Ski-field road report released

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 6

Ski-field road report released

The Nelson Lakes National Park Board has released for public comment an environmental impact assessment on a proposal to link the Mount Robert ski-field by road.' The ski-field, which is having its busiest season,'ever, has road access only part of the way. Skiers who want to reach the field either drive that far and then walk, often through heavy snow, for two hours through bush and open ground to the ski-ing area, or take a helicopter from St Arnaud (at lake level) to the ski-field at a cost of $2l. <The Nelson Ski Club, whose membership has. risen from about 520 in 1975 to about 740, has sought to have! the road built.

The assessment' was prepared bv staff of the Department of Lands and Survey, Nelson, for the board.

The completion of the assessment would, enable the board to decide on one of several options to confirm, amend the conditions of or rescind its 1974 decision to approve in principle the reading project, subject to conditions. Looking at the potential of the Mount Robert field, the assessment says that the] Nelson Ski Club considered!

that the potential for expansion in the second basin of the field could satisfy the demand forski-ing in the region for many years and that 2000 to 3000 skiers could be catered for without overcrowding. The club.said there was an “enormous” area in the second basin which could be developed. The conclusions reached in the assessment will be of no great help to the board members. The assessment says that, it did not see as its function to recommend in favour of any one particular Option but to establish the options and set out the facts. The board, after an initial 30 minutes in committee to discuss procedural matters,

spent little time in open meeting discussing the report. It decided to release it to the public for comment, allow-

ing four weeks for those comments to be made, and to discuss the assessment at a special meeting on September 29. It will also advise the National Parks Authority that until the board has made a recommendation on the assessment, the authority’s planning and classification committee should make no recommendation on it.