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The Many Shades of Green in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality

Continued from previous page est-elevation golf course by using natural dye on the dormant Bermuda grass in winter.

Pulling Carbon Out of the Big Sky: Feast on sustainably raised beef at the Yellowstone National Park Lodges restaurants and help support native grasslands in a first-of-its-kind project in the U.S. Xanterra helps four ranches outside the park participate in a 209,000-acre project to improve soil health, provide forage for cattle, and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help reduce the effects of climate change. The project also offsets all the emissions from electricity used at the lodges while restoring a damaged ecosystem and improving biodiversity. All from regenerative ranching practices.

Starry, Starry Nights: Xanterra, along with the National Park Service, helps the stars at night shine big and bright in the Grand Canyon National Park. By reducing light pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, Xanterra preserves views of the dazzling night sky and protects nocturnal animals and ecosystems in the park. Because nearly 2,000 light fixtures have been replaced since 2013 — nearly half by Xanterra — the International Dark-Sky Association recognized Grand Canyon as the International Dark Sky Place of the Year in 2019.

Xanterra uses similar outdoor lighting best practices at The Oasis at Death Valley, Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (which contains Glacier National Park), and Zion National Park, which helped them all become designated International Dark-Sky Parks by the International Dark-Sky Association.

Purple Pipe Majesties: Xanterra’s many national park operations boast some of the most inspiring scenery on Earth: stunning vistas, deep canyons, and desert peaks. But purple plumbing pipes? Yup, they’re used for reclaimed water, one of the key ways to reuse and conserve this precious resource in

Grand Canyon National Park. Quite simply, reclaimed water is wastewater that is treated and reused for a variety of purposes, such as drip irrigation and toilet flushing in the lodges, such as Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Lodge. By reusing water rather than pumping it from the nearby springs or aquifer, the Grand Canyon lodges used about 3.6 million gallons of reclaimed water in 2021 and plan to switch another 3.9 million gallons a year from potable to reclaimed within the next two years.

Eat Your Greens While Going Green: When you eat at Xanterra’s 56 restaurants, you can expect food that tastes good and also does good. That’s because the eateries strive for 70% of food and beverages to be sourced locally (within 500 miles) and sustainably, while reducing chemical additives, saving water, reducing transportation, protecting local ecosystems, treating animals humanely, and reducing waste.

Locations such as Zion National Park and Mount Rushmore have even created on-site gardens to provide hyper-local produce and compost waste to enrich the soil and avoid synthetic fertilizers. In fact, in 2021 Xanterra composted 23.5% of its total food waste in five national parks, preventing 90% of it from heading to landfills in Zion alone. Meanwhile, at Glacier National Park, composted food waste nourishes the flower beds at Lake McDonald Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel — a lovely example of beautifying the environment by preserving it.

What’s more, only 23 (out of 650) Certified Green Restaurants in North America hold the coveted, highest 4-star certification. And three of them are Xanterra-operated restaurants in Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Mount Rushmore (whose Carvers Café is the second greenest restaurant in North America according to the Green Restaurant Association) — thanks to on-site gardens, compostable tableware, water reduction, solar power, recycling, and more.

Using Suds for Suds: Instead of simply recycling empty beer bottles into pulverized glass, the Yellowstone National Park Lodges partner with Bayern Brewery in nearby Missoula, Mont., which washes, sanitizes, refills, re-labels, and puts them back into the supply chain. To date, the park has kept about 140,000 bottles in circulation. That’s about 30 tons of glass kept out of the landfill or recycling stream, which saves resources and energy — all by using sudsy water to refill bottles with suds.

The Big Stretch: In a case of bigger is better, three of Windstar’s small cruise ships were audaciously lengthened and re-powered to improve their environmental performance on the high seas. Star Breeze, Star Legend, and Star

Pride were each cut in two to insert a new middle section, which features more-efficient and less-polluting propulsion and generator engines along with new cabins and restaurants. This increased the capacity on each ship from 212 to 312 passengers, reducing fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by about 20% per-passenger nautical mile. The ventilation systems on the three ships were also upgraded to include HEPA filters and UV-C disinfecting lights to purify the air. Plus, onboard incinerators were removed to eliminate their air emissions. It was a stretch, but it was worth it.

See more at https://www.xanterra.com/who-we-are/sustainability/.

Didn’t Pre-Purchase Ticket to Arches National Park? Moab Adventure Center Can Still Get You In

MOAB, UT– Moab Adventure Center in the red rock playground of Moab, Utah, is prepared to guide its clients through the National Park Service’s (NPS) second consecutive season of requiring advance permits to access Arches National Park.

But the timed entry program does not apply to tour operators such as Moab Adventure Center which have concessions contracts. If tourists miss getting a reservation or something unexpected comes up, Moab Adventure Center can always get them into the park as long as there’s a scheduled tour operating and there is space.

Moab Adventure Center’s tours showcase the more accessible of more than 2,000 arches- the highest concentration of arches on the planet.

Two of Moab Adventure Center’s most popular tours are morning and sunset adventures led by professional guides who share information and wisdom about their experiences in this magical landscape. Each trip is 4 hours. Rates include snacks, water and Park entrance fees. Guests relax in a bus or

Everyday Cheapskate

a Sprinter Van with high ceilings and large picture windows for maximum viewing comfort. There are several stops to get up close with the terrain on short, scenic hikes. The rate is $108 for adults and $88 for ages 5 to 18.

Also available is a 30-minute airplane tour at $159 for adults and $120 ages 3-12. Rivers, canyons, and arches, plus the vast sweep of this slice of America’s west are revealed to guests from a bird’s eye perspective who are always welcome to share their questions with the pilot.

For details see https://www. moabadventurecenter.com/archesnational-park-tours and https://www. moabadventurecenter.com/arches-national-park

Moab Adventure Center, 225 South Main St., Moab, UT 84532, 435-259-7019 or 866-904-1163.

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear. com

Which Is Better: Fresh or Frozen? Crossword Answers

BY MARY HUNT

Frozen fruits and vegetables take a lot of heat because most people assume that, if it’s frozen, it must be of a lesser quality and nutritional value than the same items fresh in the produce department. Is it true? Is fresh really better than frozen? And if so, is the difference great enough to spend more money to make sure we’re always eating fresh fruits and vegetables?

According to nutritionist Cynthia Sass, frozen foods get a bad rap for being processed junk, but the truth is, some of the healthiest foods in the market are in the freezer section.

Maturity

Ask any nutritionist and you’ll learn that the minute a fruit or vegetable is picked, it begins to lose nutrients. The amount of time between harvest and consumption impacts its nutritional value. Because most frozen fruits and vegetables are frozen shortly after they are harvested, those items scheduled for flash freezing are fully ripe. That means they are chock full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Freezing actually locks in many of their nutrients.

On the other hand, the fresh produce in your supermarket could have been harvested as far as 1,500 miles away -- much of it in South America -- and had to travel by truck to get to the store. It may have been picked before it reached its nutritional peak and then artificially ripened during transport.

Nutrition

Frozen produce has been proven to be just as nutrient-rich, and even superior in nutrients to fresh items, retaining most of

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