Resort to answer charges of cutting endangered trees

CALGARY A world-renowned Alberta ski resort faces some legal moguls in a Calgary courtroom Monday over charges it cut down a stand of endangered trees.

The ski resort in Banff National Park is expected to appear in court to address charges laid after it came to light that, in 2013, resort employees had cut down at least 39 whitebark pine trees.

That long-lived, five-needled pine, native to high elevations, is threatened by invasive disease, fire and climate change. It is considered crucial to a high-elevation network of plants and animals, providing both food and habitat and stabilizing steep subalpine slopes.

Resort spokesman Dan Markham acknowledges the trees were cut. Workers were conducting routine thinning of trees alongside a run to improve skier safety, he said.

Markham said the workers were unaware the trees were endangered. The whitebark pine had only been added to the list the year before, along with a series of other species.

“The employees had not been directed by us at that time and there wasn’t a permit to do that particular (work),” said Markham. “A month later, when we did our walk-around with Parks Canada, we noticed that it looked like a number of these trees had been (cut).”

Markham said thousands of the trees remain within the resort boundaries.