Bewildered...

It has been awhile since my last post. It has been a busy few months with family, trying to make living and studying, but my work has continued. This summers focus has been on sustaining apline eco systems, global wilderness and heritage preservation. I have been following the wildflowers of recent, dazzled by their beauty, concerned about their future due to human impact and climate changes. My field study as taken me to some pristine places, some of which are heavily traveled by motorized visitors. Recently, in Imogene Basin, where I hiked to, while more than 100 jeeps, atv's and other various vehicles drove by me. I tried not to pay attention! just concentrate on the beauty that surrounded me. However, I couldn't help but notice many were in organized recreational groups with single passengers in each vehicle, leaving me to ponder on the motives most visitors have to go up into our high country?? In my travels to motorized areas I have seen flowers traveled on, people speeding, littering and being rude to others, including myself. This always leaves me sad.. angry and concerned for the future... leaving me bewildered in the wilderness...
I will leave you with this quotation from "A Sand County Almanac", by Aldo Leopold,
"We abuse the land because we regard it as commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. There is no other way for land to survive the impact of mechanized man, nor for us to reap from it the esthetic harvest it is capable, under science, of contributing to culture."

Enough said... for now... stay tuned.. if you know me well enough, you know I have more to say!

Got Global Wilderness?

"Perhaps the real enemy of wilderness is an invalid American dream. Perhaps too late we are learning that a diet of metal and oil will kill us. Perhaps too late we will discover that valid new frontiers exist in the spirit, and in technology and that no matter where the new frontiers will be, humans cannot do without wilderness."

Mardy Murie, from her book "Journeys to the Far North"
Published in 1973.

"Mardy Murie, born in 1902 and tirelessly championed the environment for more than seven decades. Her work led to the founding of The Wilderness Society and the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She is known as, "the mother of the conservation movement." At age 96, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Her life spanned nearly one hundred years. One third of her life was growing up in the wilds of Alaska. A third of her life she discovered the environmental visions that she shared with her husband Olaus Murie, a famous biologist and co founder/director of The Wilderness Society. And a third of her life she gave back to the wild land and the enchanted places that shaped her extraordinary spirit."
Her story is called "Arctic Dance." Check it out,she is truly an inspiration to me and I hope to you..

What kind of value do you hold for the wilderness??


"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." Edmund Burke

Know Your Farmer - Know Your Food

There is growing concern in our country about the health and saftey of our food sources. What are we to do? One way you can address the concerns is by supporting local agriculture through purchases at farmers markets. In 1994, 1,755 farmers markets were in operation throughout the United States, today there are more than 5,274 active markets. Farmers' markets allow communities and local farmers to connect and purchase locally produced food that will taste better, give you the opportunity to know what you are eating, offer opportunities to meet your neighbors, allow you to get in touch with the seasonal foods, give support to small farms and local economies and more importantly, you will be healthier and happier!
Other related benefits: less travel - saves fossil fuel and carbon omissions, you can eat food at its peak of flavor and nutritional value, it keeps the farmers farming! and helps keep our landscapes beautiful and diverse.
Last year I joined a local group of concerned Ouray citizens and formed the Ouray Farmers Market. It was a small operation, but we all felt it was a success and great value to our rural community. Recently, I attended the Colorado Farmers' Market Associations Annual meeting in Salida, CO. It was exciting and inspirational to learn about what other markets are doing around the state and I felt proud to be apart of this growing organization. I am looking forward to supporting local agriculture and working with other community members to make the Ouray Farmers Market more successful each year. I would encourage you to do the same in your community.

Food for thought - Think Global - Eat Local

Sustainability is through localization of resources.

Find a farmers' market near you, the benefits are beyond health
and the safety of your food.
In Southwest Colorado: Ouray, Rigway,Telluride, Montrose and Durango

Great web site- http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Recommended reading: The Ominvore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan

Let's Talk Trash !

High on the list of my pet-peeves would be the amount of packaging that is involved in the products we purchase and the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills and oceans (please watch the video suggested at the end of the blog). During the past month I have been conducting an experiment to see how much trash I could reduce, reuse and recycle for a class assignment. For starters, I started a compost for my kitchen vegan waste. Then I began looking at the containers food comes in, realizing they are usually reusable and many even have ziploc type closures, so instead of throwing out those bags and using a new ziploc bag for food storage, I am reusing bags I would of normally discarded. Two small changes that over a period of time will make a large difference.
A few years back my daughter Ashleigh went on a research campaign to learn about the hazards of plastic, she is now known as, the plastic police among her family and friends and our personal consultant for product buying and container recycling.

Here are some of the FAT Facts on plastic that she learned that I would like to share with you

* A plastic milk jug takes 1 million years to decompose.

* A plastic cup can take 50 - 80 years to decompose.

* Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR.

* Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year.

* Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

* Today, Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 1 or 2 % of it.

* An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic is dumped in the world's oceans every year.

* The worldwide fishing industry dumps an estimated 150,000 tons of plastic into the ocean each year, including packaging, plastic nets, lines, and buoys.

* About 1,200 plastic soft drink and salad dressing containers could carpet the average living room.

* Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas.

* In 2008, Americans alone created 250 million tons of trash and recycled and/or composted 83 million tons of it – the equivalent of a 33.2% recycling rate.


* Most disturbing Nearly every piece of plastic EVER made still exists today.

This is the Skinny on what YOU can do!

* Buy your milk and juice in plastic containers, they can be recycled, cardboard ones cannot be.

* Be careful when opening plastic bag type food containers, the resealing ones work great to use over and over instead of buying Ziploc’s.

* Wash and save your plastic containers from foods like yogurt, butter, cottage cheese, use for storage containers.

* Recycle the inner tubes of your paper towel and toilet paper rolls – they are cardboard!

* Aluminum foil can be added to your recycle with can

* Don't buy bottled water! What do you think happens to the 2 million beverage bottles Americans use every 5 minutes?

I would urge you to watch this history channel video titled, Sailing the Great Pacific Garage Patch, produced by Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. It is so worth seeing, just click below.

In closing... I leave you with this reminder
Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
Ancient Indian Proverb

Wildlife and Tourism

Wild VS Captive

Evidence of human interest and interaction with wildlife can be traced back to prehistoric times through stories told in petroglyphs, when animals were fellow travelers and sources of food for survival rather than captive exhibitionists or laboratory specimens. The documentary film, “The Cove,” should inspire us to ask the question, are the economic advantages worth the consequences imposed on the wildlife we abuse, hold hostage and senselessly kill every year? Not to mention the carbon foot print sea life amusement parks have on the environment.
I would have to admit, many years ago I took my kids to Sea World, zoos and dolphin encounters, thinking I was giving them an interactive animal adventure they would not otherwise have had the opportunity to experience. However, in recent years I have had the privilege of experiencing dolphins and whales in the wild. Last year on a very special sailing trip with dolphins (photos of those dolphins in this blog were taken by my son Ryan). The dolphins swam next to us, as if escorts, as we made out way from the coastline to the open waters at the beginning of a 1900 mile trip from NC to the Virgin Islands. It is a sailors belief that their presence is a sign of good luck and I can not really find the words to describe how their presence made me feel. At the very bottom of this blog, there is a photo of a whale that we encountered years earlier, that swam next to our sailboat for 2 hours, breaching and gently interacting with the silent hauls of the boat. These experiences offered me to a far greater, soul touching encounter that could not have happened in a captive setting.
In regards to zoos and captive animal entertainment, I realize that states like Florida and California rely heavily on the revenues and the jobs generated by these facilities. However, if you are trying to convenience yourself that they encourage some bonding experiences, research has shown that encounters with wildlife in captivity are not as affective in generating bonds with animals as those in the wild.
I am sure that zoos and places like Sea World do have their advantages and are not going to disappear. I would like to recommend that there are some better alternatives for viewing and observing animals in the wild, such as nature excursions with guides out in the field and sailing trips in waters where dolphins and whales live. We don’t need to touch them to feel their presence, they are wild after all and have been known to exhibit their wild and unpredictable nature even in captivity. If you have not already, I would encourage you watch "The Cove." It was nominated for an Academy Award this year.

In the News this Week! Tragedy struck at Sea World in Orlando 2/24/10. Trainer Dawn Brancheau, 40, died when she reportedly slipped into the tank and was attacked by the killer whale named Tilikum. The whale in question is claimed responsible for two previous deaths - a previous trainer in 1991 and trespasser in 1999.


Thoughts and Facts to Ponder Before Your Next Visit to a Zoo or Theme Park

FACTS: Mammals in Captivity From the American Humane Society- www.husus.org

* 300,000 dolphins, whales and porpoises die every year as unintentional victims of fishermen's nets, and some end up in captivity for our amusement parks.

* Life for captive whales and dolphins is nothing like a life in the sea. It is almost impossible to maintain a family group in captivity. Tanks only allow a few strokes in any direction before coming to a wall. Because tanks are shallow, the natural tendencies of whales and dolphins are reversed—they spend more than half their time at the tank's surface.

* Captivity violently disrupts social groups, splits up families, and snatches individual animals from the water; it is a completely unnatural event. Capture stress can be very severe and even fatal.

* At first look, a whale or dolphin show may seem exciting, even for the animals. But when you look past the show to the high mortality rates and stress-related causes of death in captive whales and dolphins, the effects of captivity suggest a far harsher reality. The public display of whales and dolphins in marine parks and aquaria is waning in Europe and Canada, but it is still prevalent in the United States and is increasing in developing countries, particularly those in Asia.

* The U.S. government allows the capture of wild marine mammals for public display, justifying this exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act's prohibition of exploitation and harassment by contending that public display serves educational and conservation purposes. However, experience has proven that public display does not effectively educate the public and that profit is the main motive for conducting traumatic and stressful captures. For a marine mammal, tanks are prisons. The monotonous, confined life of animals in captivity is a mere shadow of what life was like for them in the wild.


Remember this movie?? "Free Willy"
When a boy learns that a beloved killer whale is to be killed by the aquarium owners, the boy risks everything to free the whale. Made in 1993, I watched it today, the theme rings true with the information given in the facts above. Watch it sometime as a reminder of the negative effects imposed on wild life and in this case the bond that was formed between a young boy who had an unique interaction with a whale.

I leave you this week with this quotation:
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace". Author unknown

Effects of Travel on Climate Change

Are you hiding behind the price tag we are paying for our liberal lifestyles and travel habits?
I have chosen to research and report on the effects travel has on climate change for one of my courses this term. The outline of my research will include the identification of measurable climate changes to date, possible contributions to these changes, methods of travel and the carbon footprint they represent. The various reasons for travel, both necessary and for pleasure will be evaluated, as well as, the economic pressures that encourage travel. Recommendations for possible solutions to slow down the negative effects and suggestions to alter our lifestyles will be discussed. Although my research is inconclusive at this point, I am predicting travel has a significant impact on climate change. What is your opinion? What are you willing to modify in your lifestyle?

The Cove
This riveting documentary exposes the appalling capturing and killing of 23,000 dolphins yearly in Japan. I decided to preview it last night, unfortunately before I went to bed! It was difficult to close my eyes after that and impossible for me to deny some involvement is needed on my part. So next week I will be showing the movie to a group of friends in hopes of spreading awareness to the situation. I will share more about the movie, reactions of my viewers and any actions we might take to support the efforts to stop this environmental travesty.

Until then..
May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.
Chief Dan George

No Child Left Inside

"There was a child went forth every day, and the first object he look'd upon, that object he became, and that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day, or for many years or stretching cycles of years. The early lilacs became part of this child, and grass and white and red morning glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird, And the Third-month lambs and the sow's paint-faint litter, and the mare's foal and the cow's calf"... Walt Whitman

Children The Bridge To The Future
One of my concentration areas will be in connecting people with nature and creating awareness of the ecological, archeological and cultural wealth in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado. As stated by Richard Louv, in the book, Last Child in the Woods, "Within the space of a few decades the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically. The polarity of the relationship has reversed. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment - but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading". The concern I have is that future generations will accept the depletion of natural spaces and resources, as they do not have empathy for things they have not experienced. I believe in order to restore the threads that connect us with nature and ensure the preservation of our natural resources, ecosystems and landscapes we must engage children and adults in outdoor nature activities. In my opinion, the health of humans and the earth is at stake.

There is Light In the Tunnel

Good news from Colorado this week!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 8, 2010 For more information:

ALL Colorado Kids Experience Outdoors

(DENVER) – A bill that will help more kids take advantage of Colorado’s majestic outdoor spaces through environmental science education programs passed out of the House Education committee today 9-3.

Rep. Christine Scanlan’s “Colorado Kids Outdoors Program” legislation (HB 1131) creates programs that will educate all Colorado kids on environmental and outdoor issues by taking them outside to experience them first-hand. This environmental literacy program will make Colorado eligible for federal grant funds through the No Child Left Inside Act, and establishes a state grant program that will ensure students are given meaningful opportunity to experience the outdoors.

Yahoo! A new frontier in public education is born! I hope you will join me in the journey to new lands that are closer today than they were yesterday!

Remembering always...
"Human kind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things are connected." Chief Seattle 1854

Defining Sustainable Tourism

Why Sustainable Tourism -Personal History
I moved to Ouray six years ago after living in the Virgin Islands for 3 years. Prior to that I lived in Woodstock, Vermont. Ironically all these areas are heavily dependent on tourism. Besides my eleven years working in public education I have always been involved in the tourism industry in one form or another. In Vermont the ski industry, the charter boat business in the Virgin Islands and in Ouray, the guided tour business and the vacation rental business. I have always been an environmentalist at heart. However, my understanding for the need to preserve the natural resources that exist in rural areas has deepened during my time here in Ouray. As I struggle with the contradiction in my heart every year with how to make a living from tourism and my moral values to protect this pristine alpine environment I have thought long and hard about a solution for me and hopefully for the wellness of the community I live in. The development of my knowledge and expertise in this area is very important to me on many levels as it offers a path for me to travel that will bring focus to my pursuit of a profession with a long lasting purpose.

So what is this study all about?
My current definition of Sustainable Tourism: Sustainable tourism attempts to make a low impact on the environment and local culture while helping to generate income, employment and the conservation of local eco-systems and resources.


The proposed lineup of my course of study in this competence:

1. Preserving Local Cultural Heritages
2. Best Practices in Eco Tourism
3. Establish Roots for Sustainability
4. Eco Retreats as Community Enterprises
5. Energy – Economics and the Environment
6. Conscious Tourism
7. Preserving Sensitive Environments
8. Coastal and Marine Eco-Tourism
9. Management of Rural Adventure Tourism
10.Eco Lodging Development


Concern for the week:
Because they can not exist in temperatures above 60 degrees, Pikas may be just the first of many alpine creatures to lose suitable habitat because of global warming. Scientists estimate that 10 to 35 percent of alpine and subalpine species may be lost within a few decades, including alpine marmots and ground squirrels.

Recommended Documentaries to see:
Wild China - my review - this is a must see! it is an amazing country!
The 11th Hour - my review - a little radical but lots of good information about climate change and some possible solutions.



Thought for this week...

"Whatever you can do or dream.. you can.. just begin it! Boldness has genius - power and magic in it."

So it begins..

I am mid way through my second week of my latest endeavors at Prescott College and each day I feel new levels of energy, synergy and confidence that I have finally made the right turn at the junction!
The wealth of resources on Sustainable Tourism out there is incredible! AND.. Yes ! I have joined the world of Twitter!
I am currently enrolled in 3 courses this term,12 credits. These courses are designed and mentored by Prescott College faculty. Three major community projects are required and are evolving. The ideas started flowing before I fully understood the course overview! I am excited to pull some dreams and goals into reality!
I will end this entry with a quotation that explains what has lit my fire!
"The decision is the spark that ignites the action. Until a decision is made - nothing happens." by Wilfred Peterson

Stay tuned.. more decisions.. more fire!