Making the grade: Certain abandoned ski runs recover better than others

Katherine E Kerlin — December 17, 2015 - 8:00am

What happens to the land when a ski run is abandoned? Not much, if the run was previously graded, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

The study, published online Dec. 16 in the Journal of Applied Ecology, evaluated six abandoned ski areas in the Northern Sierra region of California and Nevada. It found that runs that were graded showed no predictable recovery even 40 years after abandonment. With graded runs, heavy machinery is used to remove vegetation, boulders and, consequently, much of the topsoil and seed bank during construction.

Soil Erosion Content

Making the grade: Certain abandoned ski runs recover better than others