GREATER LAKE TAHOE AREA, Calif. / Nev. – As actions related to federal public lands incite passion, protests, and demonstrations, its begs the question: could ski resorts that sit on federal public lands be in jeopardy? One conservation organization believes they could be.

“This is probably the most dangerous moment we’ve seen for a long time,” Michael Carroll, BLM Campaign Director with the Wilderness Society expressed in terms of the impacts decisions the Trump Administration and the republican controlled Congress could potentially have on federal public lands.

“So people need to be paying attention,” he said, explaining one mechanism endangering ski resorts is a federal public land selloff and privatization.

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In the Tahoe region, eight ski resorts at least partially sit on National Forests lands. Those include the following:

• Heavenly Mountain Resort
• Sierra At Tahoe
• Alpine Meadows  
• Diamond Peak
• Homewood
• Mt. Rose
• Kirkwood
• Northstar California Resort

At the national level, there are 122 ski areas on national forests, according to a statement from USDA Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell in 2017. He also said those areas account for 60% of the total capacity for downhill skiing in the United States. At the time, skiing and snowboarding was one of the most popular uses of national forests, exceeded only by hiking.

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Ski areas pay fees to the United States Treasury based on their revenue from purchased lift tickets, food, equipment rentals, and merchandise, according to a 2019 report issued by the Forest Service. The report stated, “While many Forest Service programs, including timber, grazing, and energy production generate revenue for the U.S. Treasury, ski areas regularly outperform them all.”

Carroll explained that none of the executive orders or secretarial orders so far dispose of land because they believe the presidential administration can’t actually do that. Decisions about the future of federal public lands and the management of federal public lands instead, he says, has to come from Congress.

Yet, the Wilderness Society says the orders and actions so far still have their purpose, including the Secretary of the Interior’s Feb. 3 Unleashing American Energy order. This order and others actions have rolled back conservation designations, rules and regulations and makes it easier to facilitate the disposal of federal public lands.

“We see that as softening the ground, if you will,” he said, “plowing the ground for what potentially could come, which is a legislative attack to force the sale of federal public lands.”

The Tribune reached out to the resorts listed above. Vail (Northstar, Kirkwood, Heavenly), Palisades Tahoe and Diamond Peak responded, stating the topic was too hypothetical or speculative to address.

The Tribune also reached out to the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the USDA Forest Service, asking whether the agency is preparing for a public land sell off. The agency said it did not have information to share.

Carroll explains if the publics lands that ski resorts sit on were to get sold off, a solution isn’t as easy as having the ski resort buy the land.

“Even though the ski industry and a lot of ski resorts have a lot of resources and are wealthy companies, they’re not Exxon Mobil in these places,” he said, explaining they’d likely get outbid.

The Wilderness Society encourages people to contact their lawmakers and express a desire to keep federal public lands in public hands.

“This is a perilous moment for federal public lands, and it’s a moment for people who love the outdoors, and love the access that we have living in mountain communities,” Carroll expressed. “Now is the time for people who love America’s public lands and the outdoors, and the access that those places give us, to stand up.”

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