Our region’s natural assets drive our local economy. A recent local conference, Natural Economies, featured leading businesses, business development agencies, and economic researchers sharing their unique stories and perspectives of how these natural assets—working farmlands, healthy forests, and the clean waters of the Upper Delaware—are our economic engine.

It’s win-win-win. Natural assets draw people to the Upper Delaware River region, and local business owners have built sustainable and profitable businesses in harmony with the protection of these natural assets. Visitors then stay at local inns and resorts, buy local goods and further support local farmers, forest landowners, and other businesses.

And now, with the Delaware Highlands Conservancy Green Lodging Partnership, each guest is given the opportunity to make a direct donation to the Conservancy and join the partners in helping to protect those natural resources that keep tourists coming back year after year.

Launched in July 2012, the Green Lodging Partnership now includes nine local lodgings in New York and Pennsylvania that have asked their guests to join them in the long-term protection of our quality of life.

“The lodgings in the Green Lodging Partnership are invested in the future of this unique region,” affirms Conservancy Executive Director Sue Currier. “The Partnership allows local businesses to promote their commitment to sustainability and local conservation to their guests, and the funds raised from the program directly support the Conservancy's work to protect healthy lands and clean waters for residents and visitors alike.”

The Partnership works as follows: A $2 donation automatically added to each reservation is contributed directly to the Conservancy to support its conservation mission and assure everything that brings tourists to the Upper Delaware River region is protected now and every time they visit in the future.  Guests may opt out, but very few choose to do so.                                          

Participating lodgings understand that guests visit the Upper Delaware River region for its natural areas and abundance of outdoor recreational activities. Support for the Conservancy’s mission to protect the lands and waters of the region means assuring everything that attracts tourists and tourism dollars will be here now and for the future.

“At the Lake Wallenpaupack Visitors Center, I see every day how visitors to our region value our abundant outdoor recreational opportunities, clean air and pristine waters, and opportunities to get fresh, healthy, local foods at farmers’ markets,” asserts Keith Williams, manager of the Lake Wallenpaupack Visitors Center at the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau and Conservancy Board Member. “The Green Lodging Partnership allows visitors to invest in this region and its local businesses in a unique way, and to assure that everything that brings them here will still be here for future generations of their children and grandchildren.”

Sean Strub, co-owner of the Hotel Fauchere in Milford, PA, enthuses, "The Hotel Fauchere is proud to participate in the Delaware Highlands Conservancy Green Lodging Partnership. It is a way to engage our guests with our community's consciousness about protecting the pristine natural environment in the upper Delaware River Valley and to support the Conservancy's important work. Our guests have overwhelmingly supported participation and many express appreciation that the Hotel Fauchere recognizes its responsibility to do our part to be a responsible steward in the region.”

“Most of our guests come to the area specifically for what the region offers in terms of its natural heritage,” said Shelly Reagan, General Manager of The Sullivan in Rock Hill, NY. “The Sullivan is close to a number of outdoor recreation facilities, along with easy access to enjoy the natural beauty of the Catskills, so it just makes sense for them to stay with us and experience the luxury that we offer amidst the rugged outdoors. We have also done our best to use green products, local contractors and vendors as much as possible because we live here too and want to see this area attract visitors for many years to come.”

As Rory O'Fee, Marketing Director for Woodloch Resort in Hawley, PA, explains, "Our business is here because of its natural surroundings. Urban/suburbanites are leaving their developed neighborhoods to escape and relish in the true beauty of our area.  We want our guests to take part, take ownership in our land, in their vacation retreat and ensure its survival. This is important for everyone."

Participating lodgings in Pennsylvania include The Settlers Inn, Ledges Hotel, Woodloch Resort, and The Lodge at Woodloch, all in Hawley; Hotel Fauchere in Milford; and the James Manning House B&B in Bethany. Lodgings in New York include Apple Pond Farm in Callicoon Center; ECCE Bed and Breakfast in Barryville; and The Sullivan in Rock Hill.

The Conservancy works in partnership with landowners and communities to protect the healthy lands, clean waters, eagles and eagle habitat, and quality of life in the Upper Delaware River region. In association with Shop Local Save Land, the Green Lodging Partnership connects locally sustainable lodgings with this conservation mission.

For more information on the Delaware Highlands Conservancy and the Partnership, and how we connect people to the lands where they live, work, and play, visit the Delaware Highlands Conservancy website, call 570-226-3164 or 845-583-1010, or send email to:  info@delawarehighlands.org.

5/27/2013