Under Chopok is to be added a ski slope, conservationists warn of millions of damage to habitats – SME

16. Apr 2025 at 13:40

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Demänovská Dolina. TMR is preparing a new ski slope in the ski resort. It is supposed to connect Luke with dull. According to the company, the aim is to expand the network of downhill tracks for less advanced skiers.

The new ski slope is to measure two kilometers, it should be from 55 to 80 meters wide and occupies an area of ​​almost 100,000 square meters of forest. Artificial snow is also included. The land was put into long -term lease urban communities Ploštín, Vrbica and Palúdzka.

NAPANT disagrees from the beginning

TMR is preparing a new downhill track for almost ten years. In 2022 it underwent an extensive process of EIA, the Liptovsky Mikulas District Office gave the green intention. They agreed the new slope despite the fact that it disagreed with the administration of the National Park Low Tatras. The dissenting opinion was also issued by the Tatra National Park Administration, although it is not one of the institutions that must comment on it.

Low Tatras conservationists in the opinions available to our editorial office have pointed out several contradictions of the new ski slope with nature protection. Construction will require a shot of habitats of European importance, there are protected animals and plants in the territory. Specifically, the habitats of scrub, alpine travinno-herbnia and spruce forests of blueberry.

« The location of the proposed activity is located in the national park, where the third degree of protection applies, lies on the outskirts of the Natura 2000 system. Nature protection is superior to other activities in the national park, » the park report said in an opinion of 2019.

Low Tatras conservationists insisted that the proposed slope from intervention in the protected area would not be built.

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Liptovsky Mikulasky Authority withdraws the intention

The Liptovsky Mikulas District Office dismissed NAPANT’s objections in the final position. They evaluated them so that recreational activities were in the park area before the national park was declared itself.

In addition, according to the Office, the proposed ski slope is located in the area between existing slopes and cable cars. Therefore, they did not evaluate the intervention in the protected areas as significantly negative.

« Winter sports are an integral part of the life of a part of the public in contemporary European well -being, which also includes the need for recreation after work. Ski resorts have a positive impact on primary employment and also generate indirect employment in the sectors of tourism. »

They argued that the activity assessed is a natural effort of the petitioner to improve the services of the existing tourism center.

« Without development activities, the center will lose its market share and its attractiveness to visitors will decline.

The forest protection association VLK was also opposed to the intention in the EIA process.

TMR asks for the exception of the prohibited activities

The fact that TMR has received a favorable decision after the EIA process does not mean that they can build. For interference with protected areas, such as the habitats of European importance, the permission of the district office at the seat of the region is required, in which case it will be addressed by the Department of Environmental Care District Office in the District Office in Žilina.

The ski slope is marked with a green color. (Source: Jasna.sk)

TMR applied for this permission this year in February. This was pointed out by the We Are Forest initiative, saying that the new Chopok slope would damage nature for 5.5 million euros.

« The new ski slope will mean a huge building intervention in nature. We estimate that planned soil movements correspond to approximately 15,000 trucks. The project does not use the existing terrain, but it will be more of a technical building that permanently negatively affects the appearance of the country, » they pointed out.

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The Low Tatras National Park Administration has recently commented on the application for interference with the habitats of European importance. She disagreed with the intervention. They also draw attention to the inconsistency of the intention with the zoning plan of the village Demänovská Dolina.

The intention interferes with the territory where they occur or are hunted by several protected animals, such as the Rocky Eagle, the Tetrovo Horus and the Tetrov deaf. Although in the case of the Tales of the Deaf, there is no interference with the habitat where he lives, but it is his closeness. This may cause a critically endangered deaf to withdraw from the territory.

The ski slope is a definitive change according to activists

One of the arguments for the construction of the slope is the claim that the forest that will need to be cut is not original. They also refer to the fact that the local forest hit the bark beetle calamity and in the territory there was a calamity mining.

Ecologist Ondrej Kameniar on the initiative We are the forest claims that these arguments are winging on both legs. « We were there to look there. In the runway we found the original old spruce stands. The bark beetle is a natural part of the spruce forest, it is a natural part of its ecosystem.