Vail’s Good Practice Story selected as part of 2024 Green Destinations Top 100 Stories list

The Town of Vail recently issued the following press release on behalf of Green Destinations:

Every year the Green Destinations Top 100 Sustainability Stories competition collects good practice stories from destinations all over the world to be shared as inspiring examples to others, from tourism professionals to travelers. By telling their stories, destination management organizations are acknowledged and recognized for the solutions they have implemented in response to challenges and problems to sustainable development they have faced. With the tourism sector facing very challenging times in the past years, the resiliency and hard work of these destinations to become more responsible should be celebrated.

The 2024 selection included the Vail Destination, with the story “Alpine Plants: A Story of Adaptation, Resilience, and Conservation.”

The story was inspired by conservation and climate work the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, one of the Vail Destination’s Top 10 Attractions, is spearheading to protect alpine plant species. Sitting above treeline, the mountain alpine environment is a harsh and rugged place. However, there are some well adapted and resilient plants that make the alpine ecosystem their home. To add to the challenges of survival, climate change is posing a threat to the flora and fauna. 

In response to the pressures faced by alpine plants and based on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens (BFAG) developed the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Alpine Plant Conservation. Given the threat of climate change in the alpine environment, conserving its flora now is critical because of differences being seen in pollinators, treeline levels, and species composition. Located at 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) high in the Rocky Mountains of Vail, BFAG is uniquely positioned to spearhead an effort to conserve this fragile mountain environment. BFAG has partnered with Denver Botanic Gardens to author the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Alpine Plant Conservation. 

Through a series of objectives and targets the goal of this strategy is to create a plan for protecting North America’s alpine plants, starting with those in the alpine surrounding Vail, Colorado. This strategy can be adapted and used to develop conservation strategies for plants in other ecosystems in North America and around the globe. Vail’s small botanical garden is leading the way to protect the nation’s alpine ecosystem. 

Submissions were evaluated by the Green Destinations Top 100 Team, country experts and Green Destination Partners, coordinated by Green Destinations. The Top 100 Committee stresses that selection to the Top 100 list does not imply the destination is sustainable, but that the destination has been pre-selected based on a minimum level of compliance with the core criteria of the Green Destinations Standard and selected to the list based on the assessment of their Sustainability Good Practice Story.

The competition is held under the auspices of the Top 100 Partnership, with special contributions by: Green Destinations, QualityCoast, ITB Berlin, Asian Ecotourism Network, Ecotourism Australia, DEL Turismo, Slovenia Green, Global Ecotourism Network and the Future of Tourism Coalition. 

The full story “Alpine Plants: A Story of Adaptation, Resilience, and Conservation” and the whole 2024 Top 100 list is available on the Green Destinations website. 

For more information, contact Beth Markham, Environmental Sustainability Manager at Town of Vail at bmarkham@vail.gov or Nicola Ripley, Executive Director of the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens at nicola@bettyfordalpinegardens.org.