Topic: Ecology

The weather was fickle, but that didn't stop dozens of local 3rd-graders from heading to Betty Ford Alpine Gardens and Ford Amphitheater on May 15 to release the Painted Lady butterflies that had hatched in their classrooms. Watch a video of the 2007 Butterfly Launch.

Vail Resorts is trying to make new strides in being green, but yellow is really the color of choice. With the Townie Bike Program, Vail Resorts has been making one (pedal) stroke at a time in the direction of environmental awareness.

You’re likely to catch a glimpse of the flashy yellow hot rods all over town in the summer time. The cruisers are designed to accommodate Vail Resorts employees trying to get from one end of town to the other, replacing engines and gas with fresh air and muscle power.

“Any one of our employees can run around on them whenever they want,” said Director of Resort Operations Jeff Babb. “In our green age, we’re trying to cut down on vehicle usages.”

By the number of Townie cruisers spotted in the village, Golden Peak and Lionshead, clearly a number of VR employees are taking advantage of the program. The bikes are typically locked and are equipped with large baskets for material transport.

Indeed, with limited parking and numerous construction projects all over town, a bicycle is the fastest, healthiest and most efficient way to get around Vail.
Although VR got the new fleet of yellow cruisers last year, Babb said the Townie Bike program has been in effect for at least five years.

Sunday is Green Day at Beaver Creek. And no, we're not talking about the color or the punk band. Green Day is an opportunity for families to paint, plant trees and take snowshoe tours.  

Guests can make a donation to the U.S. Forest Service's "Plant-A-Tree" program. Each dollar donated will plant one tree.

The event includes complimentary "Keep Winter White" guided snowshoes tours of McCoy Park at the top of the ski area. The tours depart from the Beaver Creek Nordic Center at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Guests should arrive 15 minutes prior to the tour to be outfitted with equipment. Kids should be at least 6 years of age and willing to walk for one hour or more. The tour offers the opportunity to learn about the surrounding forests and environment.

The Beaver Creek Environmental Committee will provide information on the resort's year-round environmental initiatives including its Certified Green Restaurant and IdleWise programs. Guests can also talk with representatives from the Forest Service and meet Smokey the Bear.

Oh, and there's wild birds! The Raptor Education Foundation will have a live birds of prey demonstration from 12-3 p.m.

Green Day will take place in Beaver Creek Village near the ice rink Sunday from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Guests can also visit the Beaver Creek Environmental Learning Center at the top of the Cinch Express Lift (#8).  The Center is open daily in the winter and provides educational information and visual displays.

And by “comfortable,” we mean you now have less of a chance to fall on your keister while ambling through Vail.

Yes, there is one positive aspect to all the local construction of late: more heated walkways.

Note that the paved thoroughfares in Vail Village – down Bridge Street, around Checkpoint Charlie as well as through Lionshead around the nearly finished Arrabelle structure – are wet and steamy even as it’s dumping snow.
Did we mention that it’s dumping snow? New flakes are forecasted through Sunday, Dec. 23, so it’s true what they say … those white Christmas dreams really do come true.

Anyway, we’re fans of the heated walkways. We hope they’re wind-powered.
Our one request is that the next area graced with heated sidewalks will be that vulnerable turf around the Vail Valley Medical Center. As it stands, it’s pretty icy and slick around there … and where better to put a heated walkway than a place frequented by people on crutches who already have broken bones and torn ligaments? Let’s make it easy on them, eh?

But, we’re getting our white Christmas, so we don’t want to be too greedy.
Enjoy the comfort of the heated sidewalks and be sure to reign in your gait once you step onto the snow and ice.

The Vail landscape is more colorful these days than it was, say ... 10 years ago. In recent years the forest lining the valley has begun sporting a number of red trees. This is not a good thing. Those red trees are dead. And there’s only one species to blame. No … it’s not humans this time.

It’s the pine beetle, a tiny bug whose infestation is the deadliest epidemic to strike the forests of the Colorado Rockies since perhaps the gold rush.

Last fall, Eagle County, the Town of Vail and the U.S. Forest Service joined forces to remove thousands of trees killed by pine beetles in West Vail. Some of the dead fall was burned and other trees were taken away by helicopter to be used for biomass fuel.

The project created a fire line between the houses and forests in the area, as so many dead trees in any one area naturally pose a fire hazard.
The beetles mostly infest lodgepole pine trees, their presence evidenced at first by popcorn-shaped clumps pouring out of the bark, the wood of the tree stained blue and eventually by the drying and death of the tree. After one tree dies, the beetles move on to another. Hence, the entire hillsides covered by dead trees.

The only way to stop a beetle outbreak is a sustained freeze (subzero temperatures for many days), or a mass burn.

Eagle County and Forest Service officials plan to continue controlled burns and removal of dead trees from areas of the forest damaged by beetles.

On the bright side, even if all the lodgepole pine are killed by beetles in the next few years as experts predict they will be, nature scientists say that aspens will be the first trees to spring up during the re-growth. The entire landscape of this valley might be covered with aspens in 15 years. Only then we can hope the pine beetles will move along.