Environmental Assessment of a Ski Resort of Brohm Ridge:

Lab5part2.4

Memo:

The proposal of having a ski resort built on the Brohm Ridge is environmentally threatening, especially to the ecosystems that are currently residing in the area. Through the examination of the Environmental Assessment’s recommendation and Whistler’s criticism, I have conjured a couple of maps and a list of evidence for why the resort should not be built.

• Through clipping each layer to the project boundary area, I was able to crop each layer to fit within the project boundary. This allowed me to better gauge which features fall within the project boundaries, and which features do not.
• Area below 555m: 29%
  • This is the area potentially does not have enough snow.
• Area of old growth trees: 6.8%
  • These old growth trees cannot be disturbed due to aboriginal traditions
• Area of Ungulate Winter Range: 7.8%
  • This is the habitat for Ungulates
• Area of Red-listed species habitat: 24.8%
  • This is the ecosystem of red-listed species
• Area of fish habitat: 30.1%
  • This area is between 50-100m of the river.

• The use of the union tool allowed me to combine all the layers of the clipped protected areas together. This allowed me to view all of the attributes of each layer in one attribute table.

• Through the use of the dissolve tool, I was able to dissolve the river buffers, as well as the union layer. This lead to the attribute table being combined and condensed into one attribute feature within the attribute layer, which allowed me to find the areas of specific features without having to use a query.
  • Total protected area: 50.6%

• Through the use of the merge tool, I was able to merge all attributes that fell within a red-listed species category into one category. This made finding the area for a specific red listed species easier.

• Through the use of the reclassify tool, I was able to convert my DEM Raster file into a polygon. This allowed me to display the snowline below 555m in a clearer and concise manner. This also allowed me to calculate the area with a snow line below 555m within the project area.

Overall, through the analysis of the data and the results, I found that the two greatest environmental concerns to the project development area are fish habitat and red-listed species ecosystems. This is because they take up the most area and are more spread across the project area. Delineating the areas off can be a solution that can mitigate these issues. However, due to that fact that over 50% of the project area is protected area, delineating the protected areas off would be difficult, and would not leave much room for the construction of a ski resort. Thus, The Garibaldi at Squamish should not be built.

 

1. When working on environmental projects, you sometimes become involved in proposals that you do not ethically believe in. Do you personally think the project should be allowed to continue? Does this differ from what you wrote in your memo

Personally, I do believe that this project should not be allowed to continue due to its potential environmental impacts on the surrounding ecology of the area. Additionally, BC does not need another ski resort, so building another one that has so many impacts would be unethical. My personal opinion does not differ from the one that I wrote from the memo. I believe that there is no way to mitigate the issues due to the sheer size of the issues. Therefore, the ski resort should not be built.

Accomplishment Statements:

1. Practiced memo writings for maps to display and further elaborate on my results and their implications by writing one for my environmental assessment map.
2. Learned how to interpret data found from outside sources by accessing their metadata.

• GEOB 270