Less Than A Foot II

Priorities.

This week a town hall meeting in Ashland, Oregon was packed to standing room only capacity, and no wonder, one might think, their Mt. Ashland Ski Resort announced the first cancelled ski season in their fifty year history and impending bankruptcy. The loss of the ski area will have a huge impact on the local economy which thrives on tourism and access to outdoor activities. But no. The whole town did not show up in support of their local business or to discuss the growth of their economy, they showed up in protest of a local ordinance proposing placing a ban on carrying loaded firearms in public. Many people attended the meeting wearing their side arms.  And...scene.

Green Pastures

Ice.

I spent a snowless holiday in Sun River Oregon, a resort town that exists almost entirely because of what has been, until recently, some of the best winter recreation in the United States. This year, families rode bikes on clear bike paths, took sleigh rides in horse drawn carriages mounted on wheels and paid fifteen dollars for a day pass to sled on a small man made slope with man made snow. On the way home, over the pass, the Willamette ski area was a ghost town and there were deer idly grazing the grassy green ski slopes. This is our new normal. If you are still in doubt, or still believe that isolated extreme weather events can make up for what we lose in normal seasonal precipitation, take a look at the online exhibit from the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. A picture is worth a thousand words.

http://vanishingice.org/