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The ski slopes as the "industrial zones" of mountain resorts.
Is ecological management possible ?

Jean-Louis TUAILLON - Director of Ski-Run Services, Les Arcs, France

 

As Director of the "piste department" of the S.M.A. ski lift company in Les Arcs, I am perhaps the only representative of what was named earlier on, slightly pejoratively, "hard tourism". Being a resort with frequently20,000 skiers and more than 250,000 tourist beds, we too want our tourism to be sustainable. This of course cannot be achieved if the environment is not taken into account.

Reproducing the ecological cycle. "Ski pistes, the industrial areas of mountain resorts": is ecological management possible ?

At the risk of surprising some of you, the answer is yes. On the condition that ecological management accepts the presence of man in nature. Ecology does not mean nature left to its own; it is nature with and managed by man, hence the term ecological "management".

The age-old management of mountain regions

From the beginning of time, man has modified the mountain he lived on and therefore managed it.

On the Petit Saint-Bernard Pass, the stones erected in a perfect circle are one of the oldest mountain monuments. Later the roads that crossed over the mountains brought with them a few changes and helped in the development of a civilisation where guides and owners of auberges were the initial workers. We will not be looking into developments made to the "Brèche de Roland" site, where, according to legend, Roland opened up a passage in the mountain with a swipe of his famous Durandal sword.

The intensive deforestation along with the need to always find more pastures for the animals to feed on, was considerable.

Deforestation was such that, in many of the villages now surrounded by forest, fifty years ago the inhabitants were forced to burn cow pats for heating. This creation of pastures gave us the landscapes that still exist today with meadows and alpine pastures despite the advancing forest.

Paths making access between the various mountain areas easier were created, ranging from simple tracks to stone paved paths used for taking down heavier loads. These paths still mark the landscape, as do the means used to recuperate the water needed to supply the meadows and fields. Work was carried out to create these sometimes very long irrigation canals which took the water from one side of the mountain to the other using completely steady inclinations and elaborate sealing techniques. This agricultural maintenance has, for agricultural reasons, disappeared. The management of the land is now mainly carried out by the "piste department" using more aggressive mechanical techniques than the more labour intensive spades and pickaxes of the past.

Management in line with new requirements

The development of the ski resorts and the ski lifts require pistes allowing a large number of skiers. The width, evenness and the uniform profiles of the pistes often force us to dig out the mountain.Luckily grass cover helps conserve the snow cover and is an asset to sporting activities. Therefore sloping alpine pastures are ideal.

Sometimes we help nature by manufacturing snow on the most worn areas and this snow has to be prepared using motorised equipment that also damages natural snow. The blasting of avalanches is the final act by which we choose to provoke a natural phenomenon.

All these, often misunderstood, activities are criticised from an environmental point of view despite the fact that nowadays all precautions are taken to reduce their impact upon nature.

• The blasting of avalanches. The various techniques implemented which use explosives get the best results if the explosion is just above the surface of the snow. So in theory there is no risk of damaging the soil which is protected by a layer of snow. It is true that the CA.T.EX. (cables transporting explosives) pylons are often placed on mountain ridges and do not always blend into the landscape. The number of pylons is now being reduced due to the development of techniques using gas (Gazex- Avalex).
• Motorised equipment. The diesel motors in the new piste grooming machines are conform to European anti-pollution standards. The use of hydraulic biodegradable oil is becoming increasingly widespread despite the higher cost. With snow scooters (not counting quads using four-stroke engines), the major problem is the widespread use of two-stroke engines.

Here too, the use of biodegradable oil in the mixture is also making progress. The major North American and Japanese manufacturers remain almost completely indifferent to this problem. If water based fuel and other synthetic fuels are not yet used, it is because they have not yet been developed for use in the low temperatures of mountain regions during the winter.

• Artificial snow. Progress continues to be made with an aim to producing snow using less energy. Here too the systematic use of biodegradable oil in compressors is progressing. So called artificial snow is in fact natural snow (solid water plus air) made artificially. Negative calories are taken from the surrounding air and electricity is used to mix the already cold air water mixture. The rules of physics (water freezing at 0°C) cannot be changed and in most cases, in France at least, chemical additives are not used although they can improve the manufacture of artificial snow in extreme conditions.

Personally I am not in favour of their use and an international work group is currently studying the possible consequences of these products. Water should not be taken from reservoirs upstream (the irrigation canals that I mentioned earlier sometimes totally circumvented the mountains carrying considerable volume six to eight months a year). The water is returned using the same canal system with, admittedly, a delay before it is returned to the main river. The reservoirs are mostly filled when flows are at their greatest and as artificial snow tends to melt later than natural snow the speed with which the snow melts can be slightly controlled. We have noticed that vegetation does not suffer from this delay and on the contrary it sometimes protects the flora in the spring from late freezes, which are unfavourable to young shoots.

Finally, progress has been made in terms of noise pollution. This is due to studies carried out to achieve more efficient production whilstusing less energy.

• Digging on the mountain. This is sometimes considerable and although at the beginning of the 1960's, rehabilitation of the land was not a major concern, we quickly understood the need to take it into account even at project stage. Techniques have considerably improved and the progress that we have made even in terms of reviving vegetation (often helped by researchers from the CEMAGREF) has enabled us to obtain interesting results in rehabilitating scarred areas.

Before passing over to Alain BEDECARRATS, I would like to tell you about an original ecological cycle, as this is the topic of discussion.

The large number of tourists visiting the Tarentaise resorts is the reason for the residual waste left at the sewage words (which comply with EC standards). Some of this waste is turned into compost and mixed with two other local sub products, manure and sawdust which, after composting for a long time, is made into a stable compost for use on bare soil. This is used to help seedlings which after three or four years will be eaten by the herds which produce the cheese eaten by the tourists who produce waste: the cycle is complete.

A final aspect concerning ecological land management, is the battle against the natural reforestation and the disappearance of landscapes.

Many ancient fields and meadows are not even pastures today. They are under threat in the short-term by overgrowth and by reforestation.

This is why replanting trees in our region is not ecologically sound. It is better to cut some trees down and cut back the overgrowth so that the forest is managed correctly.

In mountain villages, the last inhabitants and farmers, often with European grants, cut down trees and undergrowth for the upkeep of the paths and enclosing walls. At higher altitudes where pastures have for centuries prevented the undergrowth from taking over, the battle against the various types of green alder is undertaken by the Piste department, mainly on the north facing slopes which are used by the resorts and little used by farmers because of the agricultural demise in mountain regions.

Cutting back the undergrowth on the pistes is becoming increasingly important and many solutions exist. The most efficient one namely using goats and sheep is the most ecological but the least profitable solution.

Purpose-built resorts like Les Arcs all think more or less alike and believe in the ISO 1400 certification, to conform to environmental management standards.

Following these generalities, I now pass you over to Alain BEDECARRATS, Researcher in Ecology at the CEMAGREF who will, I hope, scientifically confirm what I have said and present you with the results of recent studies compressed into a few minutes, but we will of course answer questions afterwards.

Thank you for your attention.