ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the ecology and law of four mountain resorts in north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada resorts at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, Whiteface Mountain in New York, Killington and Pico in Vermont, and the Mont Tremblant in Quebec. Northern mountain resorts are inextricably linked to skiing, which began as a form of recreation in the late 1800s more in the style of what is known as the cross-country skiing. Although data on the Canadian mountain resort industry are limited, information about resorts in the United States provides some insight into the current financial profile of the resort industry. The Killington Resort explores how Vermont's unique land use permitting law, Act 250, addressed American Skiing Company's proposals to expand its snowmaking operations, to construct a trail and lift system connecting Killington and Pico, and to build a mountain village. The laws at work at the array of mountain resorts provide enormous diversity across the case studies.