GREENMATTERS

IN J ACKSON

HOLEI S S U E 4 - F A L L 2 0 1 8

I N T R O D U C T I O N B Y T I M O ’ D O N O G H U E , R I V E R W I N D F O U N D A T I O N

Earlier in October, I traveled to Denmark and Sweden where I met and exchanged ideas with colleagues and sustainability visionaries from Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia.

There we learned about Copenhagen’s climate change

projects and 2025 goal of carbon neutrality. We saw their waste to energy facility that, with their wind turbines, produces power that exceeds their consumption and provides ash for the building industry’s concrete. Only 25% of residents own cars while 86% commute by bike or foot. The bicycle and pedestrian highways feature the Harbour Circle that is used

by visitors and residents. Copenhageners have numerous energy efficiency and green power incentives. All of these efforts and more are supported by a network of partnerships and collaborative projects.

Copenhagen can serve as a sustainability planning and

climate action model to Jackson Hole for what’s possible when there’s a confluence of political leadership, human capacity, and financial resources.

Living with WildfireWildfire is a natural disturbance and is the most significant

disturbance on the landscape in this region. Wildfire is inevitable, however there is great potential to reduce the risk of property losses from wildfire through proactive measures. Teton Conservation District’s goal is not to eliminate fire from the landscape, but rather, to reduce the potential loss of structures and increase safety for people. Fire provides numerous resource benefits, from nutrient cycling to reduction of fuel loads on the landscape to creating habitat for wildlife. We encourage landowners to work with us to prepare for

inevitable wildfires ahead of an event that will also improve the outcomes if/when they occur.

Clear and Present DangerWildfire season can run from June through October in Teton

County. All properties within this county have some level of risk, whether you are in the downtown or rural locations. The location of your home is a factor in your susceptibility, but it is the set of conditions that exists throughout your structure and the surrounding vegetation which determine if and how homes ignite.

WILDFIRE RISK REDUCTION T E T O N C O N S E R V A T I O N D I S T R I C T

Guidelines for tree crown clearance vary depending on slope, tress specifies and understory vegetation, along with proximity to homes and other site specific factors. Check with you local forestry or fire agency to get specific distance recommendations for where you live.

Work with Your NeighborsIf your neighborhood needs more information, TCD and our partners provide guidance to neighborhoods and groups includ-

ing Homeowners Associations, and Improvement and Service Districts. Often the latter may have direct control over vegetation management of critical road access, common space, and the covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CCRs) for each. Such elements often govern your ability to follow wildfire risk reduction advice. CCRs most commonly restrict roof coverings and vegetation management. In addition to the importance of managing vegetation surrounding your home, the vegetation man-agement of the entire roadway throughout subdivisions is a critical step in your ability to evacuate and a firefighter’s ability to safely access your home.

Contact Robb Sgroi, (307) 733-2110, at Teton Conservation District to start working to reduce wildfire risk from your home.

Call to ActionTeton Conservation District (TCD) provides free Wildfire Risk Overviews for residential and commercial properties that shares

voluntary recommendations to reduce that risk. This Overview focuses primarily on an area called the ‘Home Ignition Zone:’ an area extending 100-200 feet out from your residence. The best available science shows conditions in this limited area determines the potential for whether your home will burn or not. TCD also has funding available to support landowners that take action to implement the recommendations. The entire process is on a first-come-first-serve basis and is accomplished in these easy steps:

1. Request a Wildfire Risk Overview (Overview) with our online form at bit.ly/tcdfirereview2. Schedule the free, on-site Overview when you can be present and TCD will provide you with a free written report3. Fill out a Funding Request form with TCD4. Contract to complete the work or do it yourself following recommendations of the Overview5. After completion and inspection, you will receive reimbursement of up to $3,000

The Teton Conservation District is an active member of The Teton Area Wildfire Protection Coalition (TAWPC). TAWPC provides wildfire management leadership on public and private lands in Teton County, WY. The group’s mission includes facilitating opportunities for wildfire risk reduction projects, education and outreach opportunities, reviewing wildfire vegetation management projects seeking federal grants, and providing long range wildfire planning. TAWPC consists of volunteer citizens, the National Elk Refuge, Grand Teton National Park, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Caribou-Targhee National Forest, Teton County Emergency Management, Jackson Hole Fire/EMS, Teton Conservation District, Wyoming State Forestry Division, and the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. This group is unified in the information provided to landowners to reduce risk.

Over the past several decades, the region’s wildfire season has extended by over a month. Significant fires have included:

Through the Wildfire Risk Reduction Program, TCD can provide up to 50% of the cost of vegetation management surrounding structures.

• The 1988 Yellowstone fires• Green Knoll fire in 2001• Little Horsethief fire in 2012

• Cliff Creek fire in 2016• The Roosevelt Fire in 2018

BEFORE AFTER

A P E E K I N T O T H E B I N : R E C Y C L I N G I N J A C K S O N H O L E T E T O N C O U N T Y I N T E G R A T E D S O L I D W A S T E & R E C Y C L I N G

In many communities, recycling is made to look easy. A single blue bin works like a “black box,” accepting any and all paper and plastic, cans and bottles, wet and dry, clean and dirty. The contents are processed out of sight, and participants can give little thought to what happens beyond the bin.

In Jackson Hole, instead of making it look easy, the curtain is thrown back and recyclers are invited in to be part of the pro-

cess – and a very important part of the process at that! Participants are asked to deliver their recyclables to public collection hubs and separate items into material categories. They encounter reminders like these:

Signs that spell out these instructions and more are posted on recycling bins around town, featured in program brochures and advertisements, and echoed in presentations by outreach staff and volunteers at every opportunity. The goal is to support a culture of informed recyclers who know what to do and why it’s important. With this type of community buy-in, Jackson Hole hopes to progress as a Road to Zero Waste community, minimizing what goes to the landfill and maximizing resource conservation.

Teton County Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling (ISWR) is the department that oversees all recycling, compost, and solid

waste operations in the region. The practice of involving the community in recycling began in Jackson Hole in the late 1980’s and has successfully sustained the program; even while several surrounding communities have seen their recycling services shut down. We’ve heard that for some community members, being asked to do a bit more seems complicated, confusing, burdensome, or overwhelming, and can lead to frustration.

At ISWR, we understand that recycling involves many do’s and don’ts and yes’s and no’s, but there are good reasons behind

all of those instructions. Recycling in relatively small, isolated communities is challenging. The key is a firm commitment to high standards of quality over quantity. In Jackson Hole, this means accepting only the materials that are fully recyclable and then managing the transportation of these goods to market in a way that is both fiscally and environmentally responsible. While this has always been true in remote and smaller communities, recent shifts in global recycling markets are bringing these higher standards of quality to the forefront in communities of all sizes and geographies. So, the new normal for recycling programs across the country may start to look more and more like Jackson Hole’s.

Beginning in the 1990’s, many U.S. communities traded quality for quantity and convenience in their recycling programs.

This was the beginning of the make-it-easy mentality. They adopted programs like single-stream recycling in which materials are co-mingled, or collected together regardless of material type. These systems are coupled with mechanized sorting equip-ment that utilizes screens, magnets, lasers, and even robots to identify and recover the desired materials. While these pro-grams have been successful in increasing participation and collecting larger volumes, the difficulties are twofold.

First, sorting technology can only separate and purify to a certain level. The contamination that results from combining

materials into a single stream is significant. There is not a machine, for instance, that is capable of extracting salad dressing residue from newspaper to the degree that the paper fibers become useable again. The result is that up to 25% of the material put into a single stream collection is unusable and sent to a landfill rather than recycled.*

Second, the tolerance for contamination in the global recycling market has drastically decreased. For over two decades,

China has been the primary importer of global scrap. In recent years, they have reported an increased environmental threat, as well as rising disposal costs, due to the high levels of contamination in the recycled material loads they have received from the U.S. and others. To combat these conditions, in 2014, China introduced a policy called Operation Green Fence that called for stricter inspection procedures. The problems continued, however, and a second initiative in 2017, called Operation National Sword, tightened the contamination tolerance to less than 1% for commodities like paper and plastics.

With limited alternatives for export around the world and little demand for recycled material in domestic manufacturing, the

Please sort! No food! Keep it clean! Bottles only! No caps!Don’t forget to flatten boxes!

*Source: Waste Management

ability to sell and recycle the items collected from municipal recycling programs across the U.S. has become increasing-ly difficult. Today, the only viable markets are for clean, high quality, useable materials, like the ones collected in Jackson Hole.

Although these factors represent significant challenges for

the recycling industry, they also serve as reinforcement of the importance of maintaining high standards of quality in municipal programs. In Jackson Hole, this means beginning at the bin; continuing to inform and involve recyclers in the operations and goals of the program and explaining why we collect recyclables the way we do. While the partici-pation requirements of the program may seem overwhelm-ing to some, the efforts ensure that Jackson Hole is able to minimize contamination, compete in global markets, and recycle as much of our materials as possible.

As well positioned as this community is to continue have

a highly successful recycling program, the work is ongoing. Rapid changes in product packaging and consumer mate-rials make the composition of the waste stream a moving target. To address the endless twists and turns and fend off the inevitable confusion, Teton County ISWR provides the following list of overarching guidelines.

1. When in doubt, throw it out.Only recycle what you know to be a high quality item.

Although it feels like the right thing to throw something into a recycling bin instead of the trash when you are unsure, the reality is that this act of “aspirational recycling” or “wish-cy-cling” causes increased contamination and works against the success of the program.

2. Remove ALL food residue.Scrape out what you can and don’t be afraid to run a

food jar through the dishwasher if necessary. The presence of even small amounts of food residue invites mildew, bacteria and maggots. These infestations spread quickly and contaminate entire loads.

3. Plastic bottle shapes ONLY.If the item is made of plastic, it must be shaped like a bottle or jar in order to be recyclable. A bottle is wider at the bottom

than at the top, like a typical plastic water bottle. A jar can be slightly wider (or the same size) at the bottom versus the top, like a peanut butter jar. Things that are not bottle shapes, like plastic drinking cups, yogurt containers, and berry or salad boxes that open like clamshells, should go into the trash.

4. Identify the shape first, then the number.Start by identifying whether or not the item is bottle shaped (see above). Then look for the number within the recycling arrows

that is stamped on the bottom of these bottles. Recycling bins are available for #1 bottles (examples: water and soda bottles) and #2 bottles (examples: milk jugs and detergent containers) ONLY. All other numbered items should go into the trash.

5. And, please, no trash!Recycling in Teton County is handled separately from trash. It travels to a specialized recycling facility that is not equipped

to handle trash. Recycling crew members (people, not machines) remove non-recyclable items and contaminants by hand, one-by-one. It is this careful sorting effort that ensures that recycling loads meet the standards for quality and are truly recyclable. The ability of crew members to sort material effectively and maintain a successful program is dependent upon the informed and cooperative efforts of our community.

Once again, the success of the program relies upon the informed and dedicated participation of this community. No black

box or machine or closed-door system can substitute for the contribution, past and future, of our engaged citizenry.

Over the past 12 months over 296 Teton County Residents have chosen to use 100% renewable energy in their home or business. The efforts of Energy Conservation Works and its partners The Town of Jackson, Teton County, and Lower Valley Energy to promote the Green Power Program have led to this upswing in sustainable, responsible energy sourcing, but there is still room for improvement for our valley. With a 60% increase in participation in the homes of Teton County, it’s clear that this program is something that local residents want.

The Green Power Program, offered through Lower Valley Energy, is a remarkable program allowing for residents of Teton County to elect to use certified Green Power in their homes, while still paying half the national average in electricity costs. Users of the Green Power Program can take meaningful action towards reducing their carbon footprint, greening Teton Coun-ty’s electricity sourcing, and preserving and protecting our area’s special ecosystem. Best of all, the program requires just one phone call to make the switch to carbon neutral energy sources.

Despite its easy adoption, the importance of the program cannot be understated for addressing the environmental impacts of Teton County Residents. In Teton County, per person home energy use doubles the national average. Between transportation, air travel, heating, and electricity, our small mountain community produces nearly ½ million tons of Co2 each year. Those emis-sions contribute to increasing wildfires in the Western United States, shorter winters and declining snowpacks in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and a reduction of air quality in our spectacular viewsheds. The simple action of choosing renewable energy in your home or business can make a difference in reducing that impact.

To sign up for the Green Power Program, or to learn more about Energy Conservation Works and our renewable energy sourcing, please call (307) 413-1971 or visit www.energyconservationworks.org.

Now from 1pm - 4pm every other Saturday12/1, 12/15, 12/29, 1/12, 1/26, 2/9, 2/23, 3/9, (No market 3/23), 4/6, 4/20 An easy cure for the wintertime blues is the Slow Food in the Tetons’ Winter People’s

Market. As the days get shorter and nights grow longer, treat yourself to nourishing, locally grown food among friends and family at this bi-monthly gathering. Starting on December 1, local food shoppers can stock up on provisions every other Saturday (except for Spring Break weekend on March 23rd) from 1pm - 4pm at the Teton County Fairground Building at 350 West Snow King Drive.

Over the last three years, the Winter People’s Market has become a popular Saturday

afternoon destination for families with young kids, an après ski meet-up with live music, and a way for tourists to get a taste of the local food scene during the snowy months. The market is also a favorite among Slow Food staff because it challenges the entire community to get creative with eating locally in the winter outside of the typical growing season.

Slow Food Executive Director Scott Steen says, “I love sipping spicy noodle soup and

soaking up the warmth of a community gathering. I make sure to buy enough eggs, beef, microgreens, fermented veggies and fire cider to get me through to the next market.”

The Winter People’s Market features about 25 vendors selling local artisan crafts, delicious prepared lunch and dinner food,

beer and cocktails, as well as locally and regionally produced canned and fermented foods, eggs, cheese, bread, beef, lamb, pork, chicken and vegetables all winter long. Find out more about Slow Food in the Tetons or apply to be a People’s Market Vendor (application window 10/12 - 10/26) online at www.tetonslowfood.org.

G R E E N P O W E R P R O G R A M G R O W S I N T E T O N C O U N T YE N E R G Y C O N S E R V A T I O N W O R K S

T H E W I N T E R P E O P L E ’ S M A R K E T S TA R T S D E C E M B E R 1S L O W F O O D I N T H E T E T O N S

ELK REFUGE INN IS THE FIRST OF THE BEST R I V E R W I N D F O U N D A T I O N

The Elk Refuge Inn is the first business in Jackson Hole to reach the Business Emerald Sustainability Tier (BEST) level of sustainability performance. The standards in the BEST program are comparable to the world’s most rigorous and comprehensive environmental, community, and economic sustainability criteria for businesses.

The BEST program was created to provide an opportunity and platform for those Reduce,

Reuse, Recycle (RRR) Business Leaders that want to elevate their sustainability practices to higher levels of environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and economic vitality.

Monay Olson, Owner of the Shine Group (including the Elk Refuge Inn) states, “Creating a positive impact is our core value

and we action this in many measurable ways. However, as a small hotel with limited resources we were concerned in our ability to achieve BEST status. The tools and resources provided by the Riverwind Foundation are outstanding. The process of achieving BEST is much more than a badge. It’s learning that the implementation of numerous initiatives add to delivering a powerful impact to the achievement of sustainability. But we’re just one business, we’d love to share our story to help others.”

The Elk Refuge Inn was assessed and certified on September 18th by the Riverwind Foundation, the originator and

administrator of the BEST program. The Elk Refuge Inn began their sustainability journey in the BEST program in December 2017. Under Monay Olson and Chad Sheldon’s leadership, the Elk Refuge Inn trained and engaged staff to implement their Sustainable Tourism Management Plan.

Highlights of their environmental sustainability initiatives include an evaluation of their supply chain, a comprehensive waste

management and recycling program underpinning their road to zero waste, purchasing green energy from Lower Valley Energy, being 86% better than similar businesses in reducing its carbon emissions, installation of low-flow water conservation fixtures throughout the property, and collecting rainwater for outdoor potted plants.

The Elk Refuge Inn’s strengths in community sustainability include participating in sustainability programs, supporting local

community organizations and encouraging staff and guests to do so, and promoting locally produced goods and services.

For more information on the BEST program, please contact Tim O’Donoghue at riverwind@wyoming.com

FA L L E V E N T SEvery other Saturday beginning December 1stThe Slow Food Winter People’s Market |Early to mid-afternoon

Teton County Fairground Building

A robust winter farmers market featuring local and regional veggies, bread, cheese, meat and fermented items, delicious prepared and packaged food, and locally made artisan crafts.

November 2nd & 3rd Fall Clean Up and Pumpkin Smash | Approx. 9am-4pm

Teton County Fairgrounds and Trash Transfer Station

The Fall Clean Up and Pumpkin Smash provide residents with the opportunity to compost yard waste and Jack-O-Lanterns at no cost during the first weekend in November.

T H A N K Y O U T O O U R S P O N S O R S & S U P P O R T E R S

Courtesy of VisitJacksonHole