Wintergreen - An Environmentally Conscious Community in Action

A responsible steward of 11,000 scenic Blue Ridge Mountains acres, the Wintergreen Resort and community actively nurtures its environment, honoring and conserving precious natural resources. Partnering with The Wintergreen Nature Foundation (TWNF), it supports and promotes wildlife habitat preservation and environmental education.

Helping underwrite local conservation efforts, Wintergreen Resort adds a donation of $1 per night to each guest's bill in support of The Wintergreen Nature Foundation, a not-for-profit partner. The Foundation invests an additional $1 for on-site conservation and education projects that help preserve Wintergreen's flora and fauna for future generations.

Among the environmental actions and results undertaken at Wintergreen are:

• Crawford's Knob Natural Preserve is a 1450-acre tract that hosts extensive wetlands and unique cliff spaces that have been preserved. Some of the ecosystems and species in are the only record of their occurrence in Virginia and the southern range limit in North America. Recent research by archaeologists and biologists show both rare species of plants, a greatly narrowed band of migrating bird nesting sites and headwaters wetlands that form some of the Chesapeake Bay's most pristine headwaters.
• The American Chestnut Tree once comprised a quarter of the eastern hardwood forest from Maine to Georgia and west to the Ohio River Valley, providing valuable economic resources in timber, nuts, and abundant food source for wildlife. Wintergreen Resort has partnered with The American Chestnut Foundation to reintroduce the blight-resistant American chestnut to the forests of the Eastern United States.
  
• Wintergreen's best-loved community amenity, more than 30 miles of magnificent hiking trails are supported and maintained by the resort and property owners associations and The Wintergreen Nature Foundation.
  
• Transplanted native plants are common in landscapes throughout the Wintergreen community.
  
• The Wintergreen community has won two national awards for the work of The Wintergreen Nature Foundation in environmental protection and education, including the prestigious Phoenix Award from the Society of American Travel Writers.
  
• Unique Wintergreen ecosystem tracts have been removed from development and protected under nature preserve status, including the Shamokin Springs Nature Preserve and Allen Creek Nature Preserve.
  
• Over 6,000 Wintergreen acres are protected from development and available for community use as open space, including Trillium Field Park where thousands of Trilliums (wild lilies) bloom each May. The park is a photographer's paradise and represents thousands of years of natural ecosystem development.
  
• Storm Water Management Plans monitor storm drainage and run-off is managed to preserve water quality
• Watershed streams are regularly monitored and tested for organism health, oxygen, acidity, and heavy metal deposits as part of a Water Quality Monitoring program.

Wintergreen Resort renewable and sustainable energy fast facts:

• The snowmaking system for the ski area provides 10% energy-use savings.
  
• All public restrooms are low water-use facilities.
  
• Low-energy light/motion detectors are installed in public and back office areas. 
  
• Existing slope lights are used during nighttime snowmaking and grooming.
  
• LED lights are used for the Christmas Grand Illumination display.