The Scorecard is a service of the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition (SACC), which is comprised of Colorado Wild, the Crystal Conservation Coalition (Washington State), Friends of the Inyo (California) and The Sierra Nevada Alliance (California).   According to their website The Colorado based Ski Area Environmental Scorecard is the only non-industry, independent mechanism that gives skiers and boarders a way to assess the environmental performance of their favorite resorts.

The annual Ski Area Environmental Scorecard has been released for this year and some of the results may surprise you, especially for local ski resorts. The scorecard has given Kirkwood Mountain Resort a big,  “F” when it comes to caring for the environment. Kirkwood scored 36.5 percent, third-worst among the nearly 80 resorts reviewed in the western states. “It’s no surprise to us,” said Foothill Conservancy’s Chris Wright, discussing the 2006 scorecard. “Kirkwood has gotten a ‘D’ grade for the last few years and they’ve done nothing to clean up their environmental act. They continue to hope that skiers and real estate buyers will believe their PR, which claims they’re an environmentally responsible resort.”

The scorecard scores resorts  on a comprehensive suite of criteria including protection of old growth forests and alpine wildlife and water resources, along with proactive steps such as carpool programs, recycling, and using green energy.  “Over the last few years since its real estate expansion was approved, Kirkwood has done little to protect the natural and human environment in that beautiful high Sierra valley,” Wright noted.

“On Friday, November 3, Kirkwood’s David Likins told the Tri-County Technical Advisory Committee that Kirkwood was doing a great job of erosion control. Photos taken just hours later show muddy water running across roads and down streams that flow to Kirkwood Creek.” Says Wright. The two other local ski resorts Dodge Ridge and Bear Valley received a C and D respectively. Also scoring F’s on the scorecard were the Breckenridge and Copper Mountain Resorts in Colorado, and the White Pass resort in Washington State. 10 resorts scored A’s- those include Alpine Meadows and Sierra At Tahoe resorts in California. The best rated resort- in the Nation is the Aspen Meadow Resort in Colorado.

More information on the Ski Area Citizens Scorecard may be found online at www.skiareacitizens.com. Photos of muddy runoff and poor erosion control at Kirkwood are on the Foothill Conservancy’s website at www.foothillconservancy.org/kmr_mud.html. More information on the planned Kirkwood public land expansion is on the Eldorado National Forest website at http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/eldorado/projects/kirkwood/