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Show A-18 M The Park Record Connect, Eat & Play at the Sunset Room Board Game Cafe Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, January 13-16, 2018 OUNTAIN TOWN NEWS A Roundup of News from Other Western Ski Resort Communities ALLEN BEST Park Record contributing writer Great Food Hot Drinks Cold Brews Vibrant Music High Speed Internet Mon–Fri (3–5pm) After-School Special 1/2 off game play with student ID Mon: Local’s Night Free Game play with Utah ID 1781 Sidewinder Dr. #301 (3rd Floor) | Park City | 435.731.8282 | Sunsetroomparkcity.com YourParkCityAgent.com WHAT MY CLIENTS ARE SAYING “Sheila has gone above and beyond as our real estate agent. We have used her for three real estate transactions and would not hesitate to use her again. She has extensive knowledge of the Park City real estate market, and we have been profitable with every transaction. She even helped us find rental property in between home purchases. Sheila is a great person and we highly recommend her.” -Zillow SH E I L A HA L L BRANCH BROKER 435.640.7162 | sheila @sheilahall.com 1700 Park Avenue | Park City, Utah 84060 © 2016 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently owned and operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc. Equal Housing Opportunity. Making lemonade during a winter of almost no snow TELLURIDE, Colo. – Can you have a ski resort without snow falling from the heavens? That’s the proposition Telluride and a good many other resorts have been unwittingly testing this winter. There has been scant snowfall in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. Surveys conducted last week found snow depths 22 percent of normal. To the north in Colorado, they were reported to be 65 percent of normal. Aspen got nine inches over the weekend, hardly worth mentioning in most years. This year it’s the equivalent of a man biting a dog. In Telluride, the chief executive of the community’s promotional arm reports no grim hits to the tourism economy – not yet at least. “It’s not all about snow,” says Michael Martelon, of VisitTelluride. “But if we had it, it would make everything else better.” Martelon is quick to note that Telluride differs from resorts close to cities in that its customers mostly come from long distances. Denver is six hours away, Phoenix eight. Snow is somewhat less important to its visitors than weekend skiing customers on Colorado’s I-70 corridor or those from Utah’s Wasatch Front. Telluride still has skiing, thanks in part to $15 million in snowmaking investments in the last six years. But for many visitors, skiing is not the end all, be all. There are galleries, restaurants, and even the Jud Wiebe Trail. Located on the south-facing slopes above Telluride, it was still accessible even after the storm left seven inches of snow over the weekend. Christmas was strong, and the only repercussion so far has been a softening in bookings for spring break. Lodges require 45-day advance payment, he notes. But for the moment, bookings are pacing to be ahead of last year. Martelon sees lemonade when others, especially locals accustomed to daily blasts of powder, see lemons. “It might be a blessing in disguise,” he says. “Taking care of the guest becomes the absolute priority, because the snow isn’t doing it for you.” That said, he suggested checking back in May, to see if his optimism was fully justified. Elsewhere in the West’s ski towns, Ketchum and Sun Valley reported a lucrative holiday season, better in most cases than the year before. Before, there was powder to ski in the morning. This year, there was little compelling reason to arise, so people stay out at night, explained the Idaho Mountain Express. At the foot of the ski area, the Ketchum Ranger Station had no measurable snow on the ground on Jan. 1. That’s a first since record-keeping began in 1938, according to the National Weather Service. In Aspen, there was optimism that snowmaking – helped by cold nights – will save the day for the X Games Aspen on Jan. 25-28 “It really is impressive what the snowmaking and grooming teams have been able to do,” Jeff Hanle, spokesman for the company, told the Aspen Daily News. In California, an early January snow survey near the entrance to the Sierra Tahoe ski area revealed an average depth of 1.3 inches of snow. The water in that snow is 3 percent of the long-term average for the location, at about 6,640 feet (2,020 meters) in elevation, reported Lake Tahoe News. Will this change? “There is still a lot of winter left,” Frank Gehrke, who conducts the survey, said. “January, February and into March are frequently productive.” Study finds fewer trees after wildfires in Rockies FORT COLLINS, Colo. – More evidence has arrived that climate change is here and now, not something that will happen decades hence. The testimony is found in the scars of wildfires in the Rocky Mountains. Researchers measured more than 63,000 seedlings found within sites of 52 fires that burned between 1985 and 2015 in Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The purpose was to understand if and how the changing climate affected post-fire tree regeneration. They found that during the 21st century, a time that has been markedly hotter and drier than the late 20th century, tree regeneration decreased significantly. “We often talk about climate change and how it will affect us in the future, but the truth is we are already seeing those changes,” said Camille Stevens-Rumann, assistant professor in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship at Colorado State University. “Disturbances like wildfires are a catalyst for change. In many places, forests are not coming back after fires.” Historically, forests change over time. But this study suggests that it will take much longer after a wildfire for sites to return to forests—if they return at all. “Even if we plant trees in those areas, it’s unlikely to be successful,” said Stevens-Rumann. “We need to start expecting that these landscapes aren’t going to look the same in the future, whether it’s reduced density of trees or no longer a forest.” Instead, the researchers predict more forested areas to be replaced with shrubs or grasslands after fires. They attribute the change to warmer temperature and prolonged dry periods. These changes are most prominent in lower elevations. New cannabis policy not likely to upset apple cart ASPEN, Colo. – Aspen has seven stores that sell cannabis, either for medical or general recreational proposes. Now that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reversed the Obama administration’s hands-off policy, does that mean federal agents will soon be swooping down to make arrests? Not likely, local law enforcement officials tell the Aspen Daily News. When you look at the practicality of what that would look like, there just isn’t the manpower to do that,” said Jeff Cheney, Colorado’s 9th Judicial District attorney. That said, he told the Aspen Times he’s “confused about the future.” By federal law, marijuana possession and consumption remains illegal in the United States. Following California in 1996, 29 states and the District of Columbia now allow use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Colorado and seven other states allow sale and use of cannabis for non-medicinal purposes. The Obama administration indicated it wouldn’t enforce the federal law. But Sessions, when he was a U.S. senator, always disliked marijuana. It was no surprise that he has reversed the Obama administration’s policy. If federal agents can’t treat everyone equally and raid all dispensaries, that poses questions of whether actions were taken arbitrarily, Cheney said. He believes this will force Congress to get involved. “It seems like Congress is going to have to reaffirm the law … or revise it and evolve with the changing expectations of folks,” he told the Times. Pitkin County Sheriff Joe Di Salvo has largely the same position. He told the Times he doesn’t know how the federal government can fight with the millions of people who live in the eight states that have legalized recreational marijuana. “There’s probably 60 million people in those states,” he said. “They’re going to have a hard time doing this.” DiSalvo would like federal agents instead to look for rogue growers and rogue dispensers. Better yet, he’d like to see federal resources devoted toward combating the opioid epidemic in the United States. Elsewhere in ski towns of Colorado, cannabis sellers in the Winter Park area are of mixed opinions about how it will affect their access to banks, nearly all of which are part of the federally regulated banking system. Dan Volpe, owner of Serene Wellness in Winter Park, said banking has been a major issue since he joined the industry, and he fears it will get worse. He told the Sky-Hi News that inability to have bank accounts or get construction loans or mortgages has been “crippling.” But an attorney for Igadi, Ltd., seemed to take the memo from Sessions in stride. The company seems to have a comfortable relationship with the banking system. Banks exercise oversight to ensure comfort that nothing is being done outside of Colorado laws. “They can tell we’re not laundering money or engaging in any activities that are not within the regulatory regime that the state has set for us,” said David Michel, general counsel for the dispensary. Colorado elected officials have responded with indignation to the memo by Sessions. Gov. John Hickenlooper, in an interview on CNN, pointed to the need to have access to banks. “Banks are as skittish as a young colt,” he said. “I’m afraid they’re going to spook some of these banks out of the business completely, and then we’re in an all-cash business. That’s a way to get more cartels and underworld activity.” |