From Vail Valley Anglers:
Vail Valley Anglers is the first fly fishing shop and guide service in the Colorado Rocky Mountains to be Actively Green certified through the Walking Mountains Science Center.
“We have always prioritized sustainability,” says Store Manager Patrick Perry, “but we decided it was time to get serious about tracking our efforts and taking quantitative steps to improve.”
These kind of improvements stretch from guided trips to retail practices and everything in between. They keep track of 20 different criteria on a sustainable management system database. Vail Valley Anglers joins numerous local businesses who are already certified or working to become certified through the Actively Green program.
Bike & Fish: Eliminating Greenhouse Gas emissions can take some creativity. Vail Valley Anglers’ decided to take advantage of the stunning bike path along the Eagle River with Electric Bicycles. Clients can now book fly fishing trips touring our local waters by bike. The state-of-the-art bikes are fully geared up for an excellent day on the river.
Channeling the Wind: For anglers in general – wind is not a good thing. Tangles, messy casts and difficult rowing characterize windy buy xanax bars no prescription online days on the water. But for Vail Valley Anglers, wind now fully powers their retail location. In addition to tracking energy usage on a monthly basis, the actively Green program encourages business to subsidize their energy in creative ways. Vail Valley Anglers chose a wind farm in Eastern Colorado to power their fly shop.
Kick Plastic: Water bottle waste is one of the more tricky challenges to sustainability for a guide service. We must always to be prepared to keep our clients hydrated. Our solution is to motivate our clients to start to solve the problem themselves. Vail Valley Anglers’ clients are able to bring a reusable water to their guided trip, fill it up at the shop, and get a free “FishFirst” hat as a thank you. Creating a culture of “kicking plastic” takes educating one guest at a time….
“We call it our #FishFirst initiative. We want to create a movement within the fly fishing community of anglers who share ideas and encourage good stewardship,” explained Madeline Grande, Co-Director of the #FishFirst program.
Have a #FishFirst idea? Share with @VailValleyAnglers on social media.
