A new report says climate change is hurting the ski industry, and a climate advocacy group says the Mountain West is particularly vulnerable.
Protect Our Winters looked at data over the last 16 years. The non-profit found that years with lots of snow created more than 2,000 extra jobs in the Mountain West. Low snow years, on the other hand, cost the region about 3,000 jobs.
Tom Foley works with Inntopia business intelligence. It’s a travel technology and research company.
Analysts there did their own research and came to similar conclusions: snow is currency.
"There are lodging taxes to consider, there are retail sales taxes to consider, and there is, of course, on-mountain operations to consider, which is the most directly and dramatically impacted by low snow," Foley said.
Foley says ski resorts are adapting to quote the “looming reality” of less snow by doing things like hosting music festivals, weddings and summer sports like mountain biking.
This piece was produced as part of the Mountain West News Bureau, a journalism consortium of six public radio stations in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado.