Green is the theme for new RV park
RED BLUFF DAILY NEWS

Look behind Shari's Restaurant on Red Bluff's Lake Avenue and you'll see a lot of brown, unless you're Bill Hollenshade.
Green is the theme behind Durango RV Resort, the new park for which Hollenshade is general manager.

When the 27-acre, 174-site venture opens in May, extensive measures will have been taken to make the park environmentally friendly, including composting, recycling and conservation of water and heat.

The idea is for the park to be "in tune with not just today, but tomorrow," Hollenshade said.

A tour of Hollenshade's reduced-impact resort includes biodegradable chemicals in the pool that take the place of chlorine, timed lights with motion sensors and yard waste that gets composted instead of being thrown away.

Inside, buildings are being thoroughly insulated to retain heat and cold. Outside, management will collect residents' recycling regularly, patrolling the grounds in electric-powered golf carts.

There are also plans to build walking and biking pathways that will connect to a 50-acre park planned on the other side of the freeway, Hollenshade said.

Save for a pathway, bathrooms and the occasional picnic table, Hollenshade said he expects much of the landscape to remain untouched when the adjoining park is built.

The resort's greatest efforts, however, are reserved for water.

Lawn and plant care will consume significantly less water because of a system that pipes water to the roots instead of applying it with sprinklers, Hollenshade said.
Traditional sprinkler systems are cheaper, but nowhere near as efficient because water evaporates on its way down to the roots of the plant.

With a handheld remote, Hollenshade will be able to patrol the grounds and turn up the water below dry plants, he said.

Complementing the watering system will be a selection of drought-resistant shrubs, a decision Hollenshade backs up with experience.

"I found over my years that if you try to incorporate things that aren't (native), they don't survive," he said.

The park has changed the drainage ditch that ran to the river prior to construction. Rainwater is now directed into an underground drainage system that filters oil and other pollutants before the water returns to the river.

Meanwhile, back indoors, the water system uses a process that allows for instantly heated water. Gas-heated water is continually circulated by a surge pump instead of lying dormant. Washing machines designed to use less water are also being employed.

These measures come at a price but Hollenshade said he believes the park will be prepared for the future  a future where it will be saving money.

"It's important to bring to Red Bluff an industry that's non-polluting," he said.

For a crop of land that Hollenshade said was once dotted with trash and hypodermic needles, it's a marked improvement.