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Park City Welcomes Jane Goodall for MT2030 Summit Opening Night Keynote Address
Park City Welcomes Jane Goodall for Mountain Towns 2030 Net Zero Summit Opening Night Keynote Address
Tickets to opening night event now on sale
Park City, UT (September 10, 2019) - Renowned conservationist and United Nations Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall will headline the Mountain Towns 2030 (MT2030) Net Zero Summit Opening Night on October 2, 2019 at the Eccles Center Theater in Park City, Utah. Dr. Goodall will be joined by environmentalist and author Paul Hawken to inspire mountain communities across North America to commit to achieving carbon neutrality by or near 2030. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and a limited number of tickets for the public are now on sale at www.mt2030.org.
Mountain Towns 2030 is an organization leading mountain towns around the world in developing ambitious net zero goals by 2030. The organization was founded by Park City Municipal Corporation and the Park City Community Foundation, who will co-host the inaugural Mountain Towns 2030 Net Zero Summit, October 2 – 4, in Park City.
“We formed Mountain Towns 2030 because we strongly believe mountain towns have the power to make a global impact on climate change. Local organizations and nonprofits are a big reason we can set ambitious goals and achieve them,” said Park City Mayor Andy Beerman. “The goal is simple - join forces and tackle the biggest challenge to face our communities. Together, we can achieve carbon neutrality, grow our economy, and prove to the world that working together towards ambitious goals results in community passion and action.”
Goodall and Hawken will be joined by leading climate scientists, executives from ski resorts and winter sports industries, national and local environmental non-profits, clean energy impact investors, community leaders and others. Representatives from North American ski resort operators attending will include Alterra Mountain Company, Boyne Resorts, POWDR Corporation, and Vail Resorts.
Following the summit, Mountain Towns 2030 will implement commitments made during the Summit by creating a platform connecting participating communities. The MT2030 platform will enable monitoring and evaluation, sharing of best practices, and amplify the collective voice of mountain towns to encourage other municipalities globally to take action.
The sense of urgency around 2030 continues to escalate. The world’s climate scientists agree—to control global warming at 1.5 degrees, the earth needs drastic reductions in carbon emissions by 2030. Communities need to identify and act on effective solutions immediately.
For tickets to opening night of the Mountain Towns 2030 Net Zero Summit, please visit www.mt2030.org.
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Media Contacts:
Linda Jager, Park City Municipal Corporation, 435-901-2311, linda.jager@parkcity.org
Austin Isbell, Love Communications, 801-631-3256, aisbell@lovecomm.net, media@mt2030.org
About Mountain Towns 2030
Mountain Town 2030 (MT2030) is a coalition of mountain towns that have committed to ambitious carbon reduction goals by 2030. The inaugural Net Zero Summit is the kick-off event for MT2030 and will be held on October 2-4, 2019 in Park City, Utah. The 3-day conference, for invited city and local governments, will feature inspirational speakers and panelists, best practice sharing in focused workshops, collaborative commitments to aggressive goals that will amplify our collective voice to compel our national and global leaders to commit to “zero.”
Regeneration
Park City’s natural setting is the reason why we live here. Our open spaces are at the core of who we are. Park City has 9540 acres of land that has been set aside as open space, protected from development with conservation easements.
Not only do these lands the Park City lifestyle represent the Park City lifestyle, they can help us reach our carbon neutral goals.
Carbon sequestration explained:
Park City’s open spaces, if managed properly, can pull out vast amounts of carbon away from the atmosphere and store it in vegetation and soils. This carbon storage capability can help balance our carbon footprint and help balance those emissions that we cannot eliminate.
Park City is working to quantify how much carbon is stored in the vegetation and soils on its open spaces, and how much additional carbon is pulled away from the atmosphere on a yearly basis. According to a study completed in 2017, our open spaces are soaking up 7,686 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT CO2e) per year. If you are interested in knowing more about our methodology, get in touch.
Regenerative agriculture:
In the summer of 2018 Park City decided to initiate regenerative agriculture on the iconic piece of land at McPolin Barn. This piece of land had remained relatively undisturbed since it was set aside under easement in 1991. The lack of disturbance on the land led to the grasses that grow and die each year to thatch together, never properly decomposing into the soil. To restore the function of returning nutrients and mixing soil, cattle were reintroduced to the former dairy. Rather than allowing them to spread out and graze on their favorite species, the cattle were herded together which forced them to eat down the grasses and weeds indiscriminately. The disturbance by the cows hooves, as well as what comes out of their tail ends, helped to mix dead matter with the soil and facilitate the decomposition process. This accelerated decomposition is key in releasing nutrients, thus creating a healthy environment for microbiota to trap more carbon away from the atmosphere and build up the health of our soils. The healthy soils are also more able to retain water, and allow for better growth of native species instead of noxious weeds.
Regenerative Agriculture on City Property
Tree planting: