This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
While the "supercommittee" failed to get any meaningful solution to our country's fiscal woes, our Utahns in Congress have been busy on a scheme to avoid Forest Service review and protocol established by the National Environmental Policy Act on a new ski tram to connect The Canyons Resort and Big Cottonwood Canyon.
Under the bill, which calls for the sale of public forest lands, the Canadian buyer Talisker Corp., a Toronto-based real estate development company that owns The Canyons, would be free to skirt the federally protected watershed rules, local input and NEPA checks and balances.
Local residents in the valley would also be stripped of oversight on activities that impact their drinking water.
The story gets better. Talisker is trying to angle in on future Utah Transit Authority sales tax subsidies by saying this ski lift is public transportation.
The proposed lift requires taking four lower-mountain lifts and about 40 minutes to navigate. So for a $96 ski pass and an hour of time on lifts, the "general public" can go from The Canyons to Solitude. In terms we all understand, every time the average Utahn buys a loaf of bread or milk, we would be subsidizing a Canadian real estate development company and its lift through what had been our U.S. Forest Service land.
Let's test the theory.
From downtown Salt Lake, to get to Solitude you can drive 26.8 miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon or you can drive 27.5 miles to The Canyons, pay $96 for a lift ticket and spend an hour on lifts. The reality is that the Wasatch Front population south of downtown might actually opt to increase traffic to Big Cottonwood, as it would be far easier to get to The Canyons via Big Cottonwood vs. Parleys if there were a lift. In all likelihood, traffic to Big Cottonwood would see a net traffic increase with such a lift.
Ted Wilson is a hired gun leading the charge for Talisker and claims that 1 million miles of annual traffic in Big Cottonwood Canyon will be avoided. Yet Talisker does not make any such study available on its website. Let's have transparency and put the assumptions of that study to scrutiny. There is a solid chance that more people along the Wasatch Front might actually opt to go up Big Cottonwood Canyon rather than drive to The Canyons.
If we really want to improve traffic flow between Park City and Big Cottonwood, the cheapest way to do that is to plow several miles from the top of the Guardsman Pass road in Park City to the Big Cottonwood Canyon. Plowing that road would result in a truly public, available transportation option with less long-term impact to the watershed.
Plowing Guardsman is a far cheaper option than the proposed public subsidy of a Canadian company. Make no mistake, development is the goal for Talisker. The tram is step one in a real estate development plan aimed at several large, private parcels that lie in the path of the proposed lift. Ski-in, ski-out second homes and more traffic to Big Cottonwood canyon await.
It would set a precedent that would embolden other resort expansion in the fragile watershed of the central Wasatch.
It feels more banana republic than United States of America: a Canadian company picking our pockets of forest land and using our Utah tax dollars and representatives to make it happen.
Robert Macfarlane is a Utah native, winter recreationist and executive for a Utah-based software company.