Seeking smart growth for Northern Forest

By Eric Anderson
Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
Nov. 25--ALBANY -- Economic vitality has eluded the Northern Forest -- 30 million acres stretching from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean along the Canadian border.

But the Northern Forest Strategic Economy Initiative seeks to change that.

The Concord, N.H.-based Northern Forest Center on Monday presented the findings of the initiative at a Rockefeller Institute forum in Albany. Afterward, panelists offered their thoughts.

The region covers four states -- Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York -- that share similar challenges as they watch their old industries collapse and their young people flee.

"These communities are in economic crisis and their very survival is at risk," said Todd Shimkus, president and CEO of the Adirondack Regional Chambers of Commerce in Glens Falls.

Another panelist, Brian Houseal, executive director of the Adirondack Council, a conservation group, described the 6 million-acre Adirondack Park as "the largest protected deciduous forest left on the planet," and suggested the region could benefit by capitalizing on its natural resources.

"We had 20 pulp and paper mills. We're down to one," he said. Meanwhile, "the kids in Ticonderoga schools write on paper imported from Indonesia."

He called for more smart growth in the region, economic metrics that would put value on the services provided by forests -- such as absorbing carbon dioxide, providing clean water and controlling floods -- and further development of local agriculture.

Panelist Joe Short of the Northern Forest Center said the region might get itself heard in Washington if it spoke with one voice.

While the group talked of the need for more advanced telecommunications -- many areas have no cellular or broadband Internet service -- there was little support for a proposed east-west highway that would connect Watertown, to Plattsburgh.

"Most of our commerce runs north and south," said the Adirondack Council's Houseal. And the interstate highway connecting Albany to Montreal may have hurt as much as it helped.

"The Northway sucked the life out of many of the towns on Route 9," which runs parallel to the highway, he added.

The chamber's Shimkus criticized the Adirondack Park Agency, which regulates land use in the park.

Of the APA's 65 employees, just one works on economic development, he said.

But Short questioned how culpable the APA was in the region's economic stagnation.

"The Adirondacks would have many of the same challenges they have today with or without the Adirondack Park Agency," he said.

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