SkiLink is a proposed connection of the Canyons Resort and Solitude Mountains Resort by gondola. Four members of Utah's Congress introduced legislation to create SkiLink, but did so without any input from the people of Utah. This proposal puts a watershed that "over 600,000 Salt Lake Valley residents depend upon" in danger! If Created, SkiLink would cut through pristine uninhabited wilderness, and could incourage development of this land. There are far to many environmental risks associted with this "transportation solution."
It might not be a transportation solution as suggested, but in fact quite the opposite. Every user needs to spend 1.5 hours sitting in a chair, ride at least four lifts, and get ski passes to both areas (abt. $164 per person). And at first, they will need to stabilize the "avalanch prone slopes". This is not a solution.
What the canyons and the Utah population really need is a environmentally friendly way to get from resort to resort that provides real solutions to transportation problems. SkiLink is not what we need. Please help to protect Utah wilderness and stop a damaging non-solution to transportation problems.
Stop SkiLink: http://stopskilink.org/
SkiLink's official website: http://www.skilink.com/
Attn:
Utah Governor Gary Herbert
US Congressmen Rob Bishop, Jason Chaffetz, and Jim Matheson
US Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee
Members of the Utah Legislature
You recently proposed SkiLink, a solution to Utah transportation problems. This gondola will be built with "environmentally sensitive construction." While this is an important factor in the building of such a thing, SkiLink would still cut through an Inventoried Roadless Area, and would jeopardize a watershed that hundreds of thousands of people in Utah depend on. Even if SkiLink is built with minimal environmental damage, it could lead to more development in the area. While I respect your want of a solution to transportation problems, SkiLink would cause many more transportation problems, such as an increase in traffic in Big Cottonwood Canyon, which is usually at its parking capacity in the winter already. There are alternatives to this proposal, and many more to be thought of in the future that would solve transportation issues without creating more, while protecting wilderness more than SkiLink would.
On behalf of the environment, the people of Utah, and the many organizations and groups opposed to SkiLink, I urge you to do what you can to stop SkiLink from becoming a reality.
Sincerely, Landis Baxter-Howard, a fourteen-year-old resident of Emigration Canyon.
