Ski resorts that operate on public lands may soon have more flexibility to expand year-round activities under a U.S. Forest Service rule finalized in March. The shift could help the industry adapt to less reliable snowfall.
As of 2023, 127 ski areas operated on Forest Service land. To qualify for a special-use permit — which can last up to 40 years — resorts must be primarily dedicated to skiing or other snow sports.
Congress opened the door to more summer recreation in 2011, expressly allowing activities like mountain biking, hiking and ziplining. But it required that those additions couldn’t change a resort’s core winter focus.
For more than a decade, the Forest Service defined that primary purpose using a test: most revenue had to come from skiing or other snow sports. But last month, the Forest Service removed the revenue test from the definition of a ski area.
Instead, the agency will evaluate ski areas on a case-by-case basis, considering factors like visitation, infrastructure, season length, investment and even whether it “looks and feels primarily like a ski area.”
“At some level, the Forest Service rule is saying, ‘We're going to know a ski area when we see it,’” said Murray Feldman, a Boise-based attorney who works with companies seeking permits on public lands.
In explaining the change, the Forest Service pointed to “significant fluctuations in seasonal snow conditions” that have made the revenue test less useful, saying many resorts “now rely more on revenue from non-skiing activities to stay solvent between years of greater snowfall.”
The shift follows one of the worst snow years in decades across parts of the West. Some small resorts didn’t run their lifts at all. Research suggests climate change could shrink Colorado’s ski season by weeks come midcentury.
Over the last decade, resorts have increasingly leaned into the summer season, adding events, chairlift rides, ropes courses and downhill mountain biking. About 80% of ski areas surveyed by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) in 2024 and 2025 reported offering summer activities, making up 12% of revenue.
NSAA argued against the revenue test when it was first proposed in 2013.
“Implementing the new definition will help position ski areas for long-term resilience without affecting their permit status with the federal government,” a spokesperson for the organization wrote this week.
Feldman echoed that the updated rule gives operators more flexibility in how they balance summer and winter business.
“You could now conceivably have an area where the non-ski use generates greater revenue,” he echoed. “So long as the area was primarily designed and managed for skiing, that's okay.”
Resorts would still need Forest Service approval for new construction or major changes. But Christy Germscheid, executive director of Ski New Mexico, said the new definition could increase priority for non-skiing projects like new summer trails.
“It is no longer just a winter business — that summer operation is becoming key and beneficial, and our customers love it,” she said.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
