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Making the grade: Certain abandoned ski runs recover better than others

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Two photos: on left is a graveled barren hillside and the one on the right shows trees and ferns and other Sierra vegetation
Left: This is what a graded ski run, abandoned 13 years ago at the Iron Mountain ski area, looks like. (Andrew Burt/photo) Right: This cleared ski run at Iron Mountain was abandoned 10 years ago. (Jessica Hite/photo)

What happens to the land when a ski run is abandoned? Not much, if the run was previously graded, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

The study, published online Dec. 16 in the Journal of Applied Ecology, evaluated six abandoned ski areas in the Northern Sierra region of California and Nevada. It found that runs that were graded showed no predictable recovery even 40 years after abandonment. With graded runs, heavy machinery is used to remove vegetation, boulders and, consequently, much of the topsoil and seed bank during construction.

In contrast, 鈥渃leared鈥 runs, in which trees and shrubs were cut with their roots left in the ground, consistently recovered to blend in with the surrounding forest. Trees and other vegetation grew back over time, and bare ground and visible soil erosion decreased, protecting water quality.

With climate change, more abandonment likely 

鈥淎s more ski areas become abandoned, there should be some effort taken to actively restore graded ski slopes,鈥 said lead author Jennifer Burt, a 嘿嘿视频 doctoral student at the time of the study and currently a restoration ecologist at AECOM Environment in Sacramento. 鈥淭hese are large land areas in some cases and, as we鈥檙e seeing, they don鈥檛 recover on their own.鈥

The sites ranged from 10 to 43 years since abandonment and, like many ski areas in the western U.S., most had operated under special use permit on USDA Forest Service lands. The study included the Lake Tahoe area sites of Powder Bowl, Plavada, Tannenbaum, Edelweiss, Iron Mountain and Echo Summit.

鈥淲e鈥檙e in this time of visible climate change,鈥 said co-author Jeffrey Clary, reserve manager of Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve in the 嘿嘿视频 Natural Reserve System. 鈥淟and uses we once thought were permanent, we鈥檙e now seeing are likely not. As a land manager, to me, it only makes sense to look at a longer-term picture.鈥

Not 鈥榤oonscapes,鈥 but stunted recovery

Abandoned graded runs aren鈥檛 all 鈥渕oonscapes,鈥 Burt said. Aside from some barren patches, the graded lands she studied typically did regrow some trees and other plant life over time. But with a shallower soil depth, the vegetation there was stunted, less robust and less diverse. The growth there was unpredictable, and the land showed visible signs of erosion compared with formerly cleared runs.

Clearing is the first step in creating any ski run, Burt said. Grading is a second step taken to further smooth the slope, and it is widely practiced in the ski industry.

Grading requires more upfront costs than simply clearing the run. The process also scrapes and compacts the soil, reducing the ability of water to permeate the soil, so ongoing erosion repair is an additional need.  

So why do ski areas grade runs at all? It can allow them to open ski runs up to two weeks earlier in the season. Cleared runs need roughly an additional one to two feet of snow before opening to skiers.

A failing grade

Burt published a related study in 2009 that looked at the negative effects of grading on active, not abandoned, ski slopes.

Both studies have clear implications for land management, including pointing out more desirable methods for constructing ski slopes, and the need for active restoration of abandoned graded ski slopes.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to create a new ski slope, ideally, you shouldn鈥檛 grade it,鈥 Burt advised. 鈥淚f grading is necessary, use a light touch and grade as little of the slope as possible so you don鈥檛 destroy the soil function for the long haul.鈥

The study was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the 嘿嘿视频 Department of Plant Sciences, NSF Biological Invasions IGERT program at 嘿嘿视频, and a 嘿嘿视频 Jastro-Shield research fellowship.

Media Resources

Kat Kerlin, Research news (emphasis on environmental sciences), 530-750-9195, kekerlin@ucdavis.edu

Jennifer Burt, AECOM Environment, jenniferwburt@gmail.com

Jeffrey Clary, 嘿嘿视频 Natural Reserve System, 530-752-9178, jjclary@ucdavis.edu

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