs and expansive wilderness. Yet these mountains are also home to ski resorts, parking lots and clear cuts that degrade the natural environment and scar the landscape.
The conflicting interests of use, protection and management of public land are a constant struggle. Conservation groups and environmental activists worry about the negative impacts ski areas have on the environment, whereas skiers and snowboarders would like more runs and a wider variety of terrain to explore.
In a world where both types of people exist, compromise must be made. This is why the National Ski Area Association (NSAA) and the Natural Resource Defense Council worked cooperatively to create the Sustainable Slopes Program. The charter, created in 2000, provides ski areas with a framework for sustainability in their operations. The program is voluntary, and ski areas must pay to join.
According to NSAA’s 2006 report, 180 ski resorts endorse the charter, including eight resorts in Washington; among them are Stevens Pass, Crystal Mountain and the Summit at Snoqualmie. While many resorts have signed the charter, Whatcom County’s own Mount Baker Ski Area is risking falling behind by not joining.
The Mount Baker Ski Area formed in 1953 and encountered operational difficulties due to its remote location and the limited availability of electricity, sewage treatment and water. The area is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ski Area Association, a nonprofit trade organization, and has not adopted the Sustainable Slopes charter or any other environmental programs.
"Because our area is off the grid it is in our best interest to be conservative with energy," said Gwyn Howat, business manager at the Mount Baker ski area.
The ski area’s eight lifts, snowmobiles and snowcats are all fueled by diesel.
Other efforts to conserve energy and reduce waste at Baker include efficient lighting and a wastewater treatment system that uses sand filtration. A heat recovery system that traps residual energy from the combustion of diesel in the generators is used to heat the White Salmon day lodge, Howat said.
"To minimize our environmental impacts we utilized natural terrain for runs that follow the natural contour of the mountain," Howat said. "We also purchased china plates and real silverware for the lodges to reduce waste. It was a hefty investment, but it was the right thing to do."
Toilets and faucets with low-flow plumbing reduce water consumption at the ski area, and the resort does not produce artificial snow, which can have a negative environmental impact.
A recent step towards energy conservation at Baker was an upgrade of its generators to make them more efficient and compatible with biodiesel, Howat said.
"I am excited about the new technologies of biodiesel and am waiting for a few more improvements to be made," she said. "Biodiesel is easily affected by cold temperatures and it can gel and clog the lines, so we are waiting until summer to test it out."
Further south of Bellingham, off Highway 2, lies Stevens Pass Ski Resort, another member of the Pacific Northwest Ski Area Association. Unlike Baker, Stevens Pass has been a member of Sustainable Slopes since 2000.
"The value of the charter is that it sets a standard for where ski areas should be environmentally," said Chester Marler, director of planning and entitlement for Stevens Pass Ski Resort. "It helps the ski areas lessen their environmental footprint."
In 2004 Stevens Pass joined efforts with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to offer customers the opportunity to buy Green Tags to offset the greenhouse gases a car produces on a day trip to the mountain. Each tag costs $2 and the money is pooled towards purchasing renewable wind energy. So far, Stevens Pass subsidized enough wind energy to run one chairlift, Marler said.
Stevens Pass started offering an expanded, free employee shuttle in 2000, Marler said. The employee shuttles travel as far west as Monroe and 6 miles east of Leavenworth.
The initial cost of changing the operations of Stevens Pass to be more sustainable is the reason behind the slow progress, Marler said. Marler said Stevens Pass recycles cardboard and food waste but does not recycle glass, paper or plastic; however, it is looking to establish a recycling program, Marler said.
"Stevens Pass has made some strides environmentally," Marler said. "We’re also getting better with our recycling problem, but we could certainly do better and we are working on improvements."
Scott Silver co-founded the Wild Wilderness organization based in Bend, Ore. in 1991. He said even with Mount Baker’s potential upgrade to biodiesel and the improvements at Stevens Pass, these resorts need to clean up their acts.
"The fundamental issue at hand is sprawl and the loss of wilderness," Silver said.
The organization opposes efforts to commercialize, privatize and motorize U.S. public lands, he said. Ski areas tend to bring urbanization into the wilderness, disrupting wildlife and vegetation, and intrude into areas once used for other winter recreation.
"I am not opposed to ski areas. I used to work at Bachelor," Silver said. "I am concerned with the fact that ski resorts are expanding into areas that were
traditionally backcountry."
Logging and vegetation removal are the first steps in building a ski resort, which leads to erosion and permanent clear-cuts on the mountain where chairlifts are constructed and ski runs are cleared, Silver said. This is where the majority of environmental damage occurs.
"If a ski area is located on public land, it is imperative to justify why more land should be developed," Silver said. "Many areas expand to increase profitability and to lure in more customers. Public land should not be optimized for the profit of a ski resort."
Silver said the fundamental issues of sprawl are not dealt with when a ski area looks to make environmental improvements. He said the use of renewable energy sources at ski areas is a false attempt to become more sustainable.
"The National Ski Area Association is using renewable energy as a greenwash to cover the surface of their problems," Silver said. "Just because you recycle soda cans doesn’t mean you are eco-sustainable, it’s all crap."
The Wild Wilderness organization does, however, support the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition and their Ski Area Environmental Scorecard. The scorecard evaluated the environmental performance of ski resorts in the United States. Ski areas were graded in nine different categories, including their impacts on roadless areas, old-growth forests, energy and wildlife.
Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council, helped to create the scorecard and said it goes beyond the Sustainable Slopes program because it takes expansion and habitat loss into consideration.
"Anytime you have an industry regulating itself, such as the National Ski Area Association, outside help is necessary," Petersen said. "They tend to hear what they want to hear."
An independent third party is necessary in order for the ski industry to clean up its act, Petersen said. Citizens, environmental groups and conservation organizations should be involved with the drafting of sustainability plans.
"The more people involved in making a decision always comes up with a better solution," Petersen said.
The scorecard is an accurate evaluation of a ski area’s environmental impacts, and the public can view the grade of their local ski areas online, Petersen said. The Mount Baker Ski Area scored fairly well, earning a B grade. No resort in Washington earned an A.
Whether a ski area receives an outstanding or failing grade is not always of the greatest importance environmentally, said Sean Wetterberg, winter sports specialist for the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie
National Forest.
"One must consider the degree of the impact," Wetterberg said. "Even a shack will kill all life under it, but will it actually affect the survival of the region as a whole?"
With the help of third-party individuals, the gap between skier and conservationist can be bridged. Recreation does not have to lead to degradation. Currently, it appears the best remedy for the environmental problem of ski areas is a slow transition to sustainability.