A Step Forward for Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable tourism is gaining increased exposure these days and that’s great news for those of us embarking on this endeavor. More travelers are requesting sustainable vacations and more destinations around the world are seeking to lessen the impacts of rising visitor numbers.


Sustainable tourism is “envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems." (United Nations World Tourism Organization) However, there does seem to be some confusion on how to attain sustainability and travelers looking to leave a lighter footprint currently must choose from over 300 different sustainable tourism standards - no easy task.


Here’s some good news. United Nations Foundation Founder and Chairman Ted Turner recently announced the first-ever globally relevant sustainable tourism criteria at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. The new criteria – based on thousands of best practices culled from the existing standards currently in use around the world – were developed to offer a common framework to guide the emerging practice of sustainable tourism and to help businesses, consumers, governments, non-governmental organizations and education institutions to ensure that tourism helps, rather than harms, local communities and the environment. Green Globe International, Inc., the premier international green brand for sustainable tourism, has endorsed the new criteria.


The criteria require that tourism operations conduct their business without having an adverse impact on a destination's habitats, local communities, or cultural heritage. If widely adopted, the standard could further expand efforts to green the supply chain of hotels and resorts as well as lessen the impact on wildlife and local communities. This initiative should make information more readily available to travelers and travel providers, and will help ensure that the information is reliable – a step forward, and in the right direction, for sustainable tourism.

27th Great American Beer Festival: Denver

The alcohol found in beer, wine and liquor is a byproduct of ethanol fermentation, a type of anaerobic metabolism. Some organisms like yeast live in environments where oxygen is absent so they have to extract energy from food without the aid of the gas we humans require for survival. Instead of completely breaking glucose down to carbon dioxide, ethanol (drinking alcohol) is formed. Brewers and winemakers have taken advantage of this microbial process for thousands of years.

Okay, enough with the science. Let’s talk about the 27th Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and the guests of honor – 1800 types of beer from over 400 breweries scattered across the U.S. landscape. According to the “Guinness Book of World Records” this is the largest selection of beers on tap at one time. Here’s another interesting factoid: Denver, the host city for this annual festival, brews more beer per capita than any other city in the nation.

The brewery industry has been at the leading edge of the sustainability movement so environmental consciousness was a theme at this year’s GABF. Many breweries are adopting techniques to minimize their impact, helping to make the world a better place to live (and drink) in the process. Breweries showcased at the GABF that are helping to save the world include: Airdale, Anderson Valley, Boulder Beer, Firestone Walker, Full Sail, Hoppin’ Frog, Iron Springs Pub, Kona, Lakefront, Odell, Oskar Blues, Otter Creek, Rogue’s and Sierra Nevada. New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins (a personal favorite) has been a leader in the sustainability movement for years now. Strategies include using recycled equipment, waste reduction, wind energy, wastewater treatment, and biodiesel fuels.


This was my first time at the GABF, and beer lovers from all over come to this event. As I was standing in line to enter the convention center, I overheard the group behind me talking about their 25-hour drive from Canada, arriving just in time for the spectacle.

Once inside the Colorado Convention Center, my beer-loving companion and I headed to the Michigan section. Liz is a Michigan transplant so she wanted to go there first. My first one-ounce sample was of Rochester Mills’ Organic Wit, and a tasty beverage it was. Throughout the evening, I made stops to savor the brewmaster flavors of Abita Turbodog from Louisiana, Shiner Bock from Texas (an old college favorite), the Widmer Brothers' Hefeweisen from Oregon, and of course, Colorado’s New Belgium organic Mothership Wit and Odell’s Easy Street Wheat. I’m not sure how many states were sampled in all, but the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, Hawaii and several states in between, made the list. When asked at the end of the evening how many states she had visited, Liz told me “55” --- hmmmmm.


The next time you’re in the mood for a cold one, try one of the many offerings provided by the list of eco-brewers above. You can have a beer and help save the planet at the same time! That sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Pygmy Nuthatch: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Last weekend, I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park to get a couple nights of camping in while spending daylight hours watching the park’s famous elk rut. I figured the testosterone-charged bulls rapaciously defending their harems would be the wildlife highlight of the weekend; surprisingly, pygmy nuthatches took first place.


The first time I saw a pygmy nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea) was on October 18, 1997 in Rye, Colorado. I remember being excited about seeing this bird for the first time because it was another addition to my Colorado life list. Jump ahead almost 11 years to the week, and I’ve seen most of the birds that call Colorado home. So now, my avian observations focus on noting unusual activities I haven’t seen before.

On Saturday afternoon while relaxing at Moraine Park campground, I kept hearing high-pitched, rapid peep peep’s from several birds high in the canopy of a couple of ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa). Eventually, a flock of approximately 20 pygmy nuthatches came into view as they started foraging in a Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) just above me. The nuthatches were pulling winged seeds from partially open cones and then flying to nearby ponderosas. At first, I thought they were taking the seeds to other trees to remove the wings. Douglas-fir is a wind-dispersed species. The seeds are small with wings attached to aid in movement away from the cones. When I looked closer, I noticed that the nuthatches were actually caching the seeds under the bark of the ponderosa trees instead of removing wings.


Pygmy nuthatches are common residents in mature, healthy ponderosa pine forests. They’re actually considered indicator species. If the nuthatches are present in good numbers that means food and nest/roost sites are aplenty, i.e. you have good habitat.

Pygmy nuthatches usually forage by flaking off bark of conifers in search of insects and beetles underneath. In the winter, conifer seeds make up the majority of their diet. Caching of seeds under the bark of ponderosa pines when they’re available insures that the nuthatch’s foraging behavior can remain the same even when the climate is too cold for insects. Pretty smart behavior, if you ask me, for a tiny bird with an even tinier “bird brain”.

Side note: The pygmy nuthatch was mentioned in the 2000 movie release of Charlie’s Angels. Cameron Diaz, playing the role of Natalie Cook, unlocks the secret to finding the location where Bosley is being held captive when she hears the song of a pygmy nuthatch, a species she claims is only found in Carmel, California. The bird shown in the movie and the associated call were both incorrect. As a birder, it’s always fun to point out the inaccuracies in avian factoids used in movies and television. This one was an easy one, but I’d like to know why the nuthatch made it into the script in the first place.

Praying Mantis: Denver

Last weekend, I spent most of Sunday preparing a section of my garden for next spring’s planting of native species in the hopes of creating a more wildlife-friendly space. I was clearing water-hungry plants from a small plot and amending the soil with organic fertilizer and mycorrhizae – the good stuff plants love. In the midst of the activity, I noticed a large insect crossing the sidewalk adjacent to the plot. I think it must’ve been disturbed by the hullabaloo in its environs. As I moved in for a closer look, I identified the creature as a praying mantis. The last time I saw a praying mantis was in January at Carara National Park in Costa Rica and I’ve always thought of mantises as being tropical residents. Forget the fact that I’ve seen mantis eggs for sale at plant nurseries here in Denver.


Upon my discovery, I immediately grabbed the cameras (yes, plural). I wanted still photos and video footage of this garden visitor. After the photo shoot, I went inside to research the presence of praying mantises in Colorado. Here’s some of what I learned.

Praying mantises have a long history in human lore. The word “mantis” has a Greek origin that refers to a soothsayer (one who claims to be able to foretell events or predicts the future; a seer). The “praying” part of the name comes from the insect’s ambush posture when the two front legs are bent, as if in prayer. Praying mantises are daytime carnivores that only eat live prey and their favorite delicacies are soft-bodied insects like flies. If a prey item happens by, the mantis reaches out quickly, and spines on its forelegs aid in pinching the prey to keep it still until immobilized (I’ve intentionally omitted the gory details).


The bulls-eye on the inside of this mantis’ forelegs is characteristic of the species Mantis religiosa, a European native, but a species now well-established in Colorado. This is also the same species I encountered at Carara National Park. Members of Mantis religiosa first arrived in the U.S. years ago as passengers on plants. I guess you could say this garden visitor had ancestors that were “world travelers”. As a result, I didn’t have to travel further than my own front yard to see this species up close and personal. I wonder if this mantis was acting as a soothsayer, predicting that the grass was greener on the other side of the yard.

Coca Leaf: Peru

If you Google coca on the internet, many of the websites you’ll pull up deal with the carbonated, caffeinated, and shall I say tasty, beverage Coca-Cola™. This makes sense seeing as the popular beverage, invented in 1886 by a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, contained extracts from the coca plant (Erythroxylon spp.) until the early 1900’s. Upon my arrival in Cusco, the Inca capital of Peru, I was on the lookout for a coca beverage of a different name – mate de coca (coca tea).



The coca plant is native to the Andes mountain range in South America. This species is venerated by the Incas, both past and present. Coca leaves have either been chewed or seeped to make tea by South American indigenous cultures for thousands of years. In Cusco, a city more than 11,000 feet in elevation, coca tea is often times given to travelers to counteract altitude sickness. The tea is known to stimulate respiratory function and to act as an analgesic.

I’m prone to altitude sickness, so I was looking forward to indulging in a beverage sure to counteract the negative side effects associated with my arrival in this two-mile high city. Unfortunately, the coca tea didn’t help me, and I spent my first few hours in Cusco lying flat on my back having succumbed to altitude sickness. Later on in the trip, I discovered a possible explanation for the tea’s lack of effectiveness.

Enter our guide Wagner at Machu Picchu two days later. Wagner began our tour with the requisite information about Inca construction, their way of life, and agricultural methods. As our tour was winding down, he gathered us into an empty building. I felt like we were about to become the newest members of a secret society. Wagner lowered his voice as he began to extol the virtues of the infamous coca leaf in Inca history.

In Peru, coca leaves are a common sight at markets, but it’s illegal to leave the country with the leaves in tow (unless you live in Bolivia). The coca leaf, admittedly, has attained notoriety; but is the notoriety a byproduct of guilt by association? Cocaine is the villain in this story (as it should be). The coca leaf, however, is a different matter altogether. The percentage of cocaine in green, dry coca leaves is merely 0.01% (obviously not even enough to counteract my altitude sickness). Synthetic cocaine, the “recreational” variety, has a concentration of 50-100%. Now I’m no mathematician, but that’s a big difference.



During the course of Wagner’s presentation, he focused on the chewing of coca leaves (which in actuality is a sucking of the leaves). So what’s the benefit of chewing coca leaves if it has such a small amount of the active ingredient? That depends on whether or not you chew the leaves before a meal or whether it’s after a meal. The effects are opposite.

If you chew coca leaves prior to eating, it stimulates catabolism, or digestion, thereby promoting appetite suppression. Your body thinks it has just eaten and it’s in a restful mode.

If you chew coca leaves after a meal, it stimulates anabolism, the opposite of catabolism – think of anabolic steroids and major league baseball fame. Coca after a meal puts the body into a higher gear, increasing respiration, relieving pain, and ultimately promoting an increase in muscle mass and subsequent weight gain if you’re participating in strenuous activities. Aha! That just may answer the question: “How did the Incas move those huge stones?” This question was asked on more than one occasion during this trip.

It may also explain why I still felt the negative effects of altitude sickness in Cusco even though I partook in some coca tea – I hadn’t eaten a meal yet. My body was coaxed into a resting state instead of being amped up. Catabolism was stimulated instead of anabolism.

Next time I travel to Cusco, I will make sure to have a snack or meal before drinking coca tea. Better yet, maybe I’ll chew leaves since the effects are supposed to be greater than with the tea. I will also pick up one of those thought-provoking t-shirts stating “La hoja de coca no es droga”. Translation: the coca leaf is not a drug.