WRTG 112 Research Paper (with reviz)

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Geography

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Apr 3, 2024

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1 Colorado Tourism Response to Challenges Associated with Climate Change Name Here University of Maryland Global Campus WRTG 112 6362 Academic Writing II Stephanie Johnson February 19, 2024

2 Colorado is a playground for outdoor enthusiasts. The Rocky Mountains have given millions of visitors to memories of whooshing down ski slopes or bouncing down whitewater rapids. The o utdoor recreation industry is the state's second largest input of capital outside of the trade of natural, mined resources like coal, oil, gold, and helium . When asked about the outdoor recreation industry, t he Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis was quoted saying: “Colorado is home to inspirational world-class outdoor gems, deep cultural history, and unique destinations that offer endless reasons to visit. So the secret is out: Colorado is an amazing place to visit and to live. Our administration is providing help for communities across our state that are tourism destinations to help our economy thrive” (Colorado, 2022, para. 2). Governor Polis said that during a m eeting with the Colorado Tourism Office where they discussed the importance of Tourism for the state of Colorado. In this meeting they announced which cities were getting grants to put towards “the economic recovery of the travel and tourism industry and attract visitors to Colorado cities and towns that are still recovering from the pandemic” (Colorado, 2022, para. 1). Colorado saw a record high of $60.1 billion which constituted 13.7% of Colorado's total gross domestic product in 2022 (Anderson & Gamm, 2023). The state of Colorado is famous for having over 300 days of sunshine, and in some places seeing well over 300 inches of snow (Colorado, 2022). Due to the fact that weather plays such a vital role within the tourism industry of Colorado, the climate and the changes that come with it play a massive and critical role not only in the tourism industry but also the economic well-being of the state. With the ever-shifting climate that we are seeing in today's world, Colorado will need to be proactive to combat the effects of environmental change to stay relevant within the outdoor, adventure tourism industry.

3 The state of Colorado generates around 4.8 billion annually due to the ski season alone (Meyers, 2015). Historically, the ski season within Colorado lasts around four and a half months. Breaking this down financially, the monthly income is around 1.2 billion dollars. With current climate change estimation, Colorado, on average, will lose 4.8 days of skiing per decade (Clow, 2010). Using that estimation, by the year 2050 the ski industry could lose a month and a half of viable skiing days, or around $600 million worth of taxable income. This will not only hurt the companies that have invested millions, if not billions of dollars into the ski and snowboard industry, but it will also affect the almost six million Colorado citizens. Within small mountain towns as well as large-scale resorts, many of their taxes end up going towards their direct citizens, (Colorado Department of Revenue, 2023) whether that be putting money into the school systems or creating affordable housing for both their full-term and seasonal workforce. With the total potential time of ski seasons going down, the businesses as well as the state of Colorado will then need to develop and or adapt different methods to bring in the tourists. This may be done through expanding amenities; for example, Steamboat Springs Resort just opened an ice arena at the base of the mountain and plans to update its mountain coaster in the coming years. Another way of enticing people to the mountains is to create new ski runs and exciting new terrain parks, but also by improving the current ones that are built up. Going back to the Steamboat Springs mountain in Colorado, the company just went into “Full Steam Ahead phase two” in which they are investing more than $2 million to improve the current infrastructure including snowmaking and other equipment that employees use (Full Steam Ahead, 2022). Steamboat, as well as many other mountain resorts, have also been funding large summer-based activities such as mountain biking, hiking, and creating venues for festivals. For example, Winter Park and Copper Mountain have created outdoor adventures like zip lining, rock climbing, and

4 ropes courses (Winter Park, 2023). Gondolas, which were once only accessible during the ski season are now in operation year-round. This enables guests to recreate in the mountains during all four seasons as well as access breathtaking views for Instagram-worthy moments. One of the most common practices seen within ski resorts to combat changes in the climate is artificial snowmaking as it currently serves as one of the strongest adaptations to climate. By reducing the dependency on natural snowfall, a ski area can open earlier in the season, provide better base depths, as well as remain open later into the spring (Murray, 2023). To keep the snow-making machines fed, many resorts tap into reservoirs or aquifers within their direct mountain, or mountains in proximity. Aside from the naturally created and filled reservoirs, man-made reservoirs have been created and are currently in use in some states with their direct usage being the snow cannons. They also help with introducing new or inaccessible water to the water cycle. Bringing new water into the system not only helps with the precipitation, which increases the snow levels as well, but it also directly helps with water levels in creeks, streams, and rivers. They have also been created by a few different ski resorts, such as resorts in Eagle, Grand, and Summit counties, to help with their snow-making capacity. In their case they use a naturally occurring reservoir. “Most resorts have senior water rights and decades- old storage systems” (Blevins & Carey, 2021, para 5). Because of these water rights and storage systems, most large-scale resorts rarely see an interruption in their snow-making abilities. The exception is, when there is an extended period of drought, water becomes scarce. One of the other physical adaptation measures that is showing promise is snow farming. This is the process of either covering or storing snow to preserve the existing snowpack. While this practice is typically seen on glaciers in Europe, studies have shown that it can be effective

5 with lower-elevation resorts as well (Steiger, 2008). For lower elevation resorts, as well as resorts that are unable to access glaciers, another form of snow conservation that has been looked into is geotextiles. Geotextiles, while used largely in construction or landscaping to keep soil in place or reinforce roads, can also be used as a layer of protection that, when placed over snow, has seen great effect in terms of protecting the snowpack. One of the main geotextiles that was studied was sawdust. “Covering large snow piles with materials such as sawdust enables more than two-thirds of the initial snow volume to be conserved” (Grünewald, 2018, abstract). For ski resorts in Colorado that have almost a year around access to snow, the summer storage for said snow has become of increasing importance throughout the years; and something as simple as either covering it with a layer of sawdust or having it melt off into a specific reservoir so that it can be reused will be an important decision that will need to be made by both the state of Colorado, as well as the companies that are running the resorts. Within the state of Colorado, because we are at a higher elevation, the yearly snowfall affects almost every outdoor industry. Snowfall affects the ski season, but later in the year, the snow melts can affect the rivers, which then finally branch out into affecting the plains of the Denver/Colorado Springs area. For the summer months, most of the tourism in Colorado revolves around whitewater rafting, fishing, mountain biking, hiking, and camping (Fitzsimmons, 2023). While hiking and camping might not be as affected by the direct snowfall, the rivers as well as lakes that many of the popular hiking/camping areas situated around will be. When water levels reach certain low points, public access to our lakes, rivers, and streams are

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