Moonlight Basin

Moonlight Basin: green factor

• Introduction to green factor assessments
• Environmental overview of resorts
• Environmental initiatives

Major Initiatives

Some view ski area development as environmentally insensitive. But Moonlight Basin, in southwest Montana is endeavoring to prove that a growing ski area and sound conservation policies aren’t mutually exclusive.

The resort’s ongoing environmental programs has earned it several Silver Eagle and Golden Eagle awards, issued annually to the North American ski resorts with the best environmental programs.

Moonlight Basin was originally a 25,000 acre tract owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad. Railroads were granted large tracts of land throughout Montana back in the 1800s, primarily to ensure access to trees for use as railroad ties.

Resort owner Lee Poole and his partners were well acquainted with the parcel. They had hiked and hunted on the terrain for years. When Burlington Northern announced its intention to sell the parcel, the partners got in a rather long line of interested buyers. Poole and his partners submitted the winning bid.

The goal from the outset, said Poole, was “to preserve the land, return as much of it as possible to its natural state, and ensure that development of select portions was carried forward in a responsible manner.”

Poole’s goal was challenging, in that large portions of the land showed the effects of earlier logging practices that fell far short of today’s standards. Prior to the purchase, large areas of the Moonlight Basin parcel had been scarred by nearly a century of casual logging practices.

Preserving Wild Lands
Moonlight’s owning partners have created a plan to set aside large portions of the 39-square-mile tract as a preserve.

To date, approximately half of the parcel has already been placed in permanent conservation easements, and the group is currently considering plans to provide protection to additional areas. So much of the land is off limits that Poole and other wildlife devotees from the state release rehabilitated game animals in remote areas of the resort’s land.

Poole’s team also brought in foresters, water resource consultants and wildlife experts to study the rest of the area and guide their projects. As a result of these efforts, thousands of acres of mountain terrain are now recovering beautifully, with thick new growth of native vegetation.

Ski Resort Development Recommended By Wildlife Expert To Help Wildlife
Moonlight’s owning partners knew that the area had significant ski potential but awaited judgment from their wildlife expert, who had recently retired from the Montana Fish and Game Department.

“He surprised us one day,” said Poole, “when, after studying the mountain, he said ‘I highly recommend you put skiing there. It’s full usage of the land.’ I asked what he meant, and he said that ‘currently the forest is so thick and dark that it doesn’t allow light to hit the ground. There’s no food for animals. If you cut ski runs and plant these seven species of grasses, you’ll have food. Deer, elk and moose will come up in the summer and go down into the protected areas on the other side of the property in the winter. Animals use the mountain in the summer; people use it in the winter, that’s 100% use of the land.’”

Recent surveys revealed that the elk population on the land has more than doubled since the partners’ original purchase. The transition zone between forest and open terrain also provides excellent cover for birds and small mammals.

Praise From Environmental Activists
These efforts have led to praise from environment-watchers. In the book Enviro-Capitalists: Doing Good While Doing Well (© 1997, Rowman & Littlefield), authors Terry Anderson and Donald Leal note the efforts made by Moonlight Basin and the fact that environmental opposition had subsided.

The book quotes a former member of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a Montana-based environmental group, as saying that the owners “deserve a lot of credit for putting forth a thoughtful and wildlife-sensitive plan for how their holdings are going to be managed in the future.”

At build out, ski development will include approximately 3,500 acres of terrain, with a small portion of the partners’ original purchase developed for ski terrain and home ownership. The remainder will be preserved by the partners and landowners as permanent forest and wildlife habitat.

Waste Reduction and Recycling
Moonlight Basin minimizes disposal of materials such as cans, bottles and office paper.

All food and beverage outlets utilize re-usable serviceware. In the Pony Express Day Lodge, paper-lined plastic baskets are used to present all food items. The disposal of one sheet of biodegradable wax-lined paper marks a significant decrease in trash creation from conventional burger/sandwich wrappers and French fry containers. In the Madison and Moonlight day lodges, all food is served on completely reusable serviceware – including plates and cutlery.

Because there is no organized recycling/returnable program in the region, Moonlight Basin collects cans and bottles in all public spaces and holds them for pickup. The local non-profit Humane Society collects them and sells them by the pound to a local collection business which reprocesses the raw materials.

As with returnables, the lack of centralized recycling programs limits the ability of the resort to recycle office paper. However, the resort works hard to limit the amount of office paper used, and collects waste paper in separate containers so that paper used on one side can be used for printing drafts and proofs and for use as note pads.

Resort Development
Siting of real estate units and building envelopes take into account maximizing view sheds and protecting corridors. Moonlight Basin does allow for limited tree removal for building sites, but does not permit blanket logging on tracts. This creates a "nested" home environment with houses tucked into the trees. Building guidelines require use of materials that blend with the landscape, including the use of stone, timbers, neutral colour tones, and roofs that blend with the environment. As a result, most homes blend with the landscape instead of being visible from the mountain.

Environmental Education
In an effort to help educate area residents about the area’s natural history and environment, Moonlight Basin partners with Montana State University in Bozeman to support the Big Sky Institute, which conducts regular presentations by scientists and researchers with special knowledge of the region.

Topics covered by recent lectures have included Fire and Ice: Climate Change and Melting Mountains; Yellowstone geologic history and future disasters presented by Kenneth L. Pierce, Scientist Emeritus, U.S. Geological Survey and Human population of wildlands: a history and future effects in the Greater Yellowstone area.

Traffic Reduction
Moonlight Basin has created a car pool program for staffers living outside the immediate Big Sky area. Employees who register with the program can receive up to $5 per day from the company for utilizing car pools instead of their own cars. As an additional benefit, less space is required for employee parking areas, which means less land is disturbed for parking purposes.

Within the resort community, Moonlight Basin has initiated a shuttle service throughout the Big Sky area. Although Moonlight Basin is a small resort, it shares a boundary with Big Sky resort, which, in terms of skiable acreage, is one of the largest resorts in the United States. The area has hundreds of lodging facilities, vacation home developments, shops and other services.

In order to reduce traffic on the central road running through the larger resort area, Moonlight Basin operates an on-demand shuttle service to all lodging and vacation home developments in the resort area. The resort hopes that as it becomes better known and more guests visit the area, the availability of the shuttle service will promote usage of limos or taxis from Bozeman Airport and use of shuttles while in the area, rather than car rentals which effectively encourage more automobile usage.

Water conservation:
Moonlight Basin’s water conservation policies center on three components: domestic water, wastewater and surface water. The resort utilizes modern techniques to manage all three.

Approximately eight years ago, Moonlight Basin created its own utility company – “Treeline Springs” – to manage domestic water and wastewater services for its development. Two original tracts of the resort complex, which stand separately from current development efforts, utilize standalone wells and individual septic systems, but the vast majority of the resort – including the ski area – utilize Treeline Springs services.

Domestic water is supplied by two major wells which feed a large storage cistern. In that the Company has an interest in minimizing the amount of domestic water used on its property – both from a supply and treatment standpoint – all toilets on premises meet or exceed 1.5 g.p.f. low flow standards. Although the existing wastewater system – which is based on a trickle filtration system – is comparatively new, the resort is replacing it with a new, oxidation ditch system. The new system will handle the ebbs and flows of seasonal use better, and require less maintenance. It may also prove to offer significant advantages in water conservation as the resort grows.

Although the region is reasonably well supplied with fresh water, the resort’s owners have a longstanding ethic of resource conservation (indeed, land protection was one of the primary reasons for their original purchase of the Moonlight Basin site). Consequently, the owners’ intent from the start was minimal impact on the land.

Since resorts are continuously increasing and improving their environmental practices, we update the Green Resort Guide throughout the year. If you have any information about new resort environmental policies/practices or anything that you think we may have missed, please email greenresortguide@skiclub.co.uk.