Kirkwood repurposing ski resort’s trees via on-site mill

Milled wood at Kirkwood with the downed timber behind it. (Image: Carly Mangan)

What Kirkwood Mountain Resort is doing with actual wood is turning heads nationally.

The National Ski Areas Association this year singled out Kirkwood with the Innovation in Sustainability award.

“Kirkwood Mountain Resort’s wood mill exemplified how local material reuse, ecological stewardship and guest‑facing improvements can meaningfully intersect within a mountain‑resort environment,” Tonya Riley with NSAA said. “This wood mill operates as a creative sustainability initiative that supports forest health and wildfire mitigation work by repurposing fallen and hazardous trees into usable lumber …. This approach keeps wood material on-site and in active use, reducing waste while improving guest and employee amenities and enhancing safety around mountain infrastructure.”

The mill became operational in 2021. It’s the only Vail Resorts property with such a facility.

The concept was developed to meet Kirkwood’s sustainability goals, which include:

• Strengthening forest health and supporting wildfire mitigation efforts.
• Reducing material waste and eliminating emissions associated with transporting timber offsite.
• Improving mountain safety and long-term environmental resilience.
• Advancing a circular approach to resource management through keeping and using materials locally.

“Each spring, hazard or fallen trees are removed as part of ongoing forest management efforts. They are transported to the on-site wood mill where they are turned into lumber and fabricated into durable, practical products such as signage, decking, ski racks, benches and more,” Carly Mangan, Kirkwood’s spokesperson, said. “These products are installed across the mountain, supporting both the guest experience and day-to-day operations.”

Kirkwood riders return food trays to a structure made from trees that were once on the mountain. (Image: Carly Mangan)

Kirkwood was also a finalist in NSAA’s Climate Change Impact category along with Wisp Resort in Maryland, while Jay Peak Resort in Vermont took top honors.

Among the environmental initiatives at Kirkwood that led to its recognition are:

• Using dumpster monitoring and waste audits to better understand what people toss.
• Turning organic waste into compost.
• Replacing most single trash cans with waste-sorting stations.
• Limiting single-use food and beverage products.

“We have also expanded circularity through our hard-to-recycle programs for materials like snack wrappers and soft plastics,” Mangan said. “Together, these efforts help divert material from landfills, which is one of our core sustainability goals.”

“Kirkwood is also focused on reducing energy use and emissions through vehicle idling-reduction practices, daily energy checklists and end-of-season shutdown procedures, (and) the integration of electric vehicles into its fleet.”

All of these practices are steps to help Vail Resorts as a whole to achieve zero net emissions, zero waste to landfill and zero net operating impact on forests and habitat by 2030.

Note: A version of this story first appeared in the Tahoe Mountain News.