Congress is stepping into a dispute between environmentalists and the ski industry over whether ski areas should be able to expand their summertime recreation, a move critics say could allow them to build amusement parks. Environmentalists complain that a bill introduced Monday by Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, could lead ski areas to build water parks and roller coasters, which they say would clash with the typical uses allowed on U.S. Forest Service land. Udall's bill would allow ski areas to offer year-round recreation on land they lease from the Forest Service. Mountain biking, alpine slides and zip-lines that whiz people above forests and valleys are among the more common summertime activities pursued by ski resorts. Some 125 ski areas nationwide operate in part on federal land under a 1986 law that expressly permits skiing and ski-related recreation. "We would like recreation on national forest lands to be dependent on a natural setting and dependent upon an outdoor recreation experience," said Ryan Demmy Bidwell, executive director of Colorado Wild, an environmental group in Durango, Colo. "Urban-type recreation that could be provided in any context is not appropriate on public lands."...APIt has nothing to do with "urban-type recreation."
It has everything to do with:
1. They can't stand for anyone to make a profit off of federal land,
2. They view human visitation as a threat to federal land, and will oppose anything which brings more people, and
3. They want federal lands limited to dispersed recreation only, creating a free playground for them and their buddies. All others keep out.
3 comments:
Hope your kneee is not too strained from your reaction to this.
I work for a conservation group. We worked closely with a ski area on their winter recreation plans and came to a good agreement. Part of the reason was that they recognized that in summer, there could be serious wildlife issues, including ones with grizzly bears that we don't have to deal with in the winter.
Bottom line, there are legit issues about summer recreation and wildlife.
I survived the jerk!
There are legit wildlife issues, for all of the seasons. Habitat encroachment, mating season, migraion patterns, etc. should be considered. And there are those who will amicably work to resolve those issues.
For most though, their preference would be to remove the ski facility.
What is a conservation group? Is it a group of gilded lilies who have never conserved anything of their own? Is it a group of environmental morons who have never managed one acre of land but know how to manage millions of acres? I know these conservation groups and all they know is how to ruin it for everyone else.
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