Just add water!

aaron — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 14:20:41 -0800

I grow some of my own food, and it's remarkably easy and equally fulfilling. Each year my girlfriend & I expand our garden, making room to plant some more new things. And each year we're pleasantly surprised -- all it takes to grow food, it seems, is dirt, seeds, water, and sunshine.

Neither of us have much time to weed the garden or spend time pruning or anything like that. So we just kinda stick seeds in the ground and see what happens. So far we've successfully grown spaghetti squash, peas, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, kale, chard, beets, tomatoes, carrots, and a ton of herbs.

Every year at the beginning of the growing season, we have a little freak-out, though, about planning our garden right, and growing the right things at the right times, and generally being impressive in a Moosewood kinda way. My (unsolicited) advice to all the aspiring veggie gardeners out there: don't be intimidated by awesome gardening books & garden-store people. Just try your luck, go with your gut, and see what happens. Something that you plant is bound to grow.

Response from Grouse Mountain

aaron — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:05:25 -0700

Holy fast responses! Friday morning I received a nice email from Chris, a pr guy for Grouse Mountain, outlining the reasons that the lights are on at night. With his kind permission, I've included the email below.

Aaron-

Here is why the lights of Grouse Mountain remain on until 2am every morning:

1. Grouse Mountain has a population of staff members who reside on site. These employees are on-call twenty-four hours a day to respond to any and all alpine emergencies, and their mountaintop homes are primarily situated along the slopes of The Cut. Safe and swift navigation through alpine areas at night requires sufficient lighting.

2. Much of Grouse Mountain's outdoor operations take place at night, and require illumination. For safety reasons, extensive run grooming (both winter and summer), routine machine maintenance, and alpine patrol/training operations are performed when our guests have left for the evening. Note that our last up-hill Skyride departs at 10:00 PM, with restaurant guests often leaving several hours later.

3. Grouse Mountain has an alpine helicopter pad that can serve both commercial and rescue aircraft. As the lights of The Cut are an easily identifiable landmark, they serve as an immutable navigational tool for pilots. Search and rescue helicopters routinely survey the forests of the Capilano Valley in and around the high-traffic trails of Grouse Mountain. Also, our "Fly, Dine, & Drive" program operates year-round and involves Helijet Airways shuttling Observatory guests from the Vancouver Harbour to the top of the mountain for evening reservations.

4. The lights of the Cut are a Vancouver landmark, intrinsic to the North Shore Skyline much in the same way illuminated urban structures such as the CN Tower, Statue of Liberty, and the Space Needle are revered symbols of their respective cities. That said, they are extinguished at 2am every morning.

5. Grouse Mountain works closely with BC Hydro to improve energy efficiency.In fact, as an active participant in the Powersmart program, we have undergone an extensive energy audit. From retro-fitting to more efficient technology, numerous recommendations stemmed from this audit, which Grouse Mountain has implemented and will continue to implement in the coming year.

Our commitment to sustainability is not a static undertaking. It is an ongoing journey that requires constant evaluation and modification, infiltrating every aspect of the social and economic culture of our operation. We strive to put more back into the environment than we withdraw, and we will remain diligent in this pursuit.

On that note, thank you for taking the time to offer your comments; concerned voices such as yours reassure us that our environmental mission is shared by the public at large. If you still have any questions or concerns on this subject, we'd appreciate a chance to answer them directly before you create another post in this thread.

Best,

Chris
Grouse Mountain Resort

While I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced by the reasons he listed, this has certainly given me pause for thought. Where before the lights looked frivolous, they're now starting to look kind of meaningful.

Kudos to Chris and the Grouse Mountain team on their speedy response -- It's rare, I think, to hear anyone respond to criticism (especially public criticism) in such a reasonable manner. And kudos again for letting me post the response -- this shows a refreshing willingness on GM's part to engage in dialogue with the general public as part of their ongoing commitment to sustainability. Hoorah!

Tourist attraction, unsightly blemish, or my tax dollars at work?

aaron — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:45:00 -0700

I remember hearing once that BC Hydro donates the electricity to Grouse because they consider the lights a tourist attraction. So not only is Grouse wasting the electricity & messing up our beautiful view at dusk, but they're also (if the rumours are true) doing it for free. Well, not free exactly, because we're paying for it!

The prospect of that makes me very upset. I guess I'd better verify the facts before I get too mad, though...

aaron's Blog

Just add water!

Response from Grouse Mountain

Tourist attraction, unsightly blemish, or my tax dollars at work?