Credit: Nick Lacey
Credit: Cooper Morton
Policy progress has followed as awareness and advocacy about the shrinking lake has grown over the last four years. Among several key bills, one clarified “beneficial use,” allowing agri- cultural water-right holders to let water flow to the lake without risking forfei- ture of unused shares (ag is the largest upstream water consumer in the Great Salt Lake watershed). The state also cre- ated major matching funds for wetland protection (“one of the best ways to con- serve water,” says Arens), and increased support for scientific monitoring and remediation. These early steps reflect the kind of structural changes Snow- bird hoped its educational work would support. Keeping the momentum. Even with those wins, the work is vulnerable to shifting public opinion. Two big Utah winters temporarily raised lake levels, and Fields worries about complacency. “[Now,] people have the false impression that it’s not such a crisis,” he says. “[But] we’re already lower right now than we were a year ago.” With the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics approaching, urgency is sharp- ening again, though. “Quite honestly,” says Fields, “the 2034 Olympics coming to Utah is the best thing that could hap- pen to the lake.” The same lake-related concerns that threaten the Olympics threaten Utah’s long-term livability. Utah’s population is growing rapidly, and if dust and air-qual- ity issues worsen, Arens says, “We’re going to have a harder time keeping peo- ple here who want to live in Utah, who want to work at Snowbird.”
“Failure,” says Fields, “is not an
subsequent infestations, coupled with prolonged dry conditions, weakened large parts of the forest, creating a fuels cache that threatened the view, the recreation environment, and public safety. In response, Sun Valley yarded hazard trees, applied lop and scatter treatments, and mastication treatments—moving the fuels, but not removing them. The resort knew a larger effort was needed to restore Bald Mountain, home to 2,533 skiable acres of terrain, a reality the wider community recognized as well— and local stakeholders wanted to do something about it. That’s when, in 2019, the Bald Moun- tain Stewardship Project (BMSP) was initiated through the 5B Restoration Coa- lition, a collaborative convened by the National Forest Foundation (NFF) that includes Sun Valley Resort, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Blaine County, City of Ketchum, conser- vation groups, and local businesses. Those voices helped shape the pri- orities. “Partners solidified the goals of the work into three important pillars: improving forest health, mitigating wildfire risk, and creating and maintain- ing recreational opportunities,” says Sun Valley public affairs and sustainability director Betsy Siszell. The resulting landscape-scale, cross-boundary forest management plan encompasses roughly 3,331 acres within the resort’s special use permit area—and several thousand acres outside it. Support and recognition. Thus far, as part of the ongoing work, roughly 427 acres have been thinned, and more than 47,100 trees have been planted. Nearly
option.”
Employee awareness. The stakes res- onate at the resort, which employs rough- ly 1,800 people in the winter. According to Fields, sustainability updates at the resort’s annual welcome-back meeting consistently draw the most attention. “Everybody puts their phones down,” he says. “Our employees want to know what we’re doing about an issue they’re very passionate about, and Great Salt Lake falls into that bucket. … If we’re talking about it at the dinner table, so are they.” Across its educational partnerships, charitable investments, and coalition work, Snowbird has come to see advo- cating for Great Salt Lake as part of its responsibility in the region. “It’s much bigger than just snow for us,” says Fields. SUN VALLEY: STEWARDSHIP ROOTED IN COMMUNITY If Snowbird’s work shows how climate impacts can ripple across a watershed, Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain Steward- ship Project reflects a different facet of that widening scope. The pressures on Bald Mountain—tree mortality, para- site activity, and elevated wildfire risk— shape community safety and recreation in profound ways, which is perhaps one reason why the effort to remediate it extends beyond the ski area boundary, literally and figuratively. Awareness and action in Sun Valley. Wildfires had burned the forests sur- rounding Bald Mountain in 2007 and 2013, leaving the resort an island of healthy trees ripe for infestations of dwarf mistletoe and the Douglas-fir beetle. The
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