Pollution....In a Provincial Park?

When nordic or alpine skiing, one normally doesn't think too much about these activities causing pollution, or posing a risk to the environment or public health. Gliding along a wilderness cross country trail or carving turns in knee-deep Okanagan powder feels like one of the simplest and purest pleasures there is. The environmental footprint of these activities is tiny......right?

The answer to that question is not so simple. Skiing often goes hand-in-hand with a lot of environmentally harmful attachments, including real estate development (hotels, condos, houses), logging of ski trails and homesites, loss of wildlife habitat, stormwater runoff pollution, stream sedimentation, sewage disposal issues and associated impacts to surface and groundwater, air pollution from motor vehicles, etc. These are all issues facing Silver Star Provincial Park, especially in the areas that were removed from the park for commercial development. 

To learn more about these issues, click the flyout submenu tabs attached to this menu item.