Originally Posted by
summitchallenger
Originally Posted by
villager
I agree with Hardbooter that if areas are cordoned off like at MRG, skiers will respect that and stay away. The problem is getting the right areas cordoned off. How did they do it at MRG? Who decided what areas to protect and who put up the barriers?
MRG has a forester on staff I think...or a consultant who advised them as to what to do and where.
Sugarbush has the GMFS as overseeers of our land use at LP. Lots of communication and consultation goes on between the two on a constant yearround basis.
At Mellon there are some trails where the trees have retaken terrain....lower FIS is the best example that comes to mind..protected from acid rain from the 60/70's and less exposure to the weather. A healthy trees will support alot of snow, dead trees/branches by way of wind, disease, acid rain, lightning, exposure on any upper mountain can crack whether it's laden with man-made or natural snow. That's how "above the treeline" becomes above the treeline. Mt. Washington and Mt Lafeyette over in the Whites have alot of "above the treeline" by eastern standards with no snowmaking. It's very hard for mother nature to grow new trees in the alpinezones. It's just the natural evolution of things with some assistance from us humans. I am confident that if there are some areas that need to be rested due to overuse I would hope that they are closed off.
I was surprised this summer not to have seen any areas closed off especially around Paradise. Given the length of the ski season I would think it's more important to close areas during the 7-8 months when there's no skiing. That being said, given the explosion in off piste skiing, this is going to be an increasingly important issue in the coming years. The other thing is that this not something that one can simply throw money at to remediate. Addressing the issue is a long term challenge which neither SB nor other areas can tackle by continuing past practices. There simply is a lot more traffic there then there ever was before.
BTW- nice to chat about forest management, web cams, frozen pizza, yada yada yada but can we get some freaking weather to talk about. I know it's only 12/5, but there is 'nothing on the horizon. We need a communal web enabled snow dance.
FWIW during the summer there are several areas of LP where mountain bikers are prohibited from going.
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