Open AccessAbandoned mines, mountain sports, and climate variability: Implications for the Colorado tourism economy
Author(s) -
Todd Andrew,
McKnight Diane,
Wyatt Lane
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2003eo380002
Subject(s) - tourism , recreation , resource (disambiguation) , natural resource economics , environmental planning , environmental protection , geography , political science , archaeology , economics , computer network , computer science , law
Until recently, the allure of the mountains in the American West was primarily extractive, for commodities like timber, water, and precious metals [ Baron et. al. , 2000]. Now, the effective marketing and management of the regions “white gold” by the ski industry has stimulated significant recreation‐related growth and development in the last several decades. Under an uncertain climatic future, however, these burgeoning industries, and the communities that have grown up in relation to them, are facing water quality constraints inherited from historical mining practices, causing mountain water to become a limited resource more valuable than the precious metals of the past. Further, the current lack of proven, in‐situ approaches for addressing distributed, mining waste pollution of fresh water complicates potential remediation efforts.