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New owners go for new-look ski operation in Cypress Provincial Park.

Open house tonight and Saturday to unveil plans as Cypress gets ready to host 2010 Games events. Large tracks of old growth forest will no longer be logged to increase ski terrain for the 2010 Olympics in Cypress Provincial Park.

Open house tonight and Saturday to unveil plans as Cypress gets ready to host 2010 Games events.

Large tracks of old growth forest will no longer be logged to increase ski terrain for the 2010 Olympics in Cypress Provincial Park.

And the idea of building a huge restaurant and bar at the top of Strachan Mountain and a gondola to service it have also been abandoned.

The new development plan, just announced by the ski operations owner, Boyne Resorts, may finally put to rest the controversy which has plagued Cypress ever since ski operations began to expand over a decade ago.

"It sounds like Cypress is always synonymous with controversy," said John Kircher, a principle owner of Boyne Canada and president of Cypress Bowl Recreations Limited Partnership.

"My feeling is that when you are in the entertainment business you are trying to get people to have fun and that image of controversy is not a good idea. You should be associated with fun and recreation and the things your business does.

"It is time to bury this hatchet which has been flying around for so long. I really think this is one of the most important things.

"It is a chance for all the groups to come together and reach an agreement and this will relieve a lot of pressure that is on both sides and I think it results in a fantastic addition to skiing."

Kircher’s decision will take Cypress out of commercial summer business, a direction being pursued by previous owners, and outlined in their Master Plan which received government approval in July 1997.

"The plan will improve our winter business and it is going to keep us out of summer operations, which I think, is fine," said Kircher, whose father started Boyne Resorts in 1947. Today the company is the firth largest ski resort operator in North America.

"We are a skiing area and that is what we do very well. We had a record year and had a fantastic financial result."

Kircher’s announcement has been cautiously welcomed by Friends of Cypress Provincial Park Society, a watchdog group which has fought long and hard to protect the old growth forest and other areas with the provincial park.

"For Mr. Kircher to say, ‘I want to save the trees, I consider myself an environmentalist,’ that is a breakthrough," said Alex Wallace a spokesperson for the group.

"The new owner has come to the conclusion that he can save the big trees and move his development to a clear cut and still have the same skier capacity with 4,946 skiers on the mountain.

"This is good news. But I am a little bit cautious after 10 years of slogging away in this controversial saga."

The new plan will be unveiled at an open house to be held in the cafeteria at Cypress today (July 12) from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

There is a time crunch, as the plan must be approved by various government ministries before it can go ahead.

And Cypress Recreations needs the approval before they can agree to host snowboard and freestyle skiing events for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Cypress was chosen by the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation because of its proximity to Vancouver, the three lane road leading to the ski hill, and its terrain.

Contracts must be in place by early fall so that the bid corporation can use them in its full bid book, which outlines in some detail, the plans for hosting the Games.

The full bid book goes to the International Olympic Committee in January of 2003.

Kircher said the revamp of the development plan was underway before he had discussions with the bid corporation about what their needs were on the mountains. But he said once they began to outline their vision the plan clicked in his mind.

Now the proposal is to run a lift up the more eastern face of Black Mountain to service the area prepared for the Olympic events. This will entail the selective clearing of 2.2 hectares of old growth.

But this is considerably less cutting than previously proposed.

Kircher, who describes himself as a "true conservationist," had a small epiphany regarding old growth while skiing Cypress this past winter.

"I was skiing down Humpty Dumpty and I looked over and I thought it was just wrong," said Kircher referring to the logging of the old growth for development.

"It should not be. In this day and age it is the wrong thing to do.

"As an environmental person I want to balance these things with my business, but it was the wrong thing to do."

As a businessman Kircher was sure to realize how troublesome it could be for the International Olympic Committee, which claims environmentalism as one of its pillars, to agree to have events hosted on land previously covered by old growth forest.

Not to mention the impact of well-organized watchdog groups, who after such a long time battling for the preservation of Cypress Park, have become very media savvy in getting their messages out.

While Kircher is excited about the possibility of the Games coming to Cypress he is firm in his belief the Olympics will do little in the long term for the area.

"At the end of the day a local skier or snowboarder goes to Cypress because it is close and convenient," he said.

"For anything more they go to Whistler or the Interior. They come because it is outside their back door.

"People aren’t really going to be influenced to come because it had the Olympics. The Olympics for Cypress is really a two week event and then it is gone."

That’s why Kircher’s development plans are addressing other issues for the mountains and not just the area affected by Games events.

Other lifts have already been upgraded and several runs will be widened. New buildings will be constructed for the Nordic and alpine areas as previously planned.

Snow making will also be introduced on the mountains for the first time.

But unlike the two previous proposals, which called for a two-acre reservoir, snowmaking water will come from Cypress Creek and be carried by pipes to cover the area used for Games events.

Wallace is concerned about the snowmaking plans.

"We still don’t have all the information yet," he said.

"But the fact that they have decided to take the development and the mountain top restaurant out of the old growth and the untouched alpine meadow and put it in the big clear cut, we feel that is a positive overall for the park and its users."

Kircher said it is likely the snowmaking pipe locations will be moved after the Games to other areas.

According to the bid corporation’s recently-released mini bid book Cypress is slated to get $9.4 million worth of upgrades for the Games. The money will cover the cost of snowmaking, a contribution to the new lift on Black Mountain, improvements to parking and other items.

Kircher said previous plans to build a two-tiered parkade are being reconsidered.

He is unhappy with how the structure would fit into the landscape and there are logistical problems with keeping it free of snow in the winter.

There are also plans to revegitate some of the scars on the mountains and plans for a new hike may also come to pass, said Wallace.

"It appears the new owner has done everything everyone has asked him to," he said.

"Now we just need to have a meaningful public process."