Written by Chris Ludwig

Created: 16 March 2016

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Stop Garibaldi at Squamish Poster for higher resolution version of the poster below

Brohm Ridge Custom Map for Garibaldi at Squamish Resort Maps

What Is Garibaldi at Squamish?  (The Article Below comes from http://savebrohm.org) (Website Defunct)

The Garibaldi at Squamish (GAS) proposal includes 22,500 bed units, (1,770 hotel units, 5,723 housing units) 24 ski lifts, 3 gondolas, 3 day lodge facilities, 500,000 square feet of commercial space, 100 km of new road, one large water storage dam, a waste water treatment plant, water pump house and all infrastructure necessary to pump water and power to the resort from an aquifer located in the Paradise Valley several kilometers down hill and across the highway from Brohm Ridge. The current total development area covers roughly 2,775 hectares, while the total study area outlined in the GAS Master Plan is closer to 5,000 hectares. For some perspective on how big this is, picture the Squamish Estuary located at the south end of town; it encompasses 673 hectares. The GAS study area is over seven times bigger than the Squamish Estuary. A recent amendment to the proposal excludes the two 18 hole golf courses which were planned to surround Cat Lake and the area at the southern end of Brohm Lake. However, to date the area planned for the golf courses and surrounding residential development has not been excluded in the total GAS study area. The resort parameters border Garibaldi Provincial Park and Alice Lake Provincial Park, both of which are highly sensitive ecological areas.

If the GAS Proposal gets the green light from the BC Provincial Liberal Government, this roughly 5,000 hectare area of Crown Land will be available for sale to GAS developers at $5,000 per acre, WAY below market value, as per the BC Alpine Ski Resort Resort Policy. For more information about this, please see:

http://wcel.org/resources/environmental-law-alert/bargain-basement-prices-bc-public-lands

External Links on the GAS Proposal:

Say No to GAS on facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=365824140202953&tab=public&section=short_desc&view#!/SayNoToGas

The Brohm Ridge Biosphere Reserve Proposal on Facebook, a potentially viable alternative to GAS:

https://www.facebook.com/friends/requests/?fcref=rup#!/pages/Brohm-Ridge-Biosphere-Reserve/488916407839585

Written by Chris Ludwig

Created: 15 February 2016

Hits: 3722

Garibaldi At Squamish Assessment Report

GASAssessmentReportByEnvironmentalAssessmentOffice2010May17.pdf Prepared by the Environmental Assessment Office, May 17, 2010 and considered by the Minister of Environment, Honourable Mary Polak when approving the issuance of the Environmental Assessment Certificate in January 2016.

Selected quotes

Page 70

The 2003 Application predicts a maximum of 240 hectares, or about 5%, of the high and moderately high winter habitat for mountain goats within the study area would be impacted by ski run development. Aerial surveys suggest that only a small portion of this potentially impacted habitat is actually used by mountain goats. The base development would potentially impact another 57 hectares of this high and moderately high winter habitat. Impacts on mountain goat habitat during the growing season are estimated to be similar.

2020 Commentary

This illustrates the double standard applied by BC Parks and FLNRO to the alleged impact of hikers passing no closer that 300 meters to mountain goat winter range designated MQ-4 on Darling Ridge. The Natural Resource Officers claim the impact from those hikers who are nowhere near goat winter range is so great that hiking the ridge is an unacceptable activity with dire consequences for mountain goats. Yet, on Brohm Ridge, apparently goat winter range on the order of 300 hectares can be overrun with ski area and base area development without detrimental impact to mountain goats. That includes industrial activity, mechanized operation, avalanche control using explosives, helicopter access for operations and heli-skiing. (Yes, heli-skiing! Apparently, GAS factors into its visitation number 1650 person days of heli-skiing per year.) Annual visitation numbers published by GAS estimate 700,000 to 1,000,000 annual visitors. The EAO says it is a completely acceptable impact on MQ-1, the largest mountain goat winter range in the Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton corridor. But, a few hikers a week on Darling Ridge? The impact is so devastating to mountain goats that it cannot be allowed.

From GAS' own consulting firm, ENKON, no one has any idea where the goats in MQ-1 go when they disperse for summer forage. They don't know where the birthing sites are. The don't know where the goats are. They don't seem to know very much. But they know enough to know there is no impact on mountain goats.

Comments by Mountain Resort Branch for GAS Environmental Assessment Review

2020 Commentary

On page 2, Mountain Resorts Branch comments on Garibaldi At Squamish's projection of 1650 heli-skier visits per year.

This single projection by GAS confirms that which is so obvious to anyone in the backcountry community. GAS does not want just lower Brohm Ridge outside the existing park boundary, it wants all of Brohm Ridge, Warren Glacier and Mount Garibaldi as part of its operation.

It will accomplish that by first going for heli-skiing permits inside Garibaldi Park on Mount Garibaldi and Mamquam Icefield. These are the closest and best heli-skiing locations close to Brohm Ridge. After a few years, whereby the public has been "softened up" with mechanized access inside the park, it will ultimately seek to expand the controlled recreation area onto Mount Garibaldi itself by taking the entire northeast quadrant of the mountain out of the park. Lifts will run from the base at the head of Culliton Creek up Warren Glacier to the top of Mount Garibaldi. Another lift will extend from The Sharkfin to the top of Warren Glacier. The CRA expansion will effectively sever Elfin Lakes from the rest of Garibaldi Park. The Garibaldi Neve traverse will run right through the CRA. And GAS will do this the way Whistler-Blackcomb grabs huge chunks out of Garibaldi Park - behind closed doors with the B.C. Cabinet and the blessing of thousands of powder-starved recreational skiers.

Access through the CRA will be restricted to ticket holders. The only backcountry approach to Mount Garibaldi will be the upper Bishop Glacier on the east side of the mountain. It will no longer be possible to ascend Mount Garibaldi from Warren Glacier.

Mountain goats will have long disappeared from this part of the park. They simply will not be able to tolerate the year round presence of thousands of humans, mechanized activity, habitat loss and the severance of the migration corridor between winter and summer range.

The softening up process alluded to will occur by marketing and promoting extreme heli-skiing and snowboarding. There will be photo ops, financial support to big names willing to lend a hand by promoting their careers at the expense of the park.

Garibaldi At Squamish Mountain Goat Assessment

GAS-SupplementalApplicationCh8MountainGoat.pdf