Welcome to Packwood Vacations

Historically, people lived in lowlands. Except for logging and some agricultural uses, mountains were mostly left to the birds. But in recent decades, mountain regions in many parts of the world-including Vermont-have faced growing development pressures from recreation and tourism uses such as vacation homes and ski areas.

Despite these new uses, most scientific studies of soil and water in high-elevation areas have focused on the effects of traditional resource extraction, like logging. How ski resort developments impact watersheds is little understood.

In the first study to document the effects of existing ski resort development on water flows and water quality in the northeastern US, Beverley Wemple, associate professor of geography at the University of Vermont, and her colleagues, have studied two side-by-side mountain watersheds on the eastern slopes of Mount Mansfield in Vermont. The nearly pristine Ranch Brook watershed served as a control, while the adjacent West Branch watershed contains the Stowe Mountain Resort.