The Sierra Club opposes the staging of Winter Olympic games in any area of the United States which would require major new development of facilities that would have an adverse effect on the natural environment.
Adopted by the Board of Directors, February 5-6, 1972
The Sierra Club is not necessarily opposed to construction of downhill skiing facilities on public lands, but it recommends that no new downhill skiing facilities be sited in national forests, parks, monuments, or wildlife refuges, or other public lands that may qualify as wilderness.
Adopted by the Board of Directors, May 5-6, 1973
The Sierra Club recommends the following criteria for any new or expanded ski facility on public or private lands. The ski facility should be:
- planned through an open participatory process, and
- be compatible with the character and legitimate uses of adjoining lands,
- intergreated with existing transportation systems,
- designed to a size and character consistent with the quality of the natural environment of the area and adjacent lands,
- designed to minimize or avoid siltation, erosion and scaring, (f) designed to prevent degredation of water and air quality and to minimize noise pollution.
Furthermore, the developer should be:
- required to mitigate all adverse results of the development, its construction and associated changes, and
- bounded to guarantee completion of the project and fiscal responsibility for operation of [the] facility.
Adopted by the Board of Directors, May 5-6, 1973