Unlike other similar-size mountain ranges around the world, the Alps have a dense population which is accumulated by millions of toerist. As a result all the thousands of tourist who stay each week in Val Thorens (30.000 beds) in the winterseason have a huge impact on the environment. For example all these tourist needs to come and go via one small road each weekend and all these people need electicity, water, food, etc. and leave a lot of polution behind when they leave. In Val Thorens for example, they find each year under one of the popular ski lifts, more than 30.000 cigarette ends.......

Fortunately a lot of people are caring about the environment and try to develop the wintersport activities in a substainable way in order to be able to enjoy it also in the far future. One of the major decisions was already taken in the 60's when skiing areas like Val Thorens, Tignes and Les Arcs were developped but when the French government also decided that next to these skiing areas there should be areas where wildlife can be preserved. As a result the National Parc de la Vanoise was declared France first National Park in 1963. With 530 sq km it is one of the biggest national parcs in Europe and is located on the south side of the skiing areas of the Tarentaise Valley (Val Thorens, Meribel, Courchevel, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Tignes and Val d'Isere) from broadly Val Thorens to the Italian Border. The National Parc de la Vanoise is from the Italian border connected with one of the Italian National Parcs, the National Parc Grand Paradiso. In these National Parcs you can see a lot of Marmots, Chamois, Alpine Ibex (see below) and large Eagles.

But what does Val Thorens do specifically to preserve the mountains?

Major Initiatives

Preserving the Environment

The environment has always been a major preoccupation of the Town Council, lead by its mayor André Plaisance, and the services of the three resorts. Rubbish selection, tree planting, architectural and landscape improvements, grass seeding on the pistes, energy economy … numerous actions are continually undertaken to preserve the natural heritage of the Valley.


Green Power User
There's solar heating for the Gébroulaz OPAC building in Val Thorens and the installation of a low energy system for street lighting.

Partners of the Mountain Riders
Inspired by the blue flags awarded to seaside resorts, the Mountain Riders work actively to create an environmental charter for ski resorts. Saint Martin, Les Menuires and Val Thorens are partners with Mountain Riders.

In order to inform and educate environmental respect in the mountains, the resort has undertaken various actions including displaying pro-active posters, the sale of pocket ash trays at tourist offices, encouraging car sharing and spring cleaning operations.

Complementary actions undertaken by the Saint Martin de Belleville Town Council
The Town Council has always been aware that it must protect the unique natural heritage that it owns. For several years now, it has undertaken an active environmental policy and has been determined to create a synergy between all the
different businesses and organisations in the Belleville Valley.

Its actions include:
In the ski area: Conservation of two thirds of the ski area in its natural state, limiting the number of ski lifts, the aesthetic development of the ski lift departure and arrival points, grass covering of the pistes and so on

Landscaping: This includes everything from flowers decorating the houses and villages, over ground cables put under ground, maintenance of the streams and rivers, replanting of trees (about 200,000 trees planted over the last 20 years in Les Menuires and Val Thorens).

There's also an ongoing fight against pollution: rubbish treatment, spring cleaning days, installation of a rubbish dump.

Fauna is protected in hunting reserves forming a protected area of 6,000 hectares as well as aid to conserve agriculture in the valley.

The post of Head of Environmental Issues has been created at the Town Hall.

It also participates in the organisation of events to make tourists and locals more aware of the environmental issues:

Local Awareness
A discussion seminar about "environmental awareness in ski resorts " was staged in December 2005 in Les Menuires, organised by the association "Tomorrow, living in the Belleville Valley".

Stopping the Butts
Val Thorens is concerned at the number of cigarette ends it finds under its lifts each Spring snow melt. The total can reach as many as 30,000 below just one of the more popular access chairs. The resort believes that they're a major environmental hazard, with each individual cigarette end likely to contaminate a cubic metre of water.

Stressing that they are not launching an anti-smoking capaign, just a "responsible disposal of cigarette butts campaign", the tourist office has added a glass box that will display the thousands of cigarette butts picked up alongside an exhibition showing the long-term environmental damage caused by man-made trash.

Two thousand pocket containers designed to hold used cigarettes are also being sold to skiers at a subsidised price.

Three Valleys Go Green
In the continuing trend to identify and quantify the efforts mde by ski resorts to minimise their environmental impact, Courchevel in France has detailed what the Three Valleys, the world’s largest ski area, is doing in this regard.

The Three Valleys, which operates 1,920 snow cannons, 183 ski lifts and 67 trail groomers uses entirely hydro-electric power for its electricity requirements. This full enewable energy is provided by the Gaz Electruicite Company of Grenoble using power generated by small hydro-power centres in the French Alps. The area also uses biodegradable diesel in all its company vehicles.

For snowmaking the Three Valleys chose the Ariondaz Dam – a hilltop location that had minimal impact on the existing topography and is located in an area where no protected species live. The lake has a capacity of 123000 square metres of which about a quarter is available year round if ever required for fire fighting purposes.

The installation of the new Chapalets Chair is another example of good environmental practice. The lift pylons were anchored directly on to existing rocks to avoid the need for creating new concrete tower bases. The cables are marked to warn birds that might fly in to them. The company is also creating new meadow pasture to help preserve the endangered indigenous black grouse species.

Other initiatives in the area include the collection of rubbish from the pistes organised by the Anne Cattelin Association – an ex freeerider from Courchevel. Organic toilets have also been intalled at the base of the ski lifts. All old lift installations are dismantled and recycled once their working life is complete. A three fold waste processing and recycling stystem has also been introduced and skiers and boarders visiting the three valleys are encouraged to participate in maximising this scheme.