Proposing the combination of ski resorts servicing the Wasatch Front may seem “idyllic, effortless and glittering,” but these would not be my first choice of words I’d use to describe some of my recent sojourns to the white mountains of the Wasatch. With our canyons becoming more popular than ever, the sheer number of people accessing our mountains has no room for growth, and proposing a massive interlinking between resorts would only expedite that growing process.

The primary purpose of our local mountain range is to provide water to a large majority of the Salt Lake Valley, not to become a European ski resort. With the extreme population growth seen throughout Salt Lake County in recent years, we need to do all we can to preserve this precious resource for current and future generations.

Building infrastructure that brings even more traffic to our resorts is not the move Utah needs to make in a time like this, for it will only bring in more visitors, requiring greater need for hotels, restaurants and public utilities. The aftermath of these plans would result in even more natural resources — water being a primary source of concern — being pulled and polluted rather than preserved and protected from our watersheds.

Although growth is usually seen as a positive, the fact is our natural environment cannot grow any more. Its size will not vary nor change, but human impacts on our lands certainly can. Let’s fix our current solution and deal with the current number of visitors to our canyons before we create a new and even bigger problem.

Caroline Weiler

Provo