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 remote and pristine wilderness, while contributing to preservation of our wilderness and wildlife heritage. As we move into our twenty-fourth 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 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 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 believe in taking political action on issues that threaten the well-being of our wild lands. Under the current U.S. administration, Alaska's wild places are under attack from every direction; policies concerning natural resources seriously threaten wilderness and wildlife, worldwide. It couldn't be worse, with losses of wildlife habitat, clean air, open space, and wild country at every turn. 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. 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.

We participate in lobbying U.S. Congress. Most recently, we participated in an Arctic Refuge Lobby Week and rally in Washington, DC. More than 100 Alaskans joined with activists from across the US to lobby senators and Congressional representatives, urging them to vote against any energy bill or other legislation that includes drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

Many of our trips into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Western Arctic take us to lands threatened by industrial development. Once compromised, these wild places are gone. With our expeditions, we want to build the chorus of voices against oil development in the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge and 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.

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 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. There's no denying that it takes nearly 10 pounds of feed to make one pound of b eef, and animal farming takes land that might otherwise be feeding people. 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 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."

Sustainabile Tourism?

Is tourism sustainable? 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.