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Show MOUNTAIN TOWN NEWS Steamboat studies issues of an aging population By ALLEN BEST Record guest writer STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo, -'flic graying of ski towns across the West would bo a surprise only to Rip Van Winkle. Through the 1990s, the biggest jump in proportionate population growth rates in Brcckcnridgc, Vail, and many other places was in the 60-plus age bracket. Younger people were still more common, but they ceased being the overwhelming majority. Now, in the new century, the bulge is becoming even more conspicuous as baby boomers within ski towns get ever more gray hair while baby boomers from elsewhere begin to retire to ski towns. This trend is being noted in Steamboat Springs, where the retirement-age population is increasing at a rate six times the national average. Meanwhile, the population of Gen Xers is not growing nearly as fast, and. in facl. might be declining. For a number of years school enrollment in Steamboat Springs and even is bedroom communities has been agging. While there was a slight rowth this year in one of the bedx>m areas, near Oak Creek and ampa, the same general trend holds tue. Gen Xers from many ski towns scmed to have moved to the cities rther than endure the great expense oi raising families in an expensive reort environment. Steamboat Springs continue to grpple with the implications of thac demographic wrinkles. A city pkincr. Tom Leeson, told a local ne\spaper. The Steamboat Pilot thaa task force on growth is looking at lh rate of growth,1 why it is occurring whether it is a problem and whatools the community is using or can !se to help manage it. 1' looking at the graying of Steaiboat, the local task force wonders whether one consequence will be £less vibrant community. Don*l gel he wrong idea here-grayhaird people in ski towns arc by no mean somnambulant sorts. Leisure for nany is 100 days of skiing each while, not a rocking chair. But. for the nnsl part, they are having a good time, iot engaged in running a community In Seamboat, answers are not yet clear, bit the task force is reported to be consdering what can be done to encourage a more year-round employnent base, to retain younger, chiJd-beaing people. case an elk was impaled and had to be killed. In some areas of Banff National Park, where the town is located, the national agency has prohibited fences altogether. In the town, however, guidelines only recommended low and rustic fences. •Lake Taboe wonders about traffic roundabouts LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - To somebody who was in Colorado's high country 10 years ago, reading the newspapers in the resort areas around Lake Tahoe is like going back to the mid-1990s. To wit, city officials in South Lake Tahoe are mulling whether to install a traffic roundabout. A $5,400 report notes roundabouts result in fewer and also less severe accidents while improving traffic flow. Still, some doubters wonder just how safe these would be when there was black ice, reports the Tkhoe Dj*y Tribune (Answer probably much better than the alternative of traffic signals). For the record, one of the first modern roundabouts was installed in Vail in 1995 after similar hand-wringing doubts, and now they arc found across the West. Among the towns now considering roundabouts are Telluride and Silverthome. right with load officials. 'Die logging industry there remains viable. Much less logging would be required in the forests around Whistler and Pemberton, They stand to make only a dribble of money from the sale of trees. Rather, the goal would be to ensure that logging of forests coincides with local goals. "Our community forest is an opportunity for us to show how forestry and tourism can co-exist," said Whistler Mayor Hugh O'Reilly. "At the end of the day, we still have to allow the same extraction of limber - while at the same time taking care of things that are really important to Whistler as a tourism destination," said Bill Barralt, Whistlers deputy administrator. Whether the end-result in Whistler and other ski towns ends up being all that different from what the U.S. Forest Service has done near ski towns remains to be seen. Treat Mom To Some i Annual Mountain Body This Year! j SPRING SALE Save BIG on our All-Natural Botanical Body Products! 20% off All Spa Treatments! Try our Famous Hand Treatment • \ FREE in-store before you buy! \ m M;lin S r i m . 555,9342 Daily 10-6 HUGHES SUCCEEDS BECAUSE HIS CLIENTS DO. •Bears find round door handles more difficult SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo. - With last year's bear encounters still fresh in mind, newspapers in resort communities across the West have been carrying stories about bears now emerging from hibernation. Avon, located west of Vaii. beefed •Whistler invited to begin man- up its regulations over the winter, after local police were dispatched 70 aging neaiby forests times to reports of bruins and people WHISTLER, B.C. - Nearly all interactions. While nothing much ski towns in the U.S. West arc adja- came of these interactions, the cent to national forests. On one side potential is always there for lethal of the fence are cities, if of the resort consequences, both to bears and to type. On the other side are national people. This new law aims to make Avon forests, even designated wilderness less interesting to hungry bears. areas. It can be argued that the U.S. Aping what Vail, Aspen and other Forest Service does a very good job communities did long ago, Avon of managing this interface of urban now requires residents and secondand wild, but il can be difficult. In home owners to keep their trash fact, there is a growing call by some inside until the day it is to be picked observers such as Daniel Kemmis of up. As well, residents of a trailer the University of Montana, who community in Avon are to get bearwould generally be considered a lib- proof containers. Actually, beareral, not a sagebrush rebel, for more resistant might be the better descripwatershed-based management plans tion. "If it's a determined 600-pound that embrace federal, state, and local bear,_ it could still be a problem." interests. In fact. British Columbia is explained Jeremy Frees, operations beginning to do much the same manager for the company Waste thing. In Canada, the province Management. The $250 containers administers what are called crown have locking lids and are made of lands, which are similar to the heavy-duty plastic, he explained. national forests. Some years ago Whether plastic containers are Whistler began calling for more con- enough remains to be seen. Aspen trol of the area surrounding the town and Snowmass have been at this through creation of a community for- much longer, and last year wildlife est, in order to balance the compet- officers felt it necessary to kill a •Elk and deer can snag on ing values of recreation, tourism, and dozen bears that had gotten into resource extraction. shaippkxet fences trash, homes, and businesses. 'llie provincial government has Wildlife officers are urging homeBANFF, Alberta - Construction now finalized the plans, and Whistler owners to think of bears when they of sharp picket fences may be and two nearby communities. buy doors and door handles. Bears banned in Banff in an attempt to Pemberton and Squamish. have can easily figure out how to open protect wildlife, particularly, ungu- been invited to apply. 'Hie rules, doors with flat handles, but can't gel lates from getting injured, Tlie explains Whistlers Pique, are that their paws around round handles. Rocky Moantorin Outlook reports the community forests must honor Allen Best has edited mountain thiit several animals have been allowable timber cuts. In the case of to i vn net vspapersfor 20years. lie has iiijqred during the last decade while Squamish, located down-valley from se/ved as managing editor atfour diftrying to hop the half-dozen pointy Whistler, that would mean still a ferent mountain town newspapers fences found in the town, and in one great deal of logging, and that's all mid is now living in Denver. I f your mailing address is i A-7 The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, April 30-May 3, 2005 rom his hard working attitude to his 20 years in Park City, Hughes has what it takes to make your real estate transactions simple and successful. REPRESENTING BUYERS AND SELLERS 9 EXCLUSIVE CLENWILD EAGLE POINTE One of the most sought after locations in the area. 1.22 acres overlooking beautiful Clenwild and all three ski resorts. Private, gated and exclusive! 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