---
title: the resort never owned the trees
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/the-resort-never-owned-the-trees
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/the-resort-never-owned-the-trees.md
subtitle: "a ski area, a national forest, and the season a wildfire took"
category: natural-capital
---

# the resort never owned the trees

*a ski area, a national forest, and the season a wildfire took*

At the end of August 2021 the Caldor Fire reached Sierra-at-Tahoe, a ski area about 12 miles west of South Lake Tahoe, California. Crews turned the snow guns on the buildings and soaked the grounds. The main structures at the base stood. The resort still lost its season.

**What does a ski resort wildfire put at risk?** A ski resort wildfire can spare the main lodge and still close the mountain, because much of what a resort sells grows on ground it does not own. The runs, the glades and the shade are forest. In the US, many ski areas run on national forest land under a Forest Service permit.

That forest was doing its work long before the first chairlift. It shapes the runs and the snow on them, and helps feed the streams that water users downhill draw on, whether or not anyone pays. The resort depends on it, and so do others. **[ensurance](/explore?from=guide)** is built to give a living place like that an account, so the ones who depend on it can pay toward its keeping. The account is not the forest, and no account stops a fire.

## what burned, and what did not

The Caldor Fire burned more than 221,000 acres. At Sierra-at-Tahoe it reached about 1,600 of the resort's 2,000 acres, about 80% of the area, and the Forest Service says it affected up to 80% of the vegetation there.

Resort staff blasted snow cannons on the main structures and soaked the grounds ahead of the fire; the main structures at the base were left intact. Not everything was. The resort reported that the fire "practically melted" its upper maintenance shop, and chair lifts were damaged; new haul ropes went onto lifts in 2022.

The resort stayed closed for nearly all of the 2021–22 season. It opened for one festival weekend in April 2022, when its sales director said the skiing would be limited. It reopened on December 3, 2022, after crews took out more than 14,000 fire-damaged trees in the first phase of removal. Its West Bowl, the hardest-hit area, opened later that winter.

The base buildings stood. The lifts and a maintenance shop were damaged and the stands were burned, and the resort stayed closed for a year while the damage was repaired and the fire-damaged trees were cleared.

## the resort never owned the trees

Sierra-at-Tahoe runs on the Eldorado National Forest under a special use permit issued in 2017. When the hazard trees had to come down, the Eldorado National Forest authorized the work in a letter dated March 9, 2022, under that permit. This is common in American skiing: in 2014 the Forest Service counted 122 ski areas on national forest land, most of them under a ski area permit. Federal law requires a rental charge for those permits.

So the owner's desk holds two kinds of source. The gray ones are on the books: the permit and its rent, the lifts and haul ropes, the snowmaking pipes, the power that runs them, and the property policy that covers the lodge. The natural one is not: the condition of the forest the runs are cut through. The permit settles who may use the ground. It does not settle who pays to keep the forest on it.

The resort owned the lifts. It never owned the trees.

## the forest is the product and the fuel

A ski area depends on its forest in two ways at once.

The forest is the product. Tree skiing and gladed runs are trees. When the resort laid out its replanting, it said the plan "will help restore some of the incredible tree skiing and riding Sierra has long been known for." It also laid out the planting to shape the snow, with clusters that leave pockets of powder. That is the forest doing visible, sellable work.

The forest is also the fuel. The same stands that make the glades can carry a fire. A risk review that stops at the property line sees the lodge, the clearance around the buildings and the snowmaking capacity, the things an owner can inspect and spend on. It does not see the condition of the stands around the buildings, or what a fire through them would do to the product.

None of this says a different forest would have spared the resort. Caldor burned more than 221,000 acres, and a fire of that size runs past what any single stand or owner can hold back. The narrower point is about the map. What the season rested on was not on the resort's books, and a map that stops at the property line does not show it.

:::johnson
**a ski area's wildfire plan protects the lodge. its season depends on the forest around it and under it.** Put the forest on the map you plan from, next to the lifts, and ask who else stands on the same ground.

[see the wildfire resilience account →](/wildfire-resilience.syndicate?from=guide)
:::

## who else leaned on the same forest

The resort was not the only one leaning on that forest. The El Dorado Irrigation District reported that the fire affected up to 85% of the watersheds around its source water diversions. The same national forest and the same burn, though the sources do not place the district's diversions on the resort's slopes. In early November 2021, record rainfall over the burn scar washed sediment into Jenkinson Lake and Folsom Lake, and the district's treatment plants had to work harder; it said its treated water still met state and federal standards. The fire also damaged its flume and canal system, which carries about a third of its drinking water, and the district asked customers to continue a 15% voluntary reduction in water use.

That is a chain of links, twice: forest, ski area, the people who work and ski there; forest, the district's diversions, its customers. A natural source like this one usually serves many properties at once. That is why one fire reaches a whole market, and why the cost of keeping the source can be shared. The map of everyone standing on one place is its [serviceshed](/guide/what-is-a-serviceshed?from=guide), and the wider case that a business depends on places it never contracted with is [your place depends on a place](/guide/your-place-depends-on-a-place?from=guide).

## what keeping the forest looks like here

Real work is already under way, and none of it started with us. Under the resort's permit, the Eldorado National Forest, the resort and the El Dorado County Resource Conservation District (RCD) took down dead and dying trees within 150 feet of infrastructure and ski trails. The Forest Service has a vegetation management and trails analysis for the resort that lists fuels management among its purposes. The resort reports more than 16,000 seedlings planted in West Bowl, including red fir and Jeffrey pine, with the Forest Service and the RCD, and calls it "a multi-year project that spans generations."

Ensurance is built to add a way for those who depend on such a forest, a resort operator, a water district, an insurer with policies in its path, to pay toward that keeping through an account for the place. It would not replace the Forest Service, the permit, or the conservation district, and it is not insurance: it pays no claim ([what ensurance cannot do](/guide/what-ensurance-cannot-do?from=guide)). A person or group keeps the place and signs. An account settles nothing about who manages public land.

The live theme account for this work is [wildfire-resilience.syndicate](/wildfire-resilience.syndicate?from=guide). A named forest you depend on that has no account yet can be [suggested under it](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=wildfire-resilience.syndicate&name=Eldorado%20National%20Forest&from=guide) as a line to co-create. Why snow itself is a regional bill, not only a ski one, is in [when there's no snow, everyone pays](/guide/when-theres-no-snow?from=guide).

## the bill and the source

| | Sierra-at-Tahoe, Caldor Fire, 2021 |
|---|---|
| The property | A ski area of about 2,000 acres near South Lake Tahoe, with lifts, base buildings and snowmaking |
| The source | The Eldorado National Forest ground the runs are cut through, used under a Forest Service permit |
| Which bill it landed on | Protected earnings, a season nearly lost; and repair and replacement (haul ropes, a maintenance shop) ([the four bills](/guide/what-ensurance-saves-you?from=guide)) |
| Who else leaned on the same source | The El Dorado Irrigation District and its customers; the district reports the fire affected up to 85% of the watersheds around its source diversions |
| What keeping it looks like | Hazard-tree removal, fuels planning and replanting, already done by the Forest Service, the resort and the El Dorado County RCD |

What that dependence is worth paying for, and how a resort would set a ceiling on it, is the subject of [what a source is worth paying for](/guide/what-a-source-is-worth-paying-for?from=guide).

## next step

If you run a resort, a utility or a book of mountain policies, [talk through the sources outside your line →](/contact?from=guide&topic=outside-the-property-line). Or see how this applies to [corporations](/solutions/corporations?from=guide&topic=outside-the-property-line), [land stewards](/solutions/land-stewards?from=guide&topic=outside-the-property-line) and [insurers](/solutions/insurers?from=guide&topic=outside-the-property-line).

## frequently asked questions

### what does a ski resort wildfire put at risk?

More than the buildings. At Sierra-at-Tahoe in 2021 the main base buildings survived, but the fire reached about 80% of the resort, more than 14,000 damaged trees came down in the first phase, and the resort stayed closed for nearly a full season. The trees are part of the product, so a fire can take the season even when the lodge stands.

### who owns the forest a ski area runs on?

Often the public. In 2014 the Forest Service counted 122 ski areas on national forest land, most under a ski area permit, and federal law requires a rental charge for those permits. Sierra-at-Tahoe runs on the Eldorado National Forest under a permit issued in 2017.

### how do ski resorts prepare for wildfire?

One example: Sierra-at-Tahoe turned its snow guns on its buildings and grounds in 2021 as the fire approached. Since then it has removed hazard trees under its permit, and the Forest Service has planned fuels management at the resort. Ask also what happens to the forest outside the buildings, and who else depends on it.

## sources

[Spectrum News 1, "Sierra-at-Tahoe reopens after surviving the Caldor Fire," February 8, 2023](https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la/weather/2023/02/08/sierra-at-tahoe-reopens-after-surviving-the-caldor-fire) — Caldor burned more than 221,000 acres and 80% of the resort; more than 14,000 trees removed in summer 2022

[Sierra-at-Tahoe, Caldor Fire update](https://sierraattahoe.com/caldor-fire-update/) — About 1,600 of 2,000 acres affected; Upper Shop "practically melted"; more than 14,000 trees abated in phase 1; new haul ropes in 2022

[NBC Bay Area and AP, September 1, 2021](https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/lake-tahoe-ski-resorts-use-snow-making-machines-to-help-fight-wildfire/2646115/) — Snow guns sprayed on buildings and grounds; main structures at the base intact

[KCBS Radio, April 8, 2022](https://www.audacy.com/kcbsradio/news/local/fire-ravaged-sierra-at-tahoe-reopening-this-weekend-only) — One festival weekend with limited skiing; chair lifts and maintenance buildings damaged

[Sierra-at-Tahoe, West Bowl reopens, December 15, 2022](https://sierraattahoe.com/west-bowl-reopens-post-caldor-fire/) — Reopened December 3, 2022, after a year of closure; West Bowl most severely impacted

[CEQAnet, Caldor Emergency Fire Recovery, Sierra at Tahoe Hazard Trees Phase I](https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2022050115) — Special use permit issued 2017; Eldorado National Forest authorization of March 9, 2022; El Dorado County RCD as lead agency

[USDA Forest Service, Sierra-at-Tahoe Vegetation Management and Trails Analysis](https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/eldorado/projects/62099) — Resort about 12 miles west of South Lake Tahoe; fuels management among the purposes; Caldor affected up to 80% of the vegetation

[Sierra-at-Tahoe, a new start for tree skiing](https://sierraattahoe.com/sierra-at-tahoes-comeback-a-new-start-for-tree-skiing/) — More than 16,000 seedlings in West Bowl with the Forest Service and El Dorado RCD

[Federal Register, April 17, 2014](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2014-04-17/html/2014-08893.htm) — Of 122 ski areas on National Forest System lands, most are under a ski area permit

[16 U.S. Code § 497c](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/16/497c) — Rental charge required for ski area permits on national forest land

[WaterWorld, November 2, 2021](https://waterworld.com/residential-commercial/news/14306905/record-rainfall-over-caldor-fire-scar-increases-sediment-into-source-water-reservoirs-impacts-water-supply) — El Dorado Irrigation District: fire affected up to 85% of the watersheds around its source diversions; sediment in Jenkinson and Folsom lakes; flume and canal damage; a 15% voluntary reduction

## the series

1. [the loss started outside the property line](/guide/the-loss-started-outside-the-property-line?from=guide) — **read first:** one flooded factory, and every hospital that depends on it
2. [a hospital cannot store a watershed](/guide/a-hospital-cannot-store-a-watershed?from=guide) — Mission Hospital, Asheville, 2024
3. [a chip fab still waits for rain](/guide/a-chip-fab-still-waits-for-rain?from=guide) — Taiwan, 2021
4. [the factory was sound. the floodplain was full](/guide/the-factory-was-sound-the-floodplain-was-full?from=guide) — Thailand, 2011
5. [the office park stands where the marsh was](/guide/the-office-park-stands-where-the-marsh-was?from=guide) — Chennai, 2015
6. [a lot is not a home until the water is promised](/guide/a-lot-is-not-a-home-until-the-water-is-promised?from=guide) — Arizona, 2023
7. [the resort never owned the trees](/guide/the-resort-never-owned-the-trees?from=guide) — Sierra-at-Tahoe, 2021 (this post)
8. [every ship spends water the forest gathered](/guide/every-ship-spends-water-the-forest-gathered?from=guide) — the Panama Canal, 2023
9. [what a source is worth paying for](/guide/what-a-source-is-worth-paying-for?from=guide) — the dollars
10. [how to map what your property depends on](/guide/how-to-map-what-your-property-depends-on?from=guide) — the how-to