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The
Northern Forest Alliance believes that building strong, diverse,
locally based economies that support thriving communities is essential
to the future of the Northern Forest. We also believe that the region
is entering a critical time in the evolution of the economy, and
for the communities that depend upon it.
The economic and social patterns that have defined the
Northern Forest for generations
are changing. Large scale land sales have swept across the Northern
Forest - more than 6 million acres since 1998 - raising concern
that the forested landscape may be lost, and with it most of the
Northern Forest's economic base and quality of life.
The winds of a global economy are fanning this economic
change in the Northern Forest. Corporations competing in a world
market are motivated to maximize profits, without regard for how
their business strategies affect the local communities where they
do business. Each land sale and round of layoffs raises questions
about the regions future.
The region will need many strategies to forge its place
in the new economy, and of these the Alliance believes that three
are paramount:
1) making the most of amenity based development;
2) encouraging value-added forest products manufacturing;
and
3) fostering cutural/heritage and nature-based-recreation
and tourism.
Click
Here for more on these strategies
These three strategies depend on healthy,
unfragmented forests for stability and success. Thriving forests,
in turn , depend on a combination of land conservation and sustainable
forestry.
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Kept
intact, our forests can bolster the local and regional economy by
supporting sustainable timber production, related value-added manufacturing,
nature and heritage based tourism and amenity based development in
"gateway communities." Kept intact, the forest will provide
important wildlife habitat, critical services such as clean air and
clean water, and the wealth of outdoor opportunities that make living
here so special.
But if the forest itself is lost - if remote forests and
lakeshores are developed, if wildlife habitat is destroyed, if "No
Trespassing" signs dot the landscape, if the trees are cut unsustainably
- then the region has lost its best hope for creating a vibrant, locally
based, sustainable economy.
Much is at stake. As the economy races to take advantage
of the latest profit centers, it brings other changes that can erode
our way of life and the culture of the region. Rapid development may
provide a short-lived boost to a local economy, but ensuant sprawl
wipes out small, locally owned businesses and erases the character,
qualities, and forest-based traditions that define life in northern
communities.
We believe the people of the Northern Forest can transform
the region's economy from its historical boom-and-bust cycles into
a locally  driven,
sustainable economy whose values are based on the quality of the landscape
and its own self-renewing resources - its forests, its waters, its
biodiversity, its natural beauty, and even the harmony of its villages
and hamlets with the natural surroundings. |
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