Carbon Offsets & the Siwash Green Plan
At Siwash Lake Ranch, we're first to acknowledge that there's a great deal more we need to accomplish in decreasing our environmental footprint.
However, we're proud of our achievements to date. We have a passion for the planet and are doing the best that we possibly can to minimize the impact of our operation upon the land. We're keen to lead by example, and ready to tackle many projects—as time, energy and resources permit. Our guests can help in this regard. They all do their bit for the planet by choosing to stay at Siwash in the first place, a sustainable destination.
But we need to address the green house gases created in traveling to the ranch. Instead of purchasing external carbon credits to off-set flights and vehicles, guests can rest assured that a portion of their bill at the ranch will help support the Siwash Green Plan and our Land Stewardship projects. Further support in the form of a donation to this cause is always welcome.
The Siwash Green Plan ~ Retrofits in progress or on our wish list
- Convert our garden and pasture irrigation system from gas powered sprinklers to a solar powered drip/flood irrigation system.
- Convert our diesel fueled crew cab truck, needed for ranch work and provision/supply trips, to run off used vegetable oil from restaurants in town, and once we get this figured out, convert our heavy equipment machines also (grader, skidsteer)
- Continue searching for more local and regional sources to use for ranch food and supplies
- Construct a cistern to capture rainfall on our hay shed roof to provide water for the horse corrals and ease the demand on our well
- Conserve more power by replacing our existing water pumps with more state-of-the-art, low energy models.
- We use beetle killed timber, salvaged off the ranch property, to heat the lodge. Burning wood for heat is deemed to be carbon neutral, provided harvesting methods create minimal impact and emissions. However, we plan to replace our CSA approved wood burning stoves with more energy efficient, clean burning models.