Camp High Sierra is owned by the City of Los Angeles and was run by the City’s Park and Recreation Department since its founding in 1921. It was a family camp with cabins, meals, outings and programs, and nighttime square dancing, but it changed into a campground after a fire burned down most of the cabins. Since 2012, it has been managed by the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area (MMSA) and now they have other plans for it.

MMSA wants to put a ski lift and two ski runs in that would mean clearing a sizeable portion of the forest, shrinking the camp area, and exposing the campground to the noise and traffic of the Town of Mammoth Lakes. The camp would lose the buffer zone of forest between Eagle Lodge and the center of the camp; the forest that gave it the true camping feel.  Part of that buffer zone where the ski runs would be would also be on USFS land. 

This plan would also erase the cultural resources at a Numu summer camp used for thousands of years. Many cultural resources in and around the Town of Mammoth Lakes have already been erased. The staging area for motocross and the SnowCreek developments have destroyed cultural resources. Now MMSA would inflict more hurt on the Tribes. 

The question is why would a ski resort expand in the face of dwindling snowpack and droughts? Another ski lift and additional ski runs means more snowmaking at a time when we are already suffering the consequences of climate change. These ski runs would be at a lower elevation on an eastern exposure that would require constant snowmaking to keep them covered.  Snowmaking uses water that becomes unusable, salty water when the snow melts. Hundreds of trees would be removed and cultural resources exposed or destroyed. Do we really need to destroy the current camp and the pre-historic camp site for another beginner run?

The City’s Park and Rec staff was going to make recommendations to the Recreation and Parks Board of Commissioners’ task force this month, but it was not in line with what MMSA proposed. MMSA rescinded their proposal. They may be back with a different plan though.