Values, Experience and Ecotourism | Equinox Wilderness Expeditions

Equinox Wilderness Expeditions conducts environmentally responsible small-group adventures. Our goal is to share a memorable and educational experience in pristine wilderness, while contributing to preservation of our wildlands and wildlife. We understand the privilege and responsibility of conducting trips in some of the world's finest (and threatened) wild places. As we move into our twenty-sixth year of involvement in adventure travel, we continue to reflect upon our impact on the land, and renew our commitment to ethical conservation-based wilderness travel. We embrace ecotourism guidelines developed by the Alaska Wilderness Tourism and Recreation Association, and have also adopted the World Wildlife Fund Arctic conservation plan for ecological tourism, and ask that you become aware of your own impact on the environment as you travel.

Our carefully planned expeditions offer an opportunity to experience untrammeled wildlands on a scale that is largely unimaginable in much of the world, and to observe bird and wildlife migrations of similar magnitude. Our trips are educational, with a focus on learning about wildlife and northern ecosystems. We strive to provide you with opportunities for self-exploration. We also love to have fun.

We believe wild places bring us into deeper relationship with our own spirits, reminding us of our oneness with nature. Meeting the land on its own terms, we move in harmony with wind, weather, water and wildlife. Being enveloped by the immensity of largely intact landscapes can be a profound experience. Sitting alone in a place of wild beauty gives us an opportunity to reflect on what is important.

In the companionship of like-minded companions, we make new friends, and find personal challenge, solitude and peace. At times, you will be tested by the elements and wonder why you chose to endure such hardship; at other times, you will marvel at your serenity in being 'at home' in the wilderness. Each trip is a unique adventure.

When you travel with us, know that you are one of a small number of participants that we take out each year. We're small, and we want to stay small. We believe in quality, not quantity. As a result, each of our clients
receives individual attention, and a personalized experience.

We accept a responsibility to protect and care for our wild heritage, and follow minimum impact camping standards that are even more strict than the U.S. Leave No Trace principles. We keep our group sizes very small, with no more than 6, and occasionally 8 participants, to reduce our impact, foster personal awareness and build friendships. Backpacking trips are generally limited to 6 participants, including the guide. In small groups, we can more easily blend into the natural world, and truly embrace the spaciousness of wild country.

We have always been green, since our founding in 1985. Our longstanding commitment to the environment is the very reason we are in the ecotourism business. Our company was founded on the idea of taking small groups to threatened wilderness areas to witness firsthand and be a political voice for wilderness preservation.

We believe in taking political action on issues that threaten the well-being of our wild lands. After eight years under the Bush Administration (and more years before that, thanks to short-sighted politicians and corporate greed), Alaska's wild places have suffered. Even today, Alaska's wild places are not safe. At a time when global warming threatens our world, it is even more important that we protect our remaining wilderness areas, and make the quantum shift to renewable energy sources.

The environment is nothing if not political; we regularly write letters to lawmakers regardling proposed bills, comment on environmental impact statements, write environmental Op-Eds, and politicize our own economic power by purchasing from companies who share our commitment to the environment and to fair trade practices around the world.

In northern Alaska and Canada, as we conduct our remote wilderness expeditions, we are keenly aware of the impact of a warming climate. Climate change and its effects in the Arctic are likely the most serious environmental issue threatening the Arctic. Travel in Alaska poses a conundrum. There are few roads, so travel by small plane is almost essential. Yet, we are highly cognizant of the carbon footprint caused by plane transport, and the fact that humans are causing global warming. On our trips, we see firsthand the signs and symptoms of a land under stress. In the last half-century, average annual temperatures in the Arctic have increased 4 degrees Fahrenheit (as compared to a global average of 1 degree F.) The polar ice cap has receded by nearly 40% within the last three years.

In Fairbanks in the middle of winter, it can suddenly go from 40 BELOW zero to nearly 40 ABOVE zero, wreaking havoc. WeÕve observed a greater frequency and intensity of seasonal storms along the Arctic coastline. One recent winter, all the muskoxen in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge left the refuge after an ice storm brought freezing rain to the Beaufort Sea coast in the middle of winter, impeding the animalÕs ability to break through the crust to get to food sources. Hiking and paddling down rivers, weÕve observed receding permafrost, and weÕve been impacted by greater numbers of wildfires. WeÕve encountered polar bears on land in the summertime when they should be out on the pack ice. WeÕve thought a lot about how to reduce our carbon footprint. We bought a company vehicle and converted it to run on waste vegetable oil. WeÕve suggested that our clients find adventure in their own backyards. Still, the world is a beautiful place, and many of us yearn for adventure in the wilderness.

Many of our trips venture into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Western Arctic to lands threatened by industrial development and now, by rising global temperatures. Once compromised, these wild places are gone. We hope to build the chorus of voices against oil development in the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge and mineral development in Alaska's Western Arctic. Lands in the Western Arctic, part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska) are little known, even by Alaskan standards. Participants who venture into these far-flung arctic lands encounter profound silence in the open space, and wildlife populations yet undisturbed. And yet, The Arctic is no longer an untouched wilderness. The impacts of climate change are already marked in the far north. Alaska, Canada, and the entire circumpolar North are experiencing rapid and visible large-scale ecological change, threatening the entire integrity of natural systems that have existed for tens of thousands of years. We are seeing the permafrost melting, and polar bears and walrus imperiled by melting pack ice in the Beaufort Sea, as weather patterns change and the atmosphere warms.

We continue to push for wilderness preservation throughout Alaska, Canada, and the West. In this spirit, we pledge a percentage of our earnings to nonprofit organizations working to protect wilderness and wildlife in North America. Gaining wilderness status for the Arctic Refuge coastal plain is one of our highest priorities. Protecting the remaining Ancient Forests in the Pacific Northwest is another. Designating portions of Southern Utah's canyonlands as Wilderness is, too. The fact is, there are few wilderness areas and public lands in the U.S. and Western Canada that are not currently threatened, and we do our best to press Congress and the land managing agencies for the highest protection.

We contribute A Dollar-a-Day for each day of your trip among conservation organizations in Alaska and Canada. The Dollar-A-Day for Conservation Program is administered by the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association. These funds go directly into one of the many groups working to protect wilderness and wild lands. Among the groups that we support:

How do we come to grips with human over-consumption of the earth's resources? We can pledge to shift to clean energy; reduce waste, pollution, and energy consumption; protect wild places; support sustainable agriculture, and consume healthy food.

Our trips provide an opportunity to gain new views and attitudes about land stewardship. We are cognizant of the intensive energy requirement for Alaska (and especially Arctic) tourism. The use of small bush planes is a way of life in Alaska--and yet their impact is not insignificant. A wilderness experience, and a return to living simply, can provide the foundation for more environmentally conscious living.

In all of our company and personal endeavors, we strive to infuse our use of technology with a concern for all life. Our business practices reflect our own commitment to moving towards a just and sustainable future--a future with clean air and water, foods free of pesticides, a shift to renewable energy sources, and protection for and recovery of endangered ecosystems and species.

In this spirit, we serve vegetarian and vegan organic, non-GE (genetically engineered) foods as much as possible, supporting small farmers and food producers, and buying locally. We strive to serve food that is good for all. There's no denying that it takes nearly 10 pounds of feed to make one pound of beef, and animal farming takes land that might otherwise be feeding people, or that would be left as forest. The massive waste produced by livestock threaten waterways worldwide. In the United States, where 130 times more animal manure is produced than human waste - 5 tons for every U.S. citizen - animal waste is the principal source of water pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the world's livestock herds are the largest source of human-induced emissions of methane - a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. If each person reduced meat consumption by just 5 percent, enough grain would be saved to feed 25 million people - the number estimated to go hungry in the United States each day. If you are about the environment, reducing meat consumption is fundamental.

We are concerned about the shrinking population of songbirds. Conservation biologist Bridget Stutchbury documents the decline in Silence of the Songbirds. Pesticides are the culprit, and North American consumers are to blame, for demanding crops like bananas, coffee, and out-of-season produce like tomatoes, strawberries and grapes, which are grown in pesticide-laden farming operations in Latin America. Use of these chemicals, banned in the US, has increased five-fold since the 1980s.

We use biodegradable cleaning products and recyclable containers. We compost organics. We conduct our tours with consumptive restraint, rather than superfluous affluence. We educate our guests in environmental and social issues affecting the areas we travel.

We run our business out of our home, to avoid commuting and the need for extra office space. Our warehouse is off the grid. Most daily errands are done by bicycle. Our company vehicle is a custom Toyota Tacoma converted to an engine that runs on waste vegetable oil. To date, we have invested more than $25,000 in carbon offsets to reduce our carbon footprint. In our office, we re-use single-sided paper and envelopes, and recycle everything that can be recycled. We do not produce a glossy paper brochure, instead using our website as our trip catalog.

Globally, 71 percent of the world's paper supply comes from diverse and biologically rich forests, rather than tree farms. Forests are the lungs of the earth. They clean the air and water, and regulate our climate. In Alaska and British Columbia, ancient forests are still being logged rapaciously for pulp and paper. While efforts are being made to produce increasing percentages of recycled paper, we believe we can best reduce waste and energy by having our website serve as our brochure.

We are strongly against the use of food crops for biodiesel. Farmers are plowing up and burning grasslands and destroying tropical rainforests. Greenhouse gases released as these lands are transformed, along with greenhouse gases emitted during the mechanized production of the new crops, mean that more pollution will be added to the atmosphere than the amount saved by the biofuels that are produced.

Converting non-farmland to sugarcane for biofuel releases 17 times more greenhouse gas than would be reduced by using the biofuel made in a year from that land. In other words, it takes 17 years to compensate for the amount of climate change caused by one year's sugarcane crop. Converting North American wheat fields to corn for ethanol leaves a 48-year footprint.

Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute reports that the rampant emergence of biofuels means that in the event of a catastrophic disaster, only enough food is stockpiled to stave off planetwide famine for 57 days. "The stage is now set for direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles and the world's 2 billion poorest people. The risk is that millions on the lower rungs of the global economic ladder will start falling off as rising food prices drop their consumption below the survival level."

Sustainable Tourism?

What is sustainable tourism? First and foremost, it protects its destinations. It practices restraint/limits to avoid loving a place to death. It conserves resources. It respects local culture and tradition. It aims for quality. And most importantly, it insists that both businesses and individuals take responsibility for their actions and the impacts of their actions.

Every time we step onto a jet and travel cross-country, each of us spews as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as we would if we drove a Hummer to work for an entire year. Yes, the airline industry is one of the worst polluters; a European Commission study found that aircraft travel currently causes 3.5 to 7.4 percent of global warming emissions.

Are you ready to stay home and stop flying? You can pledge to reduce your travel needs. When traveling by jet, you can offset your contribution to global warming by contributing to project which promote renewable non-carbon energy. Essentially, your activities become carbon neutral. Going carbon neutral is a way to take responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions we create by living in our modern world. Naturally, the best action you can take to reduce your carbon footprint is to reduce your energy needs. Drive less, drive slower, travel less, use public transit or ride a bike, weatherize your home, live in a smaller living space, buy less goods, reduce your use of hot water, turn down your thermostat, buy local foods, grow your own produce--all of these are simple actions taken individually.

On the global scale, you can purchase credits for emission reductions achieved by projects elsewhere, such as wind farms, solar installations, or energy efficiency projects. By purchasing these credits in energy project that help catalyse the transition to non-fossil fuel- based energy systems, you can apply them to your own emissions and reduce your net climate impact. Why Go Carbon Neutral? By voluntarily calculating and assigning a cost to your carbon emissions, you can begin to prepare for the inevitability of an economy in which carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are regulated and taxed. Purchasing high quality carbon offsets from projects such as wind farms also helps support the transition to a sustainable energy economy by providing an additional source of revenue to developers of renewable energy. Carbon offsets don't reduce overall emissions and are not an excuse to continue 'business as usual." We fully support a transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable forms of energy.

So how you do justify that trip across the country, up to Alaska, and by bush plane to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Take steps to neutralize your carbon footprint. We recommend that you purchase offsets only from projects that meet the Gold Standard.

We've almost gone nearly Carbon Neutral in our operations by making socially responsible and ecologically sound business decisions. But, this is something we've always done. By supporting protection of wilderness, wildlands, and wildlife habitat, by reducing our energy needs, we protect the heart of planet Earth. Is carbon offsetting just another "feel good" marketing strategy to allow the developed world to keep on living high on the hog? What do you think? If you'd like to go "carbon neutral," let us know, and we'll help you make that step. We are committed to it. To determine your own carbon footprint, check out MyClimate.org.

WeÕve also developed some minimalist high adventure trips using packrafts. The rationale is this: We carry less gear, use fewer plane flights. We travel light, thus eliminating the need to fly in with all the heavy equipment normally required for a river expedition. Packrafting offers the ultimate leave-no-trace expedition. Dealing with our Modern World When you Can't be in the Wilderness

1. Silence: Find a place of silence. Revisit this place and immerse yourself in its peace regularly.

2. Reject stress: Remind yourself that you have the power to say no to pressure and expectations. Re-evaluate your priorities and cherish them. You will find yourself slowly becoming more positive and energetic.

3. Influence your subconscious by reinforcing specific messages like "I am strong and courageous." Picture yourself coping with a difficult situation in a positive way.

4. Visualization: Before falling asleep at night, visualize an image of yourself as you would like to be. Think of this image of yourself again and again, every night. Try to awake the next morning with this new image of yourself in your mind.

5. Live in the present moment by concentrating on one task at a time.

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