Heavenly looks to widen some runs and move snowmaking lines

Heavenly Mountain Resort has taken steps to improve their skiing and snowboarding terrain while also adding energy and water efficiency changes.

Improvements would include selective widening of ski trails, removing trail obstacles and relocation and/or realignment of some portions of existing snowmaking air and water pipelines, increase energy and water efficiency as they seek to improve safety and maintain native species.

In order to do so, the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is seeking comments on the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed improvements. Comments will be accepted for 30 calendar days from the first legal notice on November 22, 2017.

Ski trail widening to reduce bottlenecks and improve skier flow, would include tree removal and selective boulder relocation on approximately 12 trails, with grading required in two locations to match the widened area to the grade of the existing trail. Due to the widening, any existing snowmaking lines will be relocated to near the new edge of the trail. Removal of obstacles, such as boulders, stumps and logs, would take place on eight trails to improve natural snow surface coverage.

The proposal to remove trail obstacles was addressed in the Heavenly Ski Resort Master Plan and includes protection of native plants and revegetation, removal of invasive plants, chipping of large woody debris and existing felled trees, stump grinding, and boulder height reduction.

Project work could begin as early as spring/summer 2018.

To see complete maps and comment, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/ltbmu/landmanagement/projects/?cid=fseprd537866