Tag Archives: economic development strategy

Feels Like Progress

In the past few weeks we have attended Local Government Day, Adirondack Day in the Capital, and the Adirondack Research Consortium. In each case, we were left with the feeling that the Adirondacks is moving forward on many fronts. There is a sense of optimism and progress. Most importantly, collaboration and Park-wide thinking are the rules of the day.

Local Government Day

This is an annual event co-sponsored by the APA and AATV (Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages). Usually this event happens in March when we are away but they moved it into late April this year and we were pleased to be able to attend. The senior management from both DEC and APA were there listening hard to the large number of local government reps who came. The Adirondack Partnership and its Director, Bill Farber, were front and center touting their new Economic Strategies development project that has been awarded to a group of consulting firms led by River Street Planning and Development of Troy. This project will take the work of the ADK Futures project as a starting point to develop much more detailed strategies for economic development in the region and test them against market data.

The main focus of the day we attended was the economic potential of tourism. There was a presentation by Jim McKenna on the about-to-be-released Adirondack Park Outdoor Recreation Strategy, which is the product of a 25 person volunteer team comprised of public, private and non-profit leaders. This effort has characterized the main factors that hold back better development of the Park’s resources to provide more economic opportunity to the towns and villages of the region. The group made it’s initial priority the development of a web portal to bring together all information about recreational opportunities, facilities and visitor amenities across the entire Park. This is aimed at what the team saw as a key problem: inadequate information available to prospective visitors about the diverse recreational opportunities in the Park and the poor distribution of activities and events across the entire area. This web portal was recently funded in this years Regional Economic Development grants and its development has already started.

Next we heard about the potential economic benefits of better developing the recreational opportunities of the Park. Most importantly, we learned how the five towns (Newcomb, Minerva, Indian Lake, North Hudson and Long Lake) affected most by the new NYS acquisition of Finch Pruyn lands are working together to come up with plans for developing recreational and visitor facilities to capture some local economic benefit. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has included a half million dollar grant to the towns to help in this effort. DEC is working closely with the team, too. This kind of partnership is a major step in the right direction and TNC, in particular, should be commended for their efforts to insure that all benefit from the biggest addition to the Forest Preserve in 100 years.

Overall we heard that there is great potential if we diversify the offerings to visitors, most of whom only want a 1 to 2 hour hike. This means diversifying access and making it possible for the less fit or elderly to enjoy a portion of the outdoors. Others want something other than hiking, such as biking, boating, etc. Visitors also consider sight seeing, relaxing, dining and shopping an important part of their vacation. Grassroots efforts to develop new activities are also key, such as the Cranberry 50 development of hiking trails. In the end though, there needs to be investment in lodging if we are to unlock the economic potential of the region. We need to think hard about the kinds of incentives and grants that can be put together to attract the necessary private investment. Our relatively short visitor seasons and increasingly iffy winter weather make these kinds of investments very risky and they won’t happen if local and State government don’t sweeten the pot.

What struck us overall about the event was the lack of griping and pointing fingers. Instead there was a refreshing sense of optimism and cooperation. The ADK Futures project was cited repeatedly as one more sign that we are in a new era in the Park, one in which we are moving forward.

Adirondack Day

April 29 was the first Adirondack Day in the “well” of the State Legislative Office building in Albany. Groups around the State use this space to promote their region or cause to legislators, their staff, and executive branch staff. With an incredible outpouring of volunteer support, our region pulled together rich displays about conservation, fighting invasives, recreation, culture, history, and our successes on the economic development front. Most prominent, though, were the displays and samples of our burgeoning local food movement. It was great to see so many of our key organizations working together to promote the entire region.

It turns out that this very day the Governor announced his White Water Canoe Challenge. The effort clearly paid off in terms of greater awareness in Albany to the many ways the Adirondacks are moving ahead these days. At one point, Mr. Cuomo did make an appearance accompanied by Senator Betty Little and visited a number of the displays. Betty spotted us and steered the Governor our way for a brief introduction.

Adirondack Research Consortium

Last week we participated in the Adirondack Research Consortium (ARC) conference in Lake Placid. The opening keynote speakers were Andrew Revkin author of “Dot Earth” blog on the New York Times, and Stephen Jackson, Director of the Southwest Climate Center. Both held balanced views on climate change that emphasized the adaptability of nature and avoidance of extreme points of view. Dr. Jackson showed fossil data that indicated fast and major swings in climate have hit the planet before and had nothing to do with humans. Although we are clearly the major factor driving climate change now, we are not the only part of the system that can do so. Mr. Revkin introduced the idea that all environmental thinking must now include humans as part of the system, part of the solution and he pointed to the Adirondacks as an example. Getting to a pre-human wild state is simply not possible. For better or worse we are like gods, but as Stewart Brand said, “we better get good at it”. He made the point that climate change is a big messy problem with humans right in the middle of it and the Adirondacks are a big messy problem with humans in the middle of it. Dr. Jackson also talked about the need for researchers to learn how to better communicate and engage with the public. Scientists need to understand the public doesn’t react to data the way they do. In general, data never changes anyone’s mind. We need more people and organizations that are boundary spanners, that can bridge gaps between researchers and stakeholders. The Adirondack Research Consortium is one of those.

Bob Stegemann, DEC Region 5 Director, next stepped in for Joe Martens, DEC Commissioner, who had to be at a meeting with the Governor that day. Bob’s message was that the Adirondack’s are doing better than they have in many decades. We are completing the largest addition to the Forest Preserve in 100 years and all 26 town boards affected agreed to support it. And in the past 20 years we have added nearly 800,000 acres of easement lands inside the Blue Line. But, he emphasized, the towns and villages now need to thrive as the Forest Preserve has thrived. We need to work harder to ensure that the State land benefits local communities. We need stronger communities if they are going to be able to adapt to climate change and the more severe weather it is going to throw at us.

Bob also pointed out that as the Forest Preserve has grown (it is four times as large as it was when Article XIV was enacted) the issues for towns and villages with regard to the Forest Preserve have grown. He argued for consideration of an expanded transportation land bank to cover county and town roads. The current one only covers State highways, but they are not the only ones with bad curves, utility poles that are hazards, culverts that need upgrading, etc. He also suggested that a utility land bank be considered to enable modernization of existing utilities where Forest Preserve prevents siting of power, communications, water and sewer lines. We, too believe that carefully crafted and vetted versions of these ideas could be effective win-win modifications to the existing regulatory strictures in the Park. He also encouraged passage of the Transferable Development Rights (TDR) bill before the legislature and that more towns use APA map amendments to implement community development proposals. He ended by emphasizing the threat the invasive species pose to our great Park.

Next there was a panel of energy industry executives, but I must admit to not really learning much that was new, except that the big generators are concerned about the “threat” of distributed power production. We are so reminded of the way the Internet threatened the old, stodgy telcos.

Day 2 of the conference was kicked off with a panel of Dave Mason, Steve Englehart of AARCH and Kate Fish of ANCA. In keeping with the theme of the conference, Dave presented the 25 year future vision developed by our project. Then Steve provided the historical perspective on how the vision is rooted in our traditions and out landscape. Kate then talked about all the projects and efforts that are moving us toward the vision, emphasizing the two big wins for the North Country in the Regional Economic Development Council process.

In response to some questions after the talk, the Futures Project with CGA agreed to compile suggestions for a research agenda for the region as input to the Consortium.

This was our third ARC and this one was very different in tone and substance from the first one we went to in May 2011. We were just starting our research about the Adirondacks for the Futures project. The final plenary presentation that year was about the APRAP report, all doom and gloom. That effort provided an important baseline of data, but it didn’t point to a way out of the funk we were in. When we were doing our strategic planning consulting back in the ’90s, we found over and over again that data, by itself, doesn’t usually change people’s minds or lead to action. People use data to support what they already believe. To make progress you need to get people to let go of past beliefs and assumptions, to unlearn them as we used to say. Until you can crack open the current belief system or mental models of people, they can’t look afresh at a situation and see the possibility of positive change. We may be seeing that happen now.

North Country Sustainability Plan

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On January 23 we attended the summary presentation of the North Country Regional Sustainability Plan at the Wild Center. This is an effort out of NYSERDA, modeled after the Regional Economic Council process, to create an overarching plan for improving the economic and environmental health of the State. Like the broader economic councils, this effort was organized at the level of 10 regions across the State. The North Country effort was led by Essex County and included Hamilton, Clinton, Franklin, Lewis, St. Lawrence, and Jefferson counties.

The place to start is with that over-used word sustainability. The key idea is that our communities, economy and Park lands are managed and used in such a way that finite resources are conserved and reused so that they will be available to future generations. This includes finding ways to be more efficient, i.e. using fewer resources, as well as using more renewable resources like the sun. Implicit in this definition is the need to limit green house gas (GHG) emissions which are the root cause of climate change and tied to non-sustainable use of fossil fuels.

But sustainable, especially when applied to our communities and economic systems, also carries the connotation of strong, resilient and self-reliant. When it feels like many of our Adirondack towns are shrinking, sliding into oblivion and need regular infusions of aid from Government, the economy doesn’t feel very sustainable. One professor from Paul Smiths, Brett McLeod, suggested we talk about creating durable communities. We like that and suspect it will go over much better with many North Country residents than sustainable, which unfortunately is also associated in some people’s minds with liberalism, climate change and a plot by the UN to take over all private property.

The sustainability plan, whose development was led by the team of ANCA and the consulting firm Ecology and Environment (E&E), was based on two main pieces of input. The first was a detailed inventory of current green house gas emissions in our region. This will serve as a baseline for both prioritizing future efforts and for measuring success at reducing our use of fossil fuels. The second input came from a fairly large-scale public outreach and stakeholder engagement effort. We participated in a couple of working group sessions as well as a major input session that brought all seven working groups together in an information sharing day.

The GHG inventory has lots of interesting data and some good news for our efforts to become a greener economy. Because of the large amount of hydro and wind based generation of electricity, primarily in the St. Lawrence river valley, 94% of the electricity that flows through the power grid is generated from renewable sources. This doesn’t include the electricity that is generated by small-scale solar, wind or geothermal. This is a great place to start on a sustainability plan. Looking at our non-transportation energy use, 30% of the energy is produced by wood for heating, but this only contributes 1% of the GHG emissions. Meanwhile, fuel oil represents 35% of our energy use but contributes 48% of our GHG emissions. Similarly natural gas is 30% of energy use and 40% of emissions. Thus, a major strategy is to substitute biomass heating systems for those based on fuel oil and to some extent natural gas. At the residential level, there is a lot to be gained by converting the 39% of homes heating with fuel oil to high-efficiency wood burners, and this is a centerpiece of the ADK Futures strategy.

The real problem is in energy use for transportation, which accounts for 40% of our GHG emissions (residential energy use accounts for only 17% of the total) and 42% of per capita energy consumption. Three quarters of this is for basic cars and trucks on the road. Farming, forestry, snowmobiles, ATVs and recreational boating account for 21% of transportation-related emissions. Strategies for reducing emissions due to transportation are much less clear as our large distances in the North Country require a lot of driving. Long-term efforts to encourage clustering of both businesses and residences in towns can help to promote walking, biking and use of electric carts. Unfortunately, the data says that in our region, the number of people living in a city or town center went down from 53% in 2000 to 46% in 2010.

The real key will be getting people to use alternatives to single occupant vehicle traffic by building up bus systems and creating support systems for ride sharing. Surprisingly, the study estimated that 18.5% of commuters in the North Country travel via car pool, public transit, biking or walking. Presumably most of this is in the larger towns and cities outside the Blue Line.

In our view, the GHG emissions due to transportation within the Blue Line can only come down significantly when we have affordable electric vehicles that have sufficient range to meet the needs of our dispersed region. Since our electricity is almost entirely based on renewables, this can be an effective long-term strategy. Use of biofuels may also be significant if technical breakthroughs increase the efficiency of their production.

The stakeholder input effort was organized into seven working groups with overlapping and inter-related issues:

Energy
Transportation
Livable communities and land use
Economic development
Materials management (i.e., recycling as much waste as possible in an energy efficient way)
Water management
Working landscapes (agriculture, forests, recreation)

The proposals in these groups are very similar to those developed through the ADK Futures process: encourage more local food and local energy production, cluster development in town centers, use the land productively but in a sustainable manner for farming, forestry and recreation, protect the quality of our water, plan at the larger level of watersheds, use new technologies for water treatment that are energy efficient, and increase reuse and recycling of waste, especially for organic waste through composting and digesters.

The data again has some interesting points. Energy usage by farms has not been a focus before and there is great potential to make them more efficient as only 1% of farms have ever done an energy audit. Although our solid waste disposal per person is 22% less than the State average, we are 4x less effective at recovering materials from the waste stream. DEC currently estimates that a quarter of the water bodies in the North Country are impaired in some way with pollution, invasives, acid rain, etc. 34% of North Country communities are considered “food deserts” by the USDA, i.e., you have to travel over an hour to get to a supermarket.

We certainly applaud this major effort and look forward to seeing it refined into more concrete proposals for new investment, education and incentives from the State.

2012 Regional Economic Council Awards

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How the 2012 REDC Projects Line Up to ADK Futures Implementation Plans

The Regional Economic Development Grants for 2012 were announced just before Christmas and they support numerous efforts well aligned to the ADK Futures implementation work. The ADK Park is part of 3 REDC regions. A summary of ADK grants in all 3 follows and at the end there is link to the 2012 grant details.

Broadband Projects

Almost $2.1 million in grants to bring broadband to Long Lake and the rest of Hamilton County were awarded. In addition, $2.2 million was awarded to interconnect public emergency and 911 centers across the region. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel on the broadband problem. A $500,000 loan fund will also support last mile connections.

Tourism Projects

The Wild Center in Tupper Lake won $1 million to develop an elevated boardwalk in the tree canopy at the site. Tupper Lake will also see $36,000 to redevelop and old hotel and restaurant. The ADK Museum exhibition upgrades were granted $50,000.

The ADK Mountain Club will see $221,000 of improvements at its Heart Lake facilities. Restorations at Great Camp Sagamore, $239,000. Warren County, in a Hudson River regional coordinated effort, will see $308,000 for a new park, a restored bandshell. and design of a new Corinth train station.

Improvements to the Indian Lake Theater got $63,000 and digital conversion of the Old Forge theater, $25,000. The new touring ADK Lakes Summer Theater Festival received $150,000. Traditional Arts in Upstate NY and ANCA received $190,000 to support collection management, artisans and retailers.

AATV received $108,000 to develop the ADK Recreation Web Portal, showcasing recreation activities and amenities across the whole Park. Lastly, the ADK Economic Development Council will manage a $2 million tourism fund for the region.

Waterfront Improvements (mostly also tourism)

Implementation of waterfront tourism projects in Essex and Clinton Counties, $700,000. Reconstruction of Bulwagga Bay recreation facilities in Port Henry, $250,000. Improvements to 3 waterfront parks in Wilmington, $251,000. Arrowhead Park in Inlet will see redesign and construction, $248,000. Tupper Lake, along with other communities hosting the 90 mile ADK canoe classic will see $445,000 in projects identified in the Raquette River Blueway Plan. Northville will see two parks on the lake front improved, $75,000.

Lake George will see new public docks ($170,000), improvements in the park ($750,000) and a whole Gateway Improvement Project aimed at improved water quality, walk-ability and safety in the Village for $545,000.

Water Quality

Lake Champlain non-point source pollution management planning saw a $200,000 grant. Port Henry water and sewer enhancements, $600,000. Implementation of the Ausable River watershed management plan, $218,000.

In Lake Placid, the removal of the Chubb River Dam and restoration of the river, $1 million, and this is associated with replacing an old sewer trunk line that runs under the lake.

Implementation of an wide ranging Schroon Lake Watershed Management Plan won $300,000.

Lake George will see $390,000 to work on stream corridors addressing storm water runoff and water quality,

An engineering assessment of Corinth waste water upgrades will see $30,000

Also, a $2 million infrastructure fund for water, sewer, roads and ports across the whole region.

Local Food Projects

A much needed, small, USDA slaughterhouse in Ticonderoga got a boost with $465,000. A USDA mobile chicken processing unit was funded last year and is soon to be operational.

A North Country Food Hub will be established in Canton, $350,000.

A community kitchen and cafeteria training site for storage and distribution of local ag products from Warren, Washington and Saratoga producers, $125,000

Local Energy Projects

Old Forge will build a new biomass district heating project with a grant of $1 million. Tupper Lake is awarded $300,000 for design and engineering of a new biomass fueled district heating project including Sunmount, the school and other nearby buildings. The ADK Museum pellet boiler project was granted $130,000.

A natural gas line to the IP Ticonderoga paper mill will replace fuel oil, extending the life of the mill, for $1.75 million.

Father afield, the pellet plant in Malone will see $168,000 to improve energy efficiency. A grant of $470,000 will go to planting willow plantations intended to fuel the soon-to-start-up ReEnergy project at Ft Drum. A super-efficient biomass fueled co-gen plant in Watervliet Arsenal won $1 million grant. 3 separate biomass heat boilers installed in the Albany area, $600,000.

Additional Important Projects

The former J&L mine site Clifton will finally demolish a large building and do an assessment of site redevelopment possibilities, $175,000

In Warrensburg, a new 40,000 sqft primary care center run by Hudson Headwaters received additional grant funding bringing the total to $7.5 million.

The Town of North Elba and the Village of Saranac Lake won a $463,000 grant to develop a comprehensive plan addressing parking and traffic, worker housing, marketing, diversification of economic activity and construction of multi-use recreational fields on top of closed landfills close to their downtowns.

Lake George will begin work on a revitalization strategy for the town, $38,000.

It is important to know that a wide array of projects are in the areas immediately surrounding the ADK Park like Glens Falls, Plattsburgh, Potsdam/Canton, Watertown and Utica.

If we grabbed your interest, we encourage your to read the announcement booklet

The ADK Futures Project is well known to a number of the volunteer members of the Council including the co-chairs, Tony Collins@Clarkson and Gary Douglas@the Nth Country Chamber of Commerce, along with Cali Brooks @ANCA, Randy Douglas@Essex County, Bill Farber@Hamilton County, Kate Fish@ANCA, Jim McKenna@ROOST in Lake Placid, and Senator Betty Little so it is a pleasure for us to see so many projects that align so well to the ADK Futures vision and implementation efforts get funded.

Biomass: Some Hype, Some Hope