Green Travel Corner

The Green Traveler:

This is a new page to share information about the kinds of  things you experience in your travels that speak to cities and countries are doing to take care of the earth.  Today's story is from Jeanne and Rick Specht.

 

Rick and I love to travel. One of the primary reasons for our travel is bird watching. Some of the reasons we like this hobby are:

 

  • We enjoy the outdoors.
  • It’s inexpensive:  a pair of binoculars and a bird book is all a person needs.
  • The people we have met are incredibly nice. There is little or no talk about work – just a shared interest in birds and respect for nature.
  • It can be done anytime, anyplace.

 

A local trip we took last year was to Lanesboro, MN. We took a leisurely, all day drive along back roads to get there, birding on the way. One stop was at Eagle Bluff  www.eagle-bluff.org   507-467-2437. We saw 62 different species! Traveling this way makes us more aware of the variety of eco-systems in an area, what kind of life is supported by it and how it is interconnected.

 

Whenever possible, we try to find eco-friendly places to spend our nights. Lanesboro has an eco-friendly Bed and Breakfast, Scandinavian Inn. www.scandinavianinn.com. It’s an old Victorian house that has been remodeled to be more energy efficient and serves  organic or regionally grown food.

 

While there we took a tour of Amish farms. We learned about their value system and life style. It was a good chance to reflect on our own lifestyle and think about changes we could make that would be more sustainable. e.g. I made an effort to increase the amount of local, in season food I froze for the winter.

 

An interesting book to enhance this experience is:

From Dawn to Dusk –Memoirs of an Amish/Mennonite Farm Boy by Will Troyer  ISBN 1932303545

 

For more information on Lanesboro, go to www.lanesboro.com

 

I like to think that this kind of travel has some elements of social justice in it. The process of getting to a destination can be as rich as the time spent at the vacation spot. Local businesses can be used. Letting local businesses know that the reason for our trip to the area was because of a surrounding environment rich in bird life can help motivate them to sustain that environment knowing it can be good for their business.

Jeanne and Rcik Specht

The Travelers