Ecoflight

EcoFlight is unlike any other nonprofit. They are constantly working to fight climate change, the most important thing one can do today! Using a viewpoint that compares to nothing you can get on the ground you really start to understand how vital protecting our wild lands is. EcoFlight works with politicians and journalists, students and regular citizens. Having a diverse group of people in a small plane sparks conversations that are difficult to have anywhere else. I have seen people who on paper would disagree on everything but in a small space are laughing and smiling and talking through important climate subjects. EcoFlight has helped get many land/animal protection bills passed and they never stop giving 100%! Can’t recommend this business enough

I care deeply about the environment. I was very impressed with the passion of EcoFlight team to observe and collect vital information about the use and abuse of the land, air and water. Then, once collected offering it free to anyone. This rare, gracious objective is hard to find anymore. The beauty of their photography is also commendable. It is not purely scientific or revelatory examples of questionable environmental practices, but also represents the West is all its beauty. Knowing organizations like this exist is inspiring. We need this kind of passion from so many sources to try to turn the tide of environmental exploitation and return humans to their original enchantment with the environment, an enchantment that would not allow the degradation that is now taking place with little understanding. Organizations like this help us see and change.

Over the last three years, I have been researching water and habitat issues throughout the Colorado River Basin, as a National Geographic Grantee. Pilot Bruce Gordon's generosity and professionalism allowed me a better understanding, from a bird's eye perspective, of the river. He repeatedly flew me and the photographer, Pete McBride over the river, from Colorado to the Mexican Delta, for more than three days in the air, with a willingness and cheerfulness in helping us to explore every corner of the river. I highly recommend the services of this unique nonprofit.

My schedule has never allowed me to take an Ecoflight, yet I benefit from their work. The newspaper stories about public land issues, written by reporters taken on Ecoflight tours greatly increases the public understanding of the many environmental issues facing our community that are not readily 'visible' from the ground. Ecoflight has played a great role bringing a 'landscape veiw' to my peers and to those higher up in the public land management agencies. I greatly appreciate the impact that Ecoflights have made.

Ecoflight has been a valuable asset for both my ecology and environmental science classes! Being able to observe the impacts of oil and gas drilling on the Western Slope (last year) taught the kids more than any lecture or reading. The same can be said for the flight this year in ecology that took us over swaths of forest being harmed by the bark beetle outbreak. In both cases being able to see these impacts from the air has a much greater impact on students because you can truly see the scope and magnitude of what is merely being read about in class. Lastly, the flights in my classes are generally one of the best experiences of a student's high school career!

Bravo to Bruce Gordon and EcoFlight! We need 10,000 like him around the globe to reate perspective, and heal our fragile ecosystems. The interconnectivity of our planet becomes so obvious when viewed from above. The balance and harmony of our systems, the devestation wrought by unthinking industry and unplanned development. EcoFlight is an invaluable resource, a teacher, and leader in the western states in the fight to save our planet.

Ecoflight provided our organization with the invalable

Bruce is a passionate environmentalist who has built a wonderful organization dedicated to preserving our wilderness and open spaces. I've flown with him on many occasions his knowledge of the land-use issues such as mining and drilling never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps the most interesting flight I have been involved with was when I volunteered to fly senator Mark Udall to look at the environmental imapact of drilling activities in western Colorado. Bruce was on board narrating and it was incredibly enlighting to discuss the specific issues while viewing them from the air.

EcoFlight has been a tremendous assistance in our efforts to protect Colorado's environment. Bruce has been a capable pilot and guide for County Commissioners and members of the press as they saw first hand the consequences of natural gas development. Bruce and Jane have also assisted us with aerial photography needs with the photos proving useful time and again.

Eco flight has proved invaluable over the past few years in our efforts to publicize the impacts of rampant gas development in NW Colorado and on the Roan Plateau. Bruce and his staff are knowledgeable and always able to help, whether its with the press or elected officials. Seeing what is happening from the air is the only real way to grasp the full extent and significance of energy development in the west and the damage it causes to wildlife and habitat.

As a staffer to a Montana elected official, I get a full range of opinions from a spectrum of interested parties. My Ecoflight took me out into the field for a day for a birdseye view of some of Montana's most spectacular scenery. The pilot and the local environmental advocates delivered information without being aggresive and let the flight speak for itself. I applaud Ecoflight for this wonderful opportunity.

Bruce took our group and several guests on several aerial tours of Colorado along the continental divide and across the areas affected by mountain pine beetle infestation. We were able to get journalists and filmmakers in the air. Ecoflight made a big contribution to the success of our public awareness campaign.

Ecoflight has flown important friends of The Trust for Public Land to see the high mountain landscapes of the Elk Mountains in Colorado twice. Both times their service, experience, and general good natures made the flights an exceptional way to introduce our protection efforts. Several donors have made repeat contributions after their flights, and everyone, to a person, remarked about what a great way this was to understand the need to protect such a beautiful landscape.

Ecoflight has allowed us to fly elected officials and other opinion leaders over many wildland areas that allow these leaders a broader view of the landscape and illustrates how important these wildlands are. After one flight along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, a leader in the state senate stepped out of the airplane and declared the flight was a "life changing experience." He's been an advocate of protecting wild places ever since. These flights have also helped us generate much positive media coverage of our land protection campaigns. Bob Ekey, Northern Rockies Regional Director, The Wilderness Society, Bozeman, MT.

I have flown with Bruce in Colorado and Montana on behalf of several organizations - maybe 10 times over the past 20+ years. Bruce is a very competant and safe pilot with thousands of hours of mountain flying under his belt. The perspective gained from viewing various landscapes from the air is enlightening and valuable for enlighted advocacy on behalf of wildlands. Bruce is familiar with much of the treatened lands in the Intermountain West where my interests are focused. It should also be noted that Bruce lives in the mountains - at the end of the road in a valley at the edge of the Wilderness. His passionate and educated commitment to wildlands conservation, from his aerial perspective is an invaluable aid to the orgznizations for which his is at service

I have been a reporter working in the Roaring Fork Valley for 32 years, and have used EcoFlight's services numerous times, from a flight over the Kebler Pass area to check out a clear cut forest back in the early 1980s, to a recent flight to view the ravages of the bark beetle infestation in Summit, Eagle and Pitkin counties. I consider it an invaluable asset for my work, and for the work of environmental agencies.

Humans suffer from chronic myopia - seeing only as far as our noses. Ecoflight cures myopia by providing overviews that clarify issues involving natural resources, ecology and environment. Ecoflight provides critical oversight at a time when we need it most.

I was a client of EcoFlight's on multiple occasions. They have helped my conservation nonprofit tell our stories better to key decision makers by helping them see the landscape from above. I have used them to get ski area executives, state lawmakers, and media up above our major mountain highway corridor to see areas of critical wildlife crossing we are working to protect. This perspective was critical in garnering political and popular support for our multi-million dollar project over several years that has resulted in

Ecoflight offers a tremendous service to those in the conservation field in getting the word out on major issues. Ecoflight offers a great way for communities to learn about critical issues affecting public health and quality of life.

Bruce was knowledgable about the propoesed wilderness areas that our Realtor group was being asked to support. His intuition and depth of current issues definately made for a educational and positive experience. He knew exactly the boundaries of certain activities from the air, so he was able to pinpoint for us those boundaries...and it made for easy assimilation and discussion.

Local enviromental issues are important to me, so having an organization like Ecoflight in your back yard is a blessing. I love the way they bring together all the sides of an issue for an open and frank debate and then facilitate the group to view the area being discussed, from the air. An example is the Hidden Gems campain currently underway.

It's been a long time since I worked with Bruce and Jane-- the summer of '08, I think? But I have such fond memories from my time with them. I was one of the reporters on NRDC's Yellowstone grizzlies media trip. Bruce flew us over the park early one morning so we could glimpse, first hand, the destruction being caused by the white-bark pine beetles. It was astonishing, to see the effects from the air-- and definitely influenced my writing. The article would not have been complete without that personal experience. The service they provide-- giving reporters and scientists a birds'-eye view of our environment-- is simply invaluable. I would love to find a way to work with them more often through my organization, the National Parks Conservation Association.