Brief by Allen Best
Environment – February 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Monarch this year got a “B” in an environmental report card designed to gauge environmental impacts. The report card assembled by the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition graded 76 ski areas across the West, coming up with a composite score of a C+.
Tops were the Aspen Skiing Co.’s Aspen and Buttermilk, which scored 93.9. At 22 Vail was at the bottom of the class, owing primarily to its massive Blue Sky Basin expansion of 1999-2000, but also to potential snowmaking expansion. An industry that has been mostly flat for the last 20 years has no need to expand or develop, insists the coalition of six environmental groups from Colorado to Washington. Those with expansion or development on their minds, past or present, scored lowest.
Monarch has plans to expand 36 acres, but all within its currently developed ski area and hence got perfect marks from the coalition. It also scored perfectly for having no plans for real estate development and for expanding parking within the existing developed area. It was docked a few points for a 33-acre expansion of snowmaking planned in the resort’s master development plan. It also failed to win any points for efforts to promote car-pooling, purchasing recycled products, and a multitude of other elective actions.
