Vacation Giveaway, 5th Annual BrewRidge, and Lake Update

Vacation Giveaway 

with Blue Ridge Mountain Sports!

Six (6) lucky winners will win a FREE 2-night stay for 2 people to be used at the Mountain Lake Conservancy & Hotel in the 2012 season!!

- Click here to find out more information and to enter -

Tickets Now on Sale!! BrewRidge Festival

May 5th, 2012

We have been working hard to get all of the details set for the 5th Annual BrewRidge Festival during opening weekend this season. The festival hours have been extended this year and the event will run from noon to 5pm that Saturday. We are currently confirming and finalizing the featured musicians and microbreweries. Visit us on Facebook to tell us who YOU would like to see jammin' and on tap! 

Festival and ticket information available here.

Lake Update: February 13

Recent snowfall has added some water to the lake, but levels remain low and similar to the past few seasons. There is a current layer of ice on the top, but with mild temperatures ahead this week we will expect that ice to thaw out. We are working on neat, new display for the Conservancy Visitor Center that will feature two slices of trees taken from past stumps in the lake bed. The tree samples are donated by retired Biologist Bruce Parker, who studied the lake in-depth over the past several decades. The wood from the two stumps was carbon-dated as part of past studies, and reveal some really cool insight to the history of the lake cycles in relation to forest biology and tree growth. More on this new display coming soon! Many thanks to Dr. Parker for providing the tree slices and facts for the display.

Photo taken February 13, 2012

Snow on the Mountain - Photo taken from the Salt Lick Spur Trail on February 9th

Lake Update and Go Green NRV

The recent precipitation has brought some water back in to the lake, and the mountain is currently blanketed in just under 2 inches of snow (and ICE!). The fluctuations in water level here in the past few months have been very responsive to the amounts of rain and snow due to the fact that the growing season has slowed and the forest is retaining less water. Here's to hoping for a very wet winter season on the mountain, from which we'll benefit in more ways than one!

Lake on Dec. 8, 2011

Gorgeous blue sky

As you may know, the Mountain Lake Conservancy & Hotel is a participating member of Go Green New River Valley (which you can learn more about here!). This morning I attended the Go Green NRV Breakfast Series which featured a presentation on energy efficiency in the home and in the workplace, given by the folks at Community Housing Partners in Christiansburg. The presenters did a great job explaining how a building, whether it be your home or your workplace, works as a system when it comes to maximizing resource efficiency. One point in their discussion that really stood out to me was the difference between efficiency and conservation. Efficiency speaks in terms of technology, while conservation is behavior-driven. This distinction was very re-energizing for me in terms of Mountain Lake's sustainability effort. Our organization's management team strives to provide energy and resource efficiency by technologies used within the business. Additionally, the Conservancy & Hotel must work together to encourage conservation-minded behavior on the mountain by both employees and guests. It makes me very excited to re-assess the progress that Mountain Lake has made in 2011 in terms of our sustainability plan, to set goals and outline ideas for improvement in 2012, and to renew our affiliation as a Participating Business with Go Green NRV for the upcoming year.

If you work or live in the NRV, I encourage you to check out the Go Green NRV organization. Events like the Breakfast Series are educational (and fun!) and provide a great resource to community members and businesses seeking to decrease their impact on the environment. Stay tuned by checking the ggNRV website for news and events in 2012!