Copper Mountain Essay -- Environmental Issues

Its a sunny October afternoon and Im listening to the picnic gently rustle the tree tops above me. I look down into the creek as I sit here munching on more or less cashews, and I see trout gliding effortlessly through the crystal-clear water. I revel in how incredibly lush the area isalthough its been a dry summertime the ground is still moist, plants are bright and colorful, and wildlife is abound. After I finish my snack and tuck my trash away into my backpack, I continue my hike up this parcel of land that is may soon become barren with towers of steel and wire draping the landscape. I wonder to myself what will become of these fish, or the fresh low-cal water that runs into the Reeder Reservoir, the source of Ashlands drinking water.According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), travel area expansions are the most ecological damaging project that an area can undertake. In a plan revision for the White River National Forest in Colorado, regarding the Copper Mou ntain Ski Resort expansion, the EPA hammers that smirch home when they say that no other land management prescription on the Forest directly results in more catamenia-water depletion, wetland impacts, air pollution, permanent plant change, or permanent habitat loss more wetland impacts and stream depletions resulted from ski area expansion and improvement than from all other Forest management activities combined, including many direct and indirect impacts that are permanent (irreversible and irretrievable). Meanwhile, skier numbers nationally have only change magnitude just two percent since 1978(source). Which begs the question, why have ski area sizes more than doubled in acreage to the tune of 107%(source)? Mt. Ashlands future expansion surely isnt needed due t... ...ts past ontogenesis and expansion of the Copper Mountain ski area as major factor in the degradation of the watershed and local water quality. Impacts include increased peak flows, increased water temperature , increased erosion and sediment transport, and decrease flow due to snowmaking activities. The USDA has taken exhaustive steps to help reduce the damage caused by the expansion at a great financial cost to taxpayers. The USDA has had to redesign all stream crossings to allow for higher stream flows and to withstand expected floods. They also performed physical modifications of the stream patterns and stream geometry to improve long term stream health. Environmental ScorecardConcerned locals first brought trouble to the Environmental Scorecard in November of 2008 after an article published in the local newspaper, Ashland Daily Tidings, appeared.