People immediately think of warmer temperatures and poor snowfall as the risks of climate change to the ski industry. But I wonder if wildfire risk is the bigger medium-term concern.
This is one area where resorts can potentially mitigate the problem, not only for themselves but for our broader forest areas. Glading / clearing brush / aggressively pruning trees with diseases like beetle kill … can help reduce wildfire intensity and spread. And revenue from skier visits can help pay for that. It’s kind of a green argument for expanding the footprint of intensive use areas.
Your points on how ski resorts can help themselves in this regard is what makes forest fires a lower risk than climate change. Plus, while a fire may cause a resort to close for a season to rebuild, it can successfully reopen and move forward as Sierra-at-Tahoe showed. Remember, Vail’s iconic Back Bowls were created by wildfires.
“Close for a season to rebuild” is not as matter-of-fact as you make it sound. still a massive risk. You can imagine resorts not well-capitalized enough to withstand that. And if the perceived risk of wildfires rise, a lot of resorts could see escalating insurance rates or an outright refusal by either insurers or re-insurers to cover them.
It is absolutely a massive risk, but it presents itself as a capitalization risk (as you mentioned) rather than an operating risk (which climate change is). Shutting down for a season or two is preferable to it not ever snowing again.
The insurance risk is real and probably the bigger issue. However, my two cents is that much of the western portion of this country faces a similar risk of being uninsurable and that overwhelming societal issue’s solution will inevitably aid ski resorts.
It’s impossible to manage all the forests in the country. Too much land, not enough money. Climate change makes some incident (lightning, arson, accidents, whatever) more likely to result in a serious fire.
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People immediately think of warmer temperatures and poor snowfall as the risks of climate change to the ski industry. But I wonder if wildfire risk is the bigger medium-term concern.
This is one area where resorts can potentially mitigate the problem, not only for themselves but for our broader forest areas. Glading / clearing brush / aggressively pruning trees with diseases like beetle kill … can help reduce wildfire intensity and spread. And revenue from skier visits can help pay for that. It’s kind of a green argument for expanding the footprint of intensive use areas.
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Your points on how ski resorts can help themselves in this regard is what makes forest fires a lower risk than climate change. Plus, while a fire may cause a resort to close for a season to rebuild, it can successfully reopen and move forward as Sierra-at-Tahoe showed. Remember, Vail’s iconic Back Bowls were created by wildfires.
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“Close for a season to rebuild” is not as matter-of-fact as you make it sound. still a massive risk. You can imagine resorts not well-capitalized enough to withstand that. And if the perceived risk of wildfires rise, a lot of resorts could see escalating insurance rates or an outright refusal by either insurers or re-insurers to cover them.
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It is absolutely a massive risk, but it presents itself as a capitalization risk (as you mentioned) rather than an operating risk (which climate change is). Shutting down for a season or two is preferable to it not ever snowing again.
The insurance risk is real and probably the bigger issue. However, my two cents is that much of the western portion of this country faces a similar risk of being uninsurable and that overwhelming societal issue’s solution will inevitably aid ski resorts.
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Too bad that unlike the US, the Canadian government refuses to properly fund our Forestry Department, and has had an abysmal response to the wildfires around our country, which is why the Banff ski areas are at risk in the first place. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/canadas-burning-because-of-bad-forest-policy-not-climate-change
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It’s impossible to manage all the forests in the country. Too much land, not enough money. Climate change makes some incident (lightning, arson, accidents, whatever) more likely to result in a serious fire.
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