{"id":102187,"date":"2017-12-28T09:34:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T16:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/small-donations-add-up-to-help-forest-health-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2017-12-28T09:34:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T16:34:52","slug":"small-donations-add-up-to-help-forest-health-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/small-donations-add-up-to-help-forest-health-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Small donations add up to help forest health in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Purgatory
Purgatory Resort and Hermosa Tours will take part in the Ski Conservation Fund, which funnels money back to local nonprofits for forest health projects.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A few extra dollars can go a long way toward protecting forests of the San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

This year, Purgatory Resort and Hermosa Tours, a mountain bike tour company, will take part in the National Forest Foundation\u2019s Ski Conservation Fund, which tacks on a couple of dollars to purchases that ultimately go toward projects in the local forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all responsible for the stewardship of the land,\u201d said Colin McBeath, general manager for Purgatory. \u201cA healthy forest is a benefit to us. It makes sense we do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt McFee, owner of Hermosa Tours, said the local economy is driven in large part by the national forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty easy for me to get behind anything we can do to help protect it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The National Forest Foundation\u2019s Ski Conservation Fund was started about 10 years ago, and since then, the program has collected more than $4 million in guest contributions, resulting in more than $22 million in conservation projects.<\/p>\n

Emily Olsen, Colorado program manager for the National Forest Foundation, said the program varies for each community. But essentially, a business, usually a ski resort, funnels a few dollars from its ski passes to the fund.<\/p>\n

That money gets directed toward the National Forest Foundation. The foundation, in turn, matches 50 cents on the dollar.<\/p>\n

Those funds then become available for local nonprofits to apply for grants for projects, such as trail work, water restoration projects or campground improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy asking for these donations, it\u2019s a way for guests to give back in a way that doesn\u2019t affect a resort\u2019s bottom line,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cAnd by bringing in new funding, it helps local nonprofits and the Forest Service take care of the forest, which is getting harder each year \u2026 as budgets continue to decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depending on the ski resort, donations can range from $10,000 to $100,000 in a season, Olsen said.<\/p>\n

In the White River National Forest, home to Arapahoe Basin, Copper and Vail ski resorts, among others, decades-long participation in the Ski Conservation Fund has been able to help up to 12 nonprofits a year undertake a range of projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts been a huge success,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cAs we\u2019ve seen the program grow, it\u2019s been a sustainable source of funding for forest projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Southwest Colorado, Purgatory Resort won\u2019t add an extra charge for guests. Instead, the ski resort will take money out of its own pocket for the conservation fund, subtracting $2 from season passes and $1 from a night\u2019s stay at its resort.<\/p>\n

Hermosa Tour\u2019s McFee said the company will add $10 to every reservation made in the Durango area. The program collected a couple hundred dollars this past summer, but McFee is expecting even better returns in the program\u2019s second year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an average year, I\u2019m imagining we\u2019ll be able to contribute $500 to $1,000 for the fund,\u201d McFee said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early to know what projects will be undertaken in the San Juan National Forest. Once a full season is complete, stakeholders get together to review the grants to choose projects they believe will benefit the forest best.<\/p>\n

Any business is encouraged to partake in the Ski Conservation Fund, which McFee says benefits mostly every business in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cDurango is very much a tourist destination, and the reason people come to Durango is to see the beautiful area,\u201d he said. \u201cWith the cuts to the Forest Service\u2019s budget, they don\u2019t have as much money to maintain or build new trails, that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all benefit because of our surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

businesses contribute to Ski Conservation Fund<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[529,21,13,884,712],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-conservation","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-hermosa","tag-purgatory"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102187"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}