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Daily Editorial: Green voices matter

Vail Daily Editorial Board
Vail CO, Colorado

The town of Vail and Eagle County should be applauded for polling residents about their top concerns.

Elected officials, like journalists, can get caught up in their own worlds and mistake their own priorities for those of their constituents. What’s important to residents, not politicians, should drive policy except in cases where the public is suffering communal irrationality or ignorance.

It’s no surprise that housing costs are a top concern in both surveys. It was No. 1 on Vail’s poll, which has been completed, and among the top worries of residents interviewed about the county survey, which is still underway.



But in Vail, environment, including pine beetles, for the first time topped parking when residents were asked what will be the biggest problem in the future. Those asked about the county survey expressed a similar sentiment when they said the mountains, streams and hiking trails are worth the high cost of living.

Maybe this means Mother Nature is now as important as the tourist dollar or that people are truly making the connection that the tourist dollar depends on keeping Mother Nature healthy.

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We hope politicians not only hear this message as the results come in and headlines are made, but keep in mind the environment and how important it is to those who’ve made the valley their home.

Vail has purchased wind power credits and the county drives hybrid vehicles and demands greener developments, and we hope that’s just the beginning of an extensive, long-live initiative to reduce the damage we’re doing to our environment.

” Matt Zalaznick for the Editorial Board


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