Save Eco Destinations

What if next time you went on vacation you replenished your soul as well as your mind? Don’t call me a hippie – I’m serious. Volunteering is a marvelous way to show gratitude for nature and for life, and giving to others is one of the best ways to find fulfillment.

Plus, everything is better when it’s free (or at least cheap), am I right? Yes.

So let’s look at some cheap volunteer vacations.

Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, Montana, USA

Montana

Explore the wilderness and help build and repair trails or restore campsites at the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, which works with the U.S. Forest Service, in Montana. No experience is necessary for most of the projects (great news for me)! You can choose from three levels of difficulty and hike between 1 and 15 miles per day depending on the project. Volunteers of all ages are welcome. Check out the registration packets with further details here.

For another type of volunteer vacations in Montana, read this post.

Colorado

Colorado

Cheap volunteer vacations here include spending the summer building and improving the Colorado Trail for just $60 per week or $30 per weekend. The trail foundation organizes 15 volunteer trail efforts every summer in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service and you get a discount if you help out with more than one effort. Register in advance here. They’ll tell you what to bring. P.S. Another way you can help is to adopt a trail.

Hudson River

Sail the Hudson River

If you like kids and sailing, you can go on volunteer vacations on the Sloop’s “floating classroom” from mid-April through October every year and lead small group activities. For a volunteer fee of $100 you’re in. The fee helps offset the cost of food, instruction, you get a volunteer t-shirt, and help fund the group’s Youth Internships. Caveat: You’ll be committing yourself to rustic conditions for at least a week on the boat and must be 16 or older. Check it out.

Inwood Hill Park

New York City

You read that correctly. For a minimum contribution of $450-500 you can spend three days in April, May, June, September, October, or November 2010 learning about small mammal or coyote populations in the urban parks of Manhattan and the Bronx. Talk about, uh, weird volunteer vacations. You can choose Van Cortlandt Park (small mammals and coyotes), Pelham Bay Park, (small mammals and coyotes), or Inwood Hill Park (small mammals). And your $500 will only get you lunch, so you better have some money saved up.

Organic vegetable cultivation

All over

Take volunteer vacations at organic farms across the U.S. through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program. Pay a $20 annual fee and you get to peruse over 1,000 farms seeking volunteers on every corner of the country, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (go here for the Northeast). You work a half day for an organic farm, and the farm gives you room and board for the night in the family farmhouse or at a nearby cabin (how long you get to stay at each farm varies). Gorge yourself on organic goodness. Sweet.

For some more info on WWOOF projects, read this post.

Even if you live around the Roaring Fork and Vail Valleys in Colorado, you might not be aware that evil forces (*evil laugh*) are talking BS to fatten their bank accounts by raping more natural resources.

Namely, the board president, Tom Turnbull, of Holy Cross Energy, the coop that powers the area’s ski resorts, is saying that “civilizations have historically thrived in warmer periods as opposed to ice ages.” as the company tries to make its way into the Rockies to mine for coal.

Sure, warmer weather would benefit the ski resorts!

But what about the Waxman-Markey bill? The US is supposed to reduce greenhouse gasses by 20% by the year 2020, right? Well, now its 17%… it became official last week, according to Grist. 17% lower by 2020. How meager! America, we’re watching you, and you’re a disgrace!

Sure, US President Obama wrote:

We are now one step closer to delivering on the promise of a new clean energy economy that will make America less dependent on foreign oil, crack down on polluters, and create millions of new jobs all across America.

But srsly. The US could do tons better. Check it out: the EC is planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 20%–and by 2015. Nevermind that 2020 BS. All right?

We’re dealing with trendy Aspen and Vail here, hot skiing spots—which, by the way, would not benefit from rising temperatures! Snow actually melts in heat. (Who knew?) So, much like in Switzerland and other regions whose tourism industry relies on cold temperatures to retain its appeal, much of the state of Colorado’s economy relies on its weather.

You’re not doing too well convincing us with your warmer-is-better fable, Turnbull.

So activist locals are trying to get progressive, green-friendly board members elected to the rural coop, 43,000 members-strong Holy Cross Energy. They’re having a hard time, perhaps most likely because the news isn’t out as much as it should be. The coop hasn’t even publicized this info via its newsletter.

The Colorado Independent reported,

“Vail real estate broker George Lamb faces off against Eagle County environmental building planner and overall sustainability guru Adam Palmer in the other contested race, and Aspen’s Hal Clark — an Aspen SkiCo-backed candidate last year — is running unopposed.”

Want more? Read the whole article here.