BATW's Ethics & Etiquette panel: (from left) Edward Hasbrouck, David Page, Catherine Boire, Tom Wilmer and Erin Van Reenen (host) (photo © John Montgomery)

BATW members were treated to a lively presentation on Saturday, June 19, at the Noe Valley branch of the San Francisco Public Library. The topic: The Ethics & Etiquette of Travel Writing—that is, an examination of what’s involved from an ethical standpoint when it comes to travel-writer comps, press trips, and freebies. The panel was conceived, coordinated and moderated by BATW Program Committee member Erin Van Rheenen.

Although billed as a discussion, the event was a bit more idiosyncratic. Each of the four panelists — David Page, Edward Hasbrouck, Catherine Boire and Tom Wilmer — spoke about the “Ethics & Etiquette” from a personal standpoint. Questions were taken from the audience.

Van Rheenen introduced the program by reading an excerpt from a piece Georgia Hesse wrote for the occasion. Hesse, founder of the San Francisco Examiner’s Travel section and an internationally-recognized travel writer/editor, offered a historical perspective on ethical issues involving press trips.

Edward Hasbrouck, who is on the board of the National Writers’ Union and who has been involved in formal discussions on this topic, set up the purpose of the meeting.  He pointed out that the reason issues about ethics and gift-disclosure have come up is that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is supposed to protect consumers, has created new guidelines for openness regarding writers’ acceptance of freebies, discounts, etc.  He pointed out that the “FTC was gutted during the Reagan Admnistration” and that an overhaul of out-of-date regulations (or lack thereof) is long overdue.  New appointees on the FTC are working to encourage “truth in advertising” – and truth about hidden advertising.

In particular, the rapid expansion of the blogging world has brought about concerns regarding payola, which is defined by dictionary.com as “a secret or private payment in return for the promotion of a product, service, etc., through the abuse of one’s position, influence, or facilities.”

In October, 2009, the FTC announced its truth-in-(hidden)-advertising guidelines.  However, the FTC was mainly talking about current laws and trying to “scare people straight” regarding disclosure of who gave them what in exchange for positive mention in a story.  Edward pointed out that the FTC is taking a good approach in saying, “Get your act together on your own initiative.”

The original focus of the FTC’s new approach was not, Edward said, travel writers, but now it is trying to straighten out that area, too.  Two areas of importance are (1) endorsement (the writer telling the reader to do or buy something) and (2) disclosure of material connections that the reader would not expect or know about.

Edward said travel writers have two choices for dealing with these issues – that is, two questions to ask themselves:

1.     “What do I have to do to comply with the guidelines?”

His initial answer was: almost nothing.  The FTC is directing its ire primarily at advertisers.  The FTC wants the sponsor to tell the writer to tell the reader that he/she was sponsored (that is, given a comp, media-rate discount, press trip, etc.).  Edward thinks this is the wrong approach and suggests instead that writers answer his second question:

2.    “What is driving these regulation changes?  Are these valid concerns?”

The concerns relate to shilling – that is, to a writer presenting a company’s point-of-view in exchange for some kind of compensation but that writer not disclosing to the reader that she/he received that compensation.  In the case of print writers, the writer usually deals with an editor and/or publisher so there can be some distance and a filter between the writer and the final published story.  The problem is bigger regarding bloggers because bloggers are not only the writers on their own sites, they are also the publishers of their own site and, therefore, are also the sites’ advertising salespersons.  That means there is no distance between the writer and the generator of website revenue.  Therefore a blog can easily and secretly become an “infomercial” (“informative” commercial) or an “advertorial” (advertising masquerading as an editorial).

Writers will win greater credibility, Edward said, if they are honest and up-front with their readers – that is, if they disclose to readers all discounts, gifts, comps, freebies, etc., that they receive relating to their articles.

This honesty has to come from publicists and marketers as well as writers, Edward said.  All subsidies (including media rates that are below fair-market value) as well as freebies should be disclosed.  Readers cannot detect payola on their own, and they are upset if they discover they’ve been duped.  In order to further their own careers, writers need to do all they can to maintain their credibility with readers and that means disclosing all gifts.

(For more information, links that Edward provided are at the bottom of this post and at http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001877.html.)

David Page’s credits include the Discovery Channel, Men’s Journal, and the New York Times. He talked about conflicting ethical views within travel journalism. The official policy at the New York Times is to never accept a story by anyone who has been on a press trip at any time (read this section of the NYT contract). However, many other publications have no policy regarding press trips. [Suzie notes that many BATW members have been on press trips with editors from major publications.]

Page noted that it’s almost impossible to write a guidebook without taking at least an occasional freebie. When writing Yosemite & the Southern Sierra Nevada: A Complete Guide (Countryman Press), he found the “no freebie” thing easy to do with hole-in-the-wall lodgings and inexpensive eateries; impossible to do, on his budget, when matters went upscale. So what does a writer do? As he wrote in an article entitled “Do Freebies Undermine Honesty in Travel Writing,” “Do you just wander around the hallways of the five-star hotel and maybe sit on the bed? …Or—what the hell, in the interest of actual experiential travel—do you accept a free night?”

Of course you do. Realizing that “my responsibility is to the story and reader,” Page wrote honestly…and the guidebook ended up winning a 2009 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award.

Throughout his presentation Page emphasized that honesty in writing—as opposed to offering up boiler-plate or fluff—is what wins readers over. And while honesty may at times be difficult for hotel, restaurant, and attraction owners to swallow, in the end most will appreciate being shown the error of their ways. It was thus fitting that Page ended his presentation with these simple words addressed to travel journalists and readers alike: “Write like a shill, they’re gone. Write honestly, they stay.”

[You’ll find a few links on the topic of travel-writer ethics recommended by David Page at the bottom of this post.]

BATW Associate member Catherine Boire spoke offered a perspective from “the other side.” Catherine joined BATW in 1997, shortly after moving to the Bay Area. That same year she put together BATW’s first-ever press trip. By coincidence the destination—the Napa Valley town of Calistoga—had never before hosted a press trip. While BATW members responded with enthusiasm to the idea of a visit to Calistoga (go figure!), the town’s restaurant, hotel, and attraction owners were befuddled by the new idea of giving away free lodging, meals, etc. Would it really be worth it? Catherine convinced them to take a chance, assuring them that good publicity would result. As it turned out, the trip was a success on all fronts. Everyone had a great time, no embarrassing gaffes occurred, and Catherine received many clips from the attendees.

But then comes the flip side. Not long ago a writer (not a BATW member) asked Catherine to get him a three-day comp at a high-end “camp” in the Sierra, saying that the story would appear in a major publication. This amp does not ordinarily give comps—open only three months each year, the camp has an extremely narrow window in which to make a profit. But in the end Catherine did mange to wrest permission for the three-night comp. The result? The writer never filed the story, and Catherine was left to deal with an extremely disgruntled camp manager.

Nonetheless, Catherine believes that press trips and comps are important, allowing journalists a way to visit an area or property. She stressed that it’s important to send clips of articles written from press trips to the PR consultant (she mentioned her delight when Don & Ann Jackson recently sent her a clip that—though written this year—resulted from a press trip of 15 years ago). Another tip: you’ll have more success if you make requests for help, comps, etc., through the PR consultant rather than going directly to a hotel or other manager.

BATW Board member Tom Wilmer has been on so many press trips in 25+ years as a travel writer that he long ago lost count. A bit of a raconteur, he made it clear that, in his view, press trips are vital to a hard-working travel writer because they provide opportunity, insight, ideas, knowledge and much more. As one example: Wilmer won a national Australian writing award for an article that resulted from a press trip.

But there can be a dark side, Wilmer points out, when writers feel that they must produce “glowing” or “fluffy” articles to repay a sponsor’s largesse. “If you feel beholden—if you feel as if you’re being a whore—get over it,” he said. “And get over it quick. You have a far bigger responsibility to your reader. And if the PR people have a problem? Well, too bad!”

– Suzie Rodriguez
(covering introduction, David Page, Catherine Boire and Tom Wilmer)
– April Orcutt
BATW Website Editor (covering Edward Hasbrouck)

Resources from David Page:

http://thetravelersnotebook.com/notes-on-writing/do-travel-and-leisure-style-no-freebies-policies-undermine-honesty-in-travel-writing/

A relevant section of the NYT contract: http://www.nytco.com/press/ethics.html#C

Gawker publishes a reminder memo from NYT (March 2010):
http://gawker.com/5493614/new-york-times-reminds-freelancers-not-to-accept-free-things-in-all-caps

David Foster Wallace’s “Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise”:
http://www.harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf

Tom Gates’ Notes from Grand Hotel Del Mar (Matador):
http://thetravelersnotebook.com/notes-from-road/notes-from-the-grand-del-mar-hotel-san-diego/

Resources from Edward Hasbrouck:

FTC guidelines on endorsements, testimonials, and advertising (FTC press release, 5 October 2009):
http://ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

FTC guidelines (text of the guidelines)
http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

FTC guidelines (complete Federal Register notice with additional FTC commentary and discussion)
http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf

Edward Hasbrouck’s initial analysis and commentary on the FTC guidelines (23 October 2009)
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001756.html

Edward Hasbrouck’s  follow-up commentary and links to responses to the FTC guidelines (12 November 2009)
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001775.html

Analysis of first report of FTC investigation under the new guidelines (by Susan Getgood, co-founder of “Blog With Integrity” and author of the forthcoming Professional Blogging for Dummies book, for which she interviewed me as one of her case studies)
http://getgood.com/roadmaps/2010/04/29/thoughts-on-ftc-and-ann-taylor-loft/

Twitter hashtag for discussion of travel writing ethics: #twethics

Blog With Integrity (Twitter @BlogIntegrity)
http://www.blogwithintegrity.com/

Travel Bloggers Exchange (webcast panels including Mary Engle of the FTC and Susan Getgood of BlogWithIntegrity on “Travel Writing Ethics – Freebies and Disclosures”, Sunday, 27 June 2010, 8-8:45 a.m. PDT; Twitter #tbex10)
http://www.travelblogexchange.com/profiles/blogs/tbex-10-speakers-amp-schedule

The Travel Bloggers Show (sponsored by the American Society of Travel Agents in conjunction with the ASTA trade show for travel agents and travel suppliers, Orlando, FL, September 11-14 2010; workshops with Edward Hasbrouck for travel bloggers on “Working with travel marketers and p.r. agencies” and for travel agencies, suppliers, and p.r. agencies on “How to work with travel bloggers”; Twitter @trvlbloggershow)
http://www.thetradeshow.org/thetravelbloggershow.cfm

Edward Hasbrouck’s Disclosures & Disclaimers page
http://hasbrouck.org/disclosures.html

Edward Hasbrouck’s How to Pitch Me page
http://hasbrouck.org/pitch.html

Lee Foster

The Rebecca Bruns Award is awarded bi-annually by Bay Area Travel Writers to one of its members whose dedication, both personally and professionally, has had a significant influence on fellow travel writers and their profession. Naturally, outstanding success is part of the equation, but it is not enough to say that the individual’s professional achievements are laudatory. More than that, the award recognizes originality, individuality and most of all, generosity in giving back to the writing community.

The 2010 Rebecca Bruns Award recipient is longtime BATW member Lee Foster.  Lee’s forward thinking, his dedication to professional development and education and his generosity as a teacher and mentor place him in the forefront of travel journalism today. BATW honors Lee with this recognition for his many contributions to the BATW membership and to the travel writing industry.

Congratulations, Lee Foster.

– Lee Daley

I just googled my name and saw a magazine website that used a recent story of mine without my permission. They gave me credit but not the original publication and made it look like I wrote it for them. What should I do? Is there anything I can do?  
– Beverly Mann
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From Edward Hasbrouck:

From your description, this sounds like copyright infringement.

How to proceed can be a complex question. (If you are a member of National Writers Union, their grievance advisors can help you figure out what to do.)

If the work was previously published (legally) somewhere else, there may be terms in the original publication about how you are to deal with infringement. Check your contract (you do keep copies, yes?) for its provisions. Most book contracts, for example, require the author to notify the publisher if you become aware of infringement. Then there are typically provisions for how author and publisher decide whether to proceed against the infringer separately or individually, who pays any legal fees, and how any damages you may recover are to be divided.

If it wasn’t previously published, or if you retained the rights that are being infringed (this may be the case if you licensed only print rights, retaining copyright and electronic rights, and the infringement is online), you may be on your own.

Your rights, and the possibility of collecting damages, vary depending on whether copyright was registered (either by you or the print publisher).

I am not a lawyer, but one possibility may be a copyright infringement lawsuit or, more feasibly, a threat of one, which may enable you to negotiate some compensation as a settlement. More likely, the infringer will take the bootleg copy down, but won’t want to pay damages.

If you just want to get them to take it down, your options include an informal demand letter and a formal DMCA takedown notice.

Depending on the infringer, you may chose to pursue licensing for some ongoing fee, instead of takedown, taking a tone like, “I was pleased to see that you like me article [title] enough to want to re-publish it on your site. I would be happy to license it to you for this use, on the following terms:…”

Hope this helps,
Edward

For the record, it’s just fine with me if people use content from my sites as long as they link back to the original.  The key distinction is wherether they “use” content merely by linking to it, or whether they copy it onto their site as well. Linking is (in general, but with some exceptions) permitted without permisison or notice, but copying something onto another site requires permisison.
– - – - – - – - – -

From Laure Latham:

[What this person did is] definitely wrong. That’s copyright infringement. Sure they credit you but they reprint the whole thing (right?), make it look like you wrote for them, and get the click and related ad revenue without paying you at the detriment of the website you originally wrote for. What are they thinking? not even asking for permission to reprint? That’s a matter for your publisher to deal with and you should coordinate with them. They’re the ones losing money on this unless you’re also paid on a click per page basis. They’ll determine what kind of action they want to pursue: take down page, allow for partial reprint with link, ask for statutory damages.

I call that stealing.

Goods luck on this,

Laure
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From Suzie Rodriguez:

A while back I did an interview with Karen Misuraca that was posted on a website I maintained at the time — subject was romantic destinations in Hawaii. It was a Q&A, with “Suzie” and “Karen” before the questions and replies. There was some joking around, Karen mentioned her Hawaiian honeymoon, etc. — it was the kind of interview that only two people who know each other could conduct.

Some woman stole the entire interview and put it on her site without any attribution or link. She maintained the “Karen” and “Suzie” format, though! Karen found it — I think through the fabulous Google Alerts. I got in touch with the thief and asked her politely to either link to my site or remove it. To my astonishment, she acted insulted that I would request such a thing. I then sent a takedown notice (see below) and alerted her that I had done so. I also posted a notification on the website of ASJA (American Society of Journalists & Authors) about this incident, referring to her as a “thief,” and sent her a copy of my notificaton. I next informed her that I had turned the entire matter over to my lawyer (one of my oldest friends who is, indeed, a lawyer). I did all of this within the space of half an hour. I’m not sure which action worked, but that stolen article of mine was removed pronto.

For the record, it’s just fine with me if people use content from my sites as long as they link back to the original. That’s the accepted ethic of the Internet, and the way things should work: a link brings traffic and bots to your site, increasing its visibility. Most people do this. There’s no need to tell you they’ve done it if they put up a link, but I’ve had requests from people asking if they can put up some of my content before they actually do so.

Here is a link to a page where a copyright lawyer explains in layperson’s language what a takedown notice is and tell you how to send one. Although it’s geared to photographers, it works just the same for writers.

Suzie Rodriguez

The link to learn about takedown notices:
http://rising.blackstar.com/how-to-send-a-dmca-takedown-notice.html
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From Dick Jordan

I often post links on my blog (http://www.talestoldfromtheroad.com) to stories published on-line.  My “Travel News Updates” are an example; here’s the one from last week.

Sometimes I want to do more than just post a link to a story. When commenting on a National Geographic story, I pulled a photo from the magazine’s Website, and put in link to the article.  When I e-mailed the photographer and sent him a link to the post, he wrote back and said he was adding the link to my post to his Website as an example of “fair use” of someone else’s work.  Reading about this year’s Shanghai Expo prompted me to write a couple of posts about China; in one post I not only linked to a story by Linda Watanabe McFerrin, but quoted rather extensively from it, much to Linda’s pleasure.

I don’t, of course, “capture” an entire story by another writer, plop it into my blog, and claim authorship, as happened with Suzanne’s piece.  Hopefully, this kind of digital piracy doesn’t happen very often.  I haven’t personally experienced this, although I have had my blog posts linked to other sites (and on two occasions I asked the site to remove the link).

Dick Jordan
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From April Orcutt

I suggest you Google a unique phrase or sentence in the article using quotation marks as well to see whether anyone else posted it without even giving you credit.

April Orcutt
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From Laurie McAndish King

Good answers, everyone. I agree: ask your publisher to handle it. (If you happen to be your own publisher, or your publisher is unresponsive, then it’s your job to follow up and ask firmly for what you want.) I can’t imagine that you could get damages, but you should be able to get them to either take it down or to post only part and link to the original article.

And yes, do Google a unique phrase (in quotation marks) to check for publication elsewhere. You can also set up a Google Alert for the phrase, to automate the search on an ongoing basis.

Good luck. Let us know the outcome.

Laurie
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Next month – dealing with stolen photos . . .

July 22, 2010
6:00 – 7:00 p.m.: social hour with pizza and drinks
7:00 – 9:30 p.m.: event

Join us on July 22nd at Blue Sky Rental Studios as PhotoShelter co-founder Grover Sanschagrin demonstrates how web sites must evolve in order to support photographers’ online business goals.

Grover’s talk draws on 26 years of photo industry and web technology experience as well as the research and findings of five PhotoShelter e-books he has helped to author on online marketing for photographers. (These exhaustive reports are free downloadable guides offering useful tips, expert advice and useful strategies for photographers looking to continue their education and build thriving photo businesses online.)

Grover will discuss the essential tools, features and designs that photographers must consider as they update their own web sites to attract more visitors and convert them into clients. He will also share insights from PhotoShelter’s comprehensive Image Buyer Survey about photography websites, and offer strategies to help drive more traffic through search engine optimization and social media strategy.

In addition, Grover will discuss the importance of measurement tools like Google Analytics to inform online marketing and web site design decisions. Throughout his presentation, Grover will also share dozens of examples of successful photography web sites and will expose the key traits of the masters of marketing photography online.

Expect to leave well-armed with new tools to improve your web site performance and reach your business goals – whether you intend to book more event clients, assignments and commission work, generate online image sales, or simply build a following for your art.

So join us on the evening of July 22nd at Blue Sky Rental Studios. And be sure to come early and enjoy the best photographic social hour in San Francisco

About Gover Sanschagrin

Grover Sanschagrin is Vice President of Business Development and co-founder of PhotoShelter. An industry veteran, Sanschagrin, who started his career as a photojournalist, has vast experience with online productions including major roles with SportsShooter.com, ChicagoTribune.com and the Quokka Sports Network (including NBCOlympics.com and FinalFour.net).

Sanschagrin studied photography and photojournalism at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Ohio University. He has spoken at numerous industry conferences and universities with one goal: To educate photographers about the importance of building a successful online marketing strategy that will result in more assignments, more image sales, and less time in front of a computer.

Thursday, July 22, 7pm – 9pm
Social hour begins at 6pm

Free

Blue Sky Rental Studios
2325 Third St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
415-626-7232

Thanks go to Karen Misuraca for forwarding this information:

The 2010 New England Book Festival – Call for Entries

The 2010 New England Book Festival has issued the call for entries to its annual competition honoring the best books of the holiday season.  It has added several new categories.

The competition will accept entries in the following categories:
non-fiction,
fiction,
biography/autobiography,
children’s books,
young adult,
how-to,
cookbooks,
science fiction,
photography/art,
poetry,
spiritual works,
compilations/anthologies,
gay,
unpublished stories and
wild card (for books that don’t neatly fit elsewhere).

All entries must be in English.

The grand prize for the 2010 New England Book Festival winner is $1500 cash and a flight to the awards in Boston in January, 2011.

Submitted works will be judged by a panel using the following criteria:

1) General excellence and the author’s passion for telling a good story.

2) The potential of the work to reach a wider audience.

FESTIVAL RULES: New England Book Festival submissions cannot be returned. Each entry must contain the official entry form, including your e-mail address and contact telephone number. All shipping and handling costs must be borne by entrants.

NOTIFICATION AND DEADLINES: We will notify each entry of the receipt of their package via e-mail and will announce the winning entries on our website. Because of the anticipated high volume of entries, we can only respond to e-mail inquiries.

Deadline submissions in each category must be postmarked by midnight on November 25, 2010. Winners in each category will be notified by e-mail and on the web site. Please note that judges read and consider submissions on an ongoing basis, comparing early entries with later submissions at our meetings.

TO ENTER: Entry forms are available online at www.newenglandbookfestival.com or may be faxed/e-mailed to you. Please contact our office at (323) 665-8080 for fax requests. Applications must be accompanied by a non-refundable entry fee of $50 in the form of a check, money order or PayPal online payment in U.S. dollars for each submission. Multiple submissions are permitted but each entry must be accompanied by a separate form and entry fee.

AWARDS: The New England Book Festival selection committee reserves the right to determine the eligibility of any project.

The 2010 New England Book Festival is part of the JM Northern Media family of festivals, which include the DIY Convention: Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books, New York Book Festival and Hollywood Book Festival. The New England Book Festival is sponsored by The Larimar St. Croix Writers Colony, eDivvy, Shopanista and Westside Websites.

# # #

CONTACT:
323-665-8080
NewEnglandBookFest@sbcglobal.net

Almost the first thing on the Petrocellis’ to-do list following their vacation in 1991 was to seek out Don George, then travel editor of the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle, and to ask his help in creating an annual Travel Writers Conference.

Done. Nineteen years ago in August, the Petrocellis gave birth to an annual Travel Writers Conference that later added the discipline of making pictures under the generalship of Robert Holmes, and in 2010 has matured into the Travel, Food & Photography Conference, on stage at Book Passage from Aug. 12 through 15. This may just be the most highly honed conference of its kind anywhere.

What happens? Students select a morning session of intensive study in one of seven workshops: Newspaper & Magazine Writing, Personal Essay, Longer Narrative, Guidebook Writing, Travel Photography, Advanced Newspaper Writing, Advanced Magazine Writing.

In the afternoons workshops are open to all students, with nine temptations: Travel Photography for Writers, Selling That First Story, Writing for Guidebooks, Making a Living as a Freelancer, On-Line Publishing and Resources, Working With a Book Agent, Photographing People, Advice for Published Writers, and The Business of Travel Photography.

If you tend to be star-struck by literary lions, consider rubbing elbows and ideas with the notable writers who have taken part in this conference: Isabel Allende, Bill Bryson, Tim Cahill, Pico Iyer, Peter Matthiessen, Peter Mayle, Jan Morris, Amy Tan, Simon Winchester, and more of that talented tribe.

In the evenings – oh, the evenings! Renowned writers tell tales (some of them tall), faculty folk join students in lively (if not always entirely logical) divertissements in the café and on the patio, and a remarkable fusion occurs as former strangers become friends.

And who knows? If you submit a sensational story to the writing contest, you might win a trip around the world during the closing ceremonies!

Don’t miss the party and the professionalism at Book Passage. The facts you need may be found online at www.bookpassage.com; tel: 800-999-7909, ext. 239; e-mail: bpconferences@bookpassage.com.

Thomas Swick of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel put it best back in 2005: “If good Americans go to Paris when they die, good American travel writers go to Corte Madera.”

– Georgia I. Hesse

“I always take an electric heating coil in my bag.  It costs less than $20 from Magellans or Travelsmith. This lets me heat water so I can have oatmeal (should I want to miss breakfast on a press trip because I’d rather sleep), soup, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, etc., there in my room. I take the food packets with me. It’s also handy if you arrive late in a town, and everything is closed, or you just want something quick (and cheap) to eat in your room. My heating coil is dual-voltage so it works anywhere there’s electricity. And you don’t need to rely on the hotel providing you with a coffee maker because you have your own (assuming you bring some instant coffee).”

– Sheila O’Connor

(Do you have a travel tip to share?  Send it to the BATW Website Editor, April Orcutt, at webeditor@batw.org.  Thanks.)

The concept of “sustainability” got a workout on Saturday, April 17th, when the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa in American Canyon hosted BATW’s “Earth month” meeting. Napa resident Arvis Northrup gathered four local panelists to discuss The Power of the Writer to Influence Sustainable Tourism.

Carole Peccorini RN, MA characterized Sustainability as “our humanity. We get very special gifts from visiting other cultures.” She suggested that a traveler go forth “as a citizen of the world.” Her most recent humanitarian efforts were inspired by a visit to Uganda, in particular seeing the effects of war and AIDS on orphans. “One orphanage had one soccer ball that wasn’t even fully inflated, yet the residents will sing, dance and celebrate life at the drop of a hat.” She showed a photo of Evaline, “a bright shining being” who, amongst others, prompted Peccorini to begin The Butterfly Project which provides college funds ($60,000) for ten Ugandan and Kenyan girls. When Evaline finishes high school she will join four others already in nursing and five in education at the higher education level. Peccorini said, “I think it’s a mistake to bring a lot of stuff [to a village] – it starts the materialism.” Better to follow the directive of Wilford Welch, author of Tactics of Hope, whom she quoted: “We don’t need your charity. We need your partnership to solve problems.” She can be contacted at Carole43@sbcglobal.net or at 707-996-2167.

Margarita Ramirez, Tour Operator and Meeting Planner, spoke on The Sustainability of Spirit. For many years she involved herself in projects in war-torn countries, noting that where women survived long enough, they became the matriarchs of their society. A propensity for interpersonal connection and deep desire to guide others into a given culture led her to develop Traveling Matters . . . Journeys Connecting People and Place. Her “hunger to help people find their roots, to connect to their ancestral roots, to make room for the spiritual and the emotional,” prompts her to gear group tours toward contributing something to the places they go. She eschews the term “taking a journey”, favoring bringing a kind of mindfulness to travel: “We create the path…you take the walk.” She fashions trips in which travelers are encouraged to stay in one place four or five days, absorbing the culture, slowing down if they wish, “setting their feet in the ground” and simply people watching, rather than sticking to a rigorous schedule of sightseeing and museum-hopping. She promotes immersion in cultures which are trying to preserve their essence, “so that people will say ‘I want to go there.’” Ireland, for example, despite the “Celtic Tiger” – the emerald isle’s newly technological society – has maintained its quaintness, evidenced in the pastoral, non-fenced-in countryside that visitors still very much want to see. Her upcoming tour, The Hidden Treasures of Tuscany, will allow for visits to hill towns, piazzas, art and architectural wonders, as well as to biodynamic farms, where growing organically – “not picking certain weeds” – is a topic worthy of attention. All this with deluxe accommodations and tour guides. Phone: 707-939-7638 or info@travelingmatters.com.

Architect Paul Kelly, who has practiced in the Napa Valley for many years, described himself as “new to sustainable tourism”, but by the same token recognizes his involvement all along in the concept of sustainability by virtue of his long-standing interest in architectural preservation. “Many historic structures exhibit green traits,” he noted, “they are inherently green.” To restore an existing building means making the most of its “embodied energy” – the labor, materials, and resources expended in its original construction. The intelligence with which most of these edifices were planned – when squandering natural resources was unthinkable – meant employing passive solar aspects such as orientation towards the south, big windows affording natural light, air ventilation (and therefore natural air quality), pleasing proportions along with a generally smaller footprint, proximity to a water source and other common sense features. Usually these structures were built close to the city center and now luxuriate in mature landscaping and trees, all making for greater health and productivity and higher desirability in the market. Kelly mentioned the restorations of venerable Napa wineries such as Beringer, Schramsberg, and Inglenook – steeped in history, surviving Prohibition – which remain perennial tourist destinations. Sustainability has always been with us.

Engineer Hugh Linde, who described himself as a top winery expert, presented a Power Point on Sustainability and Wineries which revealed some staggering statistics. “In balanced wine production, for every gallon of vino, 100 to 250 gallons of water are used.” More water than that is an unconscientious – read unsustainable – amount. “From an engineering point of view, sustainability means handing over the resources and land to the grandchildren in an equal or better state than when handed to us . . . the Greeks and Romans planted vines where nothing else would grow.” In a properly husbanded vineyard, carbon dioxide, essentially, is turned into wine. Naturally decaying vegetable matter – a process assisted by mixing varieties, roots, stocks and crops – allows this fruitful cycle to begin anew. Yet some of the modern mega-wineries, hellbent on profits, have no such vision of the simple equation; planting monocrops without buffer zones and applying chemicals throws the balance off. We were treated to distressing aerial photos of large waste water ponds and dessicated acreage in the Napa Valley. “Greeks and Romans tilled salt into conquered peoples’ land to ensure that crops could never grow there again. Watch out for salt [or its modern synthetic equivalent] in the ground!”

Linde described how great it is to see olive trees, old oaks, fruits in vineyards, and subterranean areas providing natural cooling. He lauded low-impact wineries where the proprietor understands every aspect of the business, not just the financial angle, or the agricultural, but the whole. He worked on the Quintessa Winery, which balances 74% of its planted property with 26% for buildings, lakes and trees, has its own waste treatment pond, re-uses its water and has a cave. Every winery has some kind of pilot project for ’sustainable’ and ‘organic’ going on right now. They’re running costs and looking at the benefits.” Sounds promising, and consumers who let those wineries know how much they prefer drinking wine that has minimal or no commercial chemicals is a proactive green statement. While the portrait he painted of modern viticultural practices was sometimes distressing, compared to others, “the wine industry is overall a fantastic one for the Napa Valley”.

Finally, a word about the hospitable Gaia Hotel and Spa, a visual breath of fresh air along the Highway 29 corridor, with its novel architecture, large outdoor marshland mural, swan-filled inner pond and drought-friendly landscaping. We were provided with Fair Trade Organic Coffees and a tasty surprise buffet lunch from their organic GAIA kitchen. When an establishment has gone to the trouble to achieve Gold LEED Certified-Hotel status, one’s curiosity is piqued – how, by what means, and to what degree? A quick check revealed that the bathrooms use 100% recycled content toilet tissue – now that’s attention to sustainable detail!

– Natalie Galli

(Butterfly photo © April Orcutt)

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The first time I tracked lions, it was from the relative safety of a large Land Rover, with a loaded rifle situated handily next to the driver. At that time our guide had assured us that as long as we didn’t wear brightly colored clothes, make noise or stand up, the animals would perceive us to be part of the vehicle, and therefore not worth eating.

But this safari was different. We were going on foot, and the strict policy at Camp Okavango was no guns.  Adding to my trepidation, our guides, Robert and Rodgers, explained that if we saw lions this morning, they would be hungry, because big cats usually hunt at night. If they were still out stalking prey in the morning, it meant they hadn’t found anything to eat the night before. A crazy thought wriggled into my mind: the guides were using us as lion bait.

This was no Sunday stroll: the tall brown grasses hid treacherous obstacles. Elephants had eaten the relatively tender bark and roots of trees, leaving dead branches and uprooted stumps scattered everywhere. Aardvarks had dug large holes in the ground. Thorns caught on our clothing, and greedy vines grabbed at our legs. And the dung! Everywhere we had to step over dung—all kinds of it, large and small, round and elongated, fresh and dry, in varying stages of decomposition.

I could tell the difference between rhino middens and elephant dung, and was learning to differentiate buffalo from giraffe. Then I saw a new kind of dung: smaller, rounder, fresher—glistening, in fact. Was it lions’? I wondered just how far away the lions actually were, and how close we intended to get. Checking my field guide, I found that lion droppings “are similar to that of the leopard, but larger.” This was only marginally more helpful than the entry for elephants, which read, “A good way of testing the freshness of dung is to thrust your hand into the centre of it. If the dung is fresh, it will be warm inside.”

Robert reminded us to walk in single file, always staying together. If we fell back or got out of line, he warned, we would look smaller and be “on the menu.” Most important, Robert said: if a lion did come towards us, “Don’t run! Stand your ground!”

Stand my ground? In the face of a charging lion? What kind of instruction was that? I stayed near the front of the line, just behind Maureen, a psychiatric nurse from Pittsburgh. Maureen took each step slowly and deliberately, and shaded her eyes as she scanned the distance. I thought she looked like a professional tracker, except for her bright white Asics Gel running shoes and hot pink windbreaker. I had chosen my place carefully: surely the hot-pink-windbreaker variety of meal would be most tempting. If a lion charged, I would simply maintain my position behind the primary bait.

“Listen!”  Rodgers and Robert both heard the lions; all I heard was a faint rumbling sound. “It’s the lions! Yes, and they are chasing buffalo!” The rumbling, our guides explained excitedly, was the sound of a thousand hooves. We proceeded, still in line, straining to get a glimpse through the trees of a buffalo or a lion.

Suddenly Robert hurried back into our midst, eyes wide and round, and bulging so the whites showed around their whole circumference. “They are coming this way!” he shouted hoarsely. “We are too close! Go back! Go back!” A herd of several hundred Cape Buffalo came stampeding coming towards us.

We had been told to stand our ground in the face of a charging lion, but what was the protocol for a buffalo attack? There was no time to ask. Our careful, single-file line disintegrated into chaos as we ran back—hats, cameras and binoculars flying. Several of our group turned out to be talented sprinters, and I personally tested the freshness of five or six piles of dung in the space of twenty seconds.

As suddenly as the stampede began, it was over. It’s interesting, what goes through one’s mind at a time like this. As soon as “Escape, escape!” had run its course, I was overwhelmed with the perfection of Nature’s Grand Plan: elephants knock down trees, allowing grasslands to develop, which attracts grazing animals, which provide food for the lions. The aardvark holes create natural traps for the lions’ prey; the elephants’ monumental, nutrient-rich droppings fertilize the tall grasses…. Lost in the beauty of the Grand Plan, it was several minutes before I remembered Maureen. Did she stand, or did she run? Had she been trampled by stampeding buffalo, or eaten by a hungry lion?

I came to my senses, surveyed the scene, and saw Maureen’s hot pink jacket halfway up a small tree, with Maureen still inside it. Apparently it had not provoked the lions. We began to regroup, and everyone seemed to have survived. The Cape Buffalo had also survived, and were now milling about restlessly. They kept their eyes on us and on the lions, which—conveniently—made it easy for us to observe the five adult lions that were now in our immediate vicinity.

Make that five hungry adult lions. . . .

– Laurie McAndish King

He said “another line of work,” but that didn’t make the cut.

Interesting answers here, though:
http://thetravelersnotebook.com/photography-q-a/whats-the-one-skill-every-travel-photographer-needs-to-develop/