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From: NBC Sports > PRO HOCKEY TALK
Outdoor hockey traditions under shadow of climate change
Associated Press
Fri, January 8, 2021, 10:28 AM CST
KINGMAN, Alberta (AP) — Larry Asp grew up playing shinny outside in this tiny rural town he calls home again after 40 years away. Since returning, he also holds the keys to the outdoor ”Rink of Dreams” that gives the 90 local residents the chance to skate outside during the keen Canadian winters.
Out here on the prairie an hour’s drive southeast of Edmonton, the ice in the former ”Lutefisk Capital of Alberta” doesn’t seem to freeze as long as it used to, not like when Asp was a kid. He unlocked the doors to the rink, which in late September was simply dirt after a summer of hosting barrel racing and other equestrian events, and gazed into the wind-swept distance.
”We’re kind of at the mercy of the elements,” said Asp, a retired member of the Kingman Recreation Association board. ”In the springtime because of the (rink’s) white boards and the sun, it starts melting back from the boards pretty quickly. You’d be really lucky if you got four months out of it.” ...
Experts say climate change is making for shorter, freezing winters and poses a threat to the very existence of the outdoor stick and puck games at the root of hockey.
”The climate is warming, we are having more variability, there is less ice coverage overall,” said Michelle Rutty, assistant professor of faculty of environment at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. ”It is conceivable that we will continue to see sort of a shorter season, so pond hockey is absolutely at risk. There’s no denying that.” ...
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