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Snow Farm’s Trail Protection Project is looking to muster up $170,000 for snow fencing to protect the skifield’s trails for years to come.
Snow Farm has described the project as the most significant community infrastructure investment in the ski area’s history as a charitable trust, with the project looking to install 2200m of snow fencing at essential sections of its trail network.
General manager Sam Lee said snow fencing helped to shelter the skifield’s natural snow from high winds.
“When the wind blows it strips the trails and can often just take all the snow away,” Mr Lee said.
“With a snow fence it breaks the wind, allowing enough wind to get through for the snow to just drop nicely on the trail and form what we call a wind drift.”
Snow Farm had no snow-making facilities, meaning when high winds blew away existing snow, the trails had to close, the media release said.
Mr Lee said while the present focus was to secure natural snow through fencing, snow-making would be part of the skifield’s future, with the planned snow fences set to play a complimentary role.
“The great thing about snow fencing is that once we reach the point of being able to make snow, the fences will still continue to play a vital part in the trail network.”
Snow Farm ran at a marginal profit to ensure the skifield was accessible to the community, but that hampered its ability to invest in large-scale projects, he said.
“That’s why we’re reaching out to the public.”
The fundraising campaign is set to close on October 31, with installation of the fences to take place over summer.