So, a ski hill on a glacier?

[GordonH]

Better hope no cracks show up, like this.

http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/72708/J ... esort-a-go

http://www.jumboglacierresort.com/index.html

[Captain Awesome]

Poor Glacier...

[Glacier]

Yes, poor Glacier.

Hockeyfan, have you ever see this bone-chilling documentary? http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2011-2012/acoldcase/

[Bagotricks]

Save Jumbo. Ex- local.

The BC government couldn't even go to Invermere to make the announcement, as they would have got lynched.

Locals despise it. Offshore Japanese money and Calgary investors love it.

Who's mountains are they? Not just those who have a lift ticket.

Jobs? Ask Whistler locals who cant afford to live there. The wages that are paid out don't help them in that department. It will make a few people big cash in Calgary and Vancouver though.

[twobits]

Repost w/o the personal attack. Trip

[StraitTalk]

So what's the problem? Seems like a pretty cool idea.

[Bagotricks]

So what's the problem? Seems like a pretty cool idea.

Vast untouched wilderness. Not very much of it left. So the plan is to *bleep* it out so a few millionaires can promise temporary construction jobs and permanent minimum wage housekeeping jobs while they sit back and enjoy the pimp money - the REAL money?

Put in roads, services and 5000 condos with jacuzzi's and toilets. Traffic. Roadkill. Pollution.

If the resort went ahead the proponent could carve up, develop and sell the land within the 104-hectare resort area for a great deal of private profit. But there is more: the control of more than 6,000 hectares of Crown land, including the surface of four glaciers, would also be essentially privatized — accessible only to paying customers.

[The Green Barbarian]

If the resort went ahead the proponent could carve up, develop and sell the land within the 104-hectare resort area for a great deal of private profit. But there is more: the control of more than 6,000 hectares of Crown land, including the surface of four glaciers, would also be essentially privatized — accessible only to paying customers.

who accesses it now?

[Bagotricks]

It should be a preserve, not a concession stand.

Canada’s foremost scientific authority on the impact of a warming climate on mountain water sources, Professor David Schindler of the University of Alberta, warns that ski lifts and skier traffic on the surface of Jumbo Glacier will hasten its melting, and compromise one of the important headwater sources of the Columbia River system.

[Homeownertoo]

Sounds like it could be a great resort. Can't wait for it to open and give it a try. BTW, commercial glacier skiing happens every year at Whistler/Blackcomb. Anyone looking for pristine, non-commercial glacier skiing can find lots of it in the Rockies. No need for government to rule every bit of it in Canada offside for commercial operations.

[Bagotricks]

“The proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort has the potential for substantial and direct cumulative impacts to the Central Purcell Grizzly Bear population.”
- BC Ministry of Water Land and Air Protection, 2004

“...there will be a substantial impact to grizzly bear habitat effectiveness, mortality risk, and most importantly, the fragmentation of grizzly bear distribution…”
- Matt Austin, Large Carnivore Specialist, Biodiversity Branch, Government of B.C.

“While the developer claims to be committed to ‘no net impact’ to grizzly bears this could only be achieved by reducing or largely eliminating human activities in surrounding watersheds, including, but not limited to, the Glacier, Howser, Toby, Horsethief, and Brewer/Dutch drainages.”
- Stefan Himmer, BSc. RPBio

“My colleagues and I see the southern Purcell mountains as one of the last non–fragmented “fingers” of southern grizzly bear distribution in BC.”
- Dr. John Boulanger

“No other land management prescription of the Forest directly results in more stream-water depletion, wetlands impacts, …or permanent habitat loss (than ski areas)."
- Cynthia Cody, US Environmental Protection Agency

Blue listed species such as bull trout, cutthroat trout, wolverine and mountain goats will be adversely impacted.
- Report to EAO from scientists Chris Beers, Cam Gillies & Rene Franken

" Climate Change is the new reality. Glaciers are melting worldwide, and rates of decline have doubled since the 1980’s. Waters are drying up – in the Canadian West, late summer flows are dwindling, threatening communities, farms, and fish. There is no question that climate-related phenomena have become the major environmental concern of this century."
- Dr. David Suzuki

“Glaciers are critical to local environments and water supplies. It is expected that the remaining glaciers of the Purcells and Rockies will have ablated to the point of disappearing in less than 4 decades.”
- Dr. Mindy Brugman, Glaciologist

Snow packs in the Southern Canadian Rockies are expected to drop from 30-50% within 3 decades based on climate change models for the Columbia Basin.
- University of Washington

Even the government’s own experts predict severe impact on the grizzly bears of the Purcell Range.

"This project is expected to result in direct human-caused mortality of grizzly bears due to actual or potential bear-human conflicts within the Jumbo Creek valley and bears being struck and killed by vehicles on the access road to the project."

“In addition, if human-caused mortalities do occur as a result of the project the provincial government will need to reduce hunting opportunities to offset this impact."

“Offsite mitigation required to achieve the ‘no net impact’ standard will require approvals by the provincial government and possibly legislative changes (e.g. legal restrictions on motorized access)."

“Perhaps the most fundamental issue to be considered in the evaluation of the potential impact of the project on grizzly bears is the permanence of the proposed development versus the potential permanence of any mitigation program. It is critical that the timeframe over which the mitigation of the project’s impacts is implemented coincides with the lifespan of the project (i.e. indefinite) and that mechanisms are established to ensure the long-term security of this mitigation. This will be a substantial challenge."

"As a result of this challenge, I recommend that, in the absence of extraordinary measures to ensure the indefinite implementation of mitigation measures, those considering the impacts of this project on grizzly bears should assume that over the long-term mitigative measures will not be implemented to a degree that will achieve the “no net impact” standard. Instead I recommend that it be assumed that there will be a substantial impact to grizzly bear habitat effectiveness, mortality risk and, most importantly, the fragmentation of grizzly bear distribution in the Purcell Mountains over the long-term as a result of the project.”

- Matt Austin, Large Carnivore Specialist, Ministry of Environment

[Bagotricks]

Sounds like it could be a great resort. Can't wait for it to open and give it a try.

Yeah, just have to step over a few dead bears and choke out the last remaining bits of wilderness so you can slide down a hill for 180 dollars a day and some guy in Calgary can buy a condo up there with the profits.

NBD.

[The Green Barbarian]

Yeah, just have to step over a few dead bears and choke out the last remaining bits of wilderness so you can slide down a hill for 180 dollars a day and some guy in Calgary can buy a condo up there with the profits.

NBD.

The last remaining bits of wilderness? Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? Have you never flown over Northern BC? Or driven from here to Fort St John? You'll see lots and lots and lots of wilderness, and quite a few bears too. I almost start to sympathize with you Bago, but you use so much hyperbole and over-reach so much in your arguments, that it really is hard to take you seriously.

[Liquidnails]

I think the project is beyond it's "best before" date. All the current resorts in BC are overbuilt and prices are in a slow decline. The Boomer bulge is trading in cold Winter recreation for warm beaches with bikinis.

[Bagotricks]

If there is plenty of wilderness left why are they building it a ridiculously environmentally sensitive area that everyone says will adversely effect the area and damage the wildlife, environment and the main source of the Columbia basin - even the provinces own experts?

Oh right - a bunch of Japanese investors put out a call to find "the best untouched piece of wilderness and potential ski hill land in North America" and came up with that prime piece of real estate.

The government is selling to the developers for 5000 a acre, which the developers will turn around and flip lots at 189,000 (low guess) and pocket the money.

Jane Doe from Invermere gets a job folding towels, her husband get alot of drywalling contracts for a year and a half. Real estate skyrockets, Jane and her hubby are priced out of homes and we hasten the melting of a Glacier, change the migratory path of Grizzly bears and screw with water sheds so 10 people can make massive temporary exploitation profits in a 10 year period off a 10,000,000 year mountain and valley formation that was just fine before the human need to *bleep* out nature for Porches came to be. Nice plan.