SAM Magazine—Frisco, Colo., Aug. 3, 2023—Copper Mountain hosted the third annual Ski Conservation Summit on July 26. The event brings together local land managers and resort operators to share best practices and techniques to advance conservation efforts in their local environments. Courtesy of Copper MountainThis year, eight Colorado ski areas and resort ownership groups attended along with reps from the USFS, several universities, and other environmental groups.  

“The Summit is intended to build a new conversation within the outdoor recreation industry about how local land managers and resort operators can advance support for natural ecosystems,” said Jeff Grasser, senior resort operations and sustainability manager at Copper. The main goals, he said, are to raise awareness about land conservation, foster collaboration between resort operators and land managers, and share innovative sustainability practices.

In his first of two presentations, Grasser examined threats to biodiversity and what Copper is doing to mitigate them, including a Native Seed Collecting Program that, in its fifth year, helps restore seeds back to the mountain, increasing biodiversity on ski slopes and supporting the accumulation of topsoil in areas disturbed by development. The program began in 2018, with seeds sourced from five species. In 2022, Copper, with help from partners, collected 700 grams of seeds from 27 different species. 

“These nature-based solutions provide a win for our local ecosystem and support the continued ability of people to experience nature at Copper,” said Grasser.  

A second presentation focused on Copper’s Carbon Sequestration Study, which, in partnership with Southwestern University soil scientist Jennie DeMarco, strives to understand the ins-and-outs of carbon sequestration in soil and how various restoration techniques affect it. This year marks the second for the study, and Copper intends to set up and study plots on five different trails over five years to gage carbon storage. 

Other featured speakers included: Mike Nathan, sustainability manager at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, who detailed the resort’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2025; Mica Selby, assistant GM of HR at Sunlight Mountain who outlined restoration projects at her resort; Hunter Wright, director of sustainability at Eldora Mountain Resort, who shared information about wetland restoration at the site of the resort’s new Ignite Adaptive Sports Complex; Raj Basi, VP of sustainability at Powdr Corp. on the importance of land conservation; and Southwestern’s Dr. DeMarco.