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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 27 31 March 2014 1. Understanding Rural Migration 2. Building Leadership for the Long Haul with Milan Wall of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development - WEBINAR 3. Community Based Fishing in Port Orford 4. Headwaters Economic Profile System-Human Dimensions Toolkit 5. Access Fund Climbing Preservation Grant Program 6. Regional Economic Models, Inc. – BIWEEKLY WEBINARS 7. How Tiny House Communities Can Work for Both The Haves and The Have Nots 8. Where Did the Food Movement Go Wrong?

9. Five Tips for Making Decisions Based on Shared Community Values 10. Columbia Gorge Education and Industry Summit 11. New Report Features Added to Oregon Historic Sites Database

Quote of the Week: "They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." ~Andy Warhol Oregon Fast Fact: The total elevation, in feet, of the Three Sisters is 30,490 feet. Each of the three peaks is over 10,000 feet in elevation. The South Sister is the tallest at 10,358 feet, while the Middle and North Sisters are 10,047 and 10,085 feet respectively.

1. Understanding Rural Migration For the past three months, Craig Schroeder's newsletter for youth engagement has focused on Understanding Rural Migration: Myths, Trends, and Opportunities. The 2010 Census data shows an intriguing and ongoing trend: 30-49-year-olds flocking to rural places as they emphasize quality of life. This trend represents an opportunity for social and civic entrepreneurs across rural America focused on creating a more sustainable future for their rural hometowns and regions. Craig, Jim Russell and Ben Winchester offer solid data and insights that might help bust a few myths and encourage you to take a new look at demographics in your own communities. Take a look at the Understanding Rural Migration white paper. If you'd like more information, contact Craig@e2mail.org.

2. Building Leadership for the Long Haul with Milan Wall of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development - WEBINAR Join Milan Wall from the Heartland Center for Leadership Development to learn about their research on keys to thriving communities and effective leadership. Milan will describe characteristics of effective local leaders, roles and responsibilities to guide community action, and tips for recruiting new leaders in a changing world.

To access this webinar, click here.

3. Community Based Fishing in Port Orford In a remote fishing town, on the most westerly tip of the continent, a 40-foot commercial fishing boat swings from a massive yellow crane high above the churning waters. Port Orford is home to the only dry dock on the Western seaboard. Boats are lowered into the ocean then winched back to safety when they return to dock. Out on the heaving seas, local fishermen aren't just reeling in the catch; they're acting as ocean stewards and ecological trailblazers.

There were rumblings in Washington, DC about the need for Marine Reserves, to protect and preserve dwindling fish populations.

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Concerned that their voices weren't being heard, the fishermen of Port Orford brought together local scientists, conservationists, policy-makers and legal experts and hammered out a strategy that would ensure that local knowledge and local interests weren't just heard, they would become the engine that powered decisions about the fate of their traditional fishing grounds. Driven by the philosophy that jobs go hand in hand with conservation; that long-term, multi-generational prosperity is anchored in preserving the habitats they fish; they created a plan that protected the entire ecosystem, from the lowliest reef-dweller, through land-based watersheds, to the humans who make their living off the ocean.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Headwaters Economic Profile System-Human Dimensions Toolkit Economic Profile System-Human Dimensions Toolkit which allows users to produce free, detailed socioeconomic profiles at a variety of geographic scales. Free, easy-to-use software that produces 14 different detailed socioeconomic reports of counties, states, and regions, including custom aggregations.

Updates to the new demographics report use the latest available data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. New pages have been added that describe employment by occupation and industry, labor, commuting patterns, components of household earnings, and housing characteristics.

To access this toolkit, click here.

5. Access Fund Climbing Preservation Grant Program The Access Fund Climbing Preservation Grant Program supports projects that preserve or enhance climbing opportunities and conserve the climbing environment throughout the United States. The Fund is most interested in making grants to organizations and individuals that identify and work on the root causes of local climbing access and conservation issues and that approach issues with a commitment to long-term change. Requests are accepted from local climbing groups, governmental agencies that wish to sponsor or organize a local project, grassroots groups, individuals, and conservation organizations and land trusts. Most grants are in the range of $1,000 to $4,000. The next application deadline is August 1, 2012.

For more information, click here.

6. Regional Economic Models, Inc. – BIWEEKLY WEBINARS REMI hosts an introductory webinar on the first and third Wednesday of every month.

These biweekly webinars will provide an overview of REMI’s economic impact models, a live demonstration of REMI PI+, and a discussion period to address questions. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the REMI model and interact with REMI’s economists.

Please click the link below to register for a session of your choice.

Register for a Biweekly Webinar Each session will last approximately one hour. All presentations are offered free of charge at 2:00 pm EST/EDT on each scheduled day through the Citrix GotoMeeting web conferencing platform Upcoming Topic Area Webinars

Modeling the Economic Impacts of Carbon Tax Policies across Diverse Regions

Economic growth, energy, and emissions are intertwined. We will explore the economic impacts of various carbon tax polices across Canada and the United States. Within Canada, we will focus on the British Columbia revenue-neutral carbon tax system and modeling newly proposed carbon taxes reforms in Alberta. We will provide an overview of the California-Quebec agreement to integrate and harmonize Page 2 of 4

their cap-and-trade system; the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in the Northeastern US; and report findings of other states that have looked into taxing carbon emissions, including New York, Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts. If you missed the recent seminar presentations on this topic in Toronto and Ottawa/Gatineau, now is your chance to explore the topic in detail.

Finally, you will have a chance to engage in Q&A after the presentation.

This presentation will be approximately one hour in length, and we offer it at no charge via the Citrix GotoWebinar web conferencing platform. Advanced registration is required; please click here to register online.

7. How Tiny House Communities Can Work for Both The Haves and The Have Nots Ryan Mitchell lives and breathes tiny houses. He has been running the popular website The Tiny Life for the past five years; is currently planning a tiny house conference for approximately 120 people in Charlotte, N.C., where he lives; and has written a book on tiny living that’s due to be published in July.

To top it off, he recently finished construction on a tiny house of his very own.

Mitchell’s dream, however, is a community of tiny houses. When asked what that would look like, he describes a grouping of mini-cottages around a large communal structure, which would include space to have shared meals, shows, and workshops. “The community aspect is actually a big part of what we [tiny house enthusiasts] like,” says Mitchell. With The Tiny Life, Mitchell has created an online forum of sorts for tiny house enthusiasts from all over the world. He wants to bring that community out of the virtual sphere and into the physical one.

How idyllic! But as Mitchell has learned firsthand, building a tiny house community from scratch is not as simple as it seems. Local building and zoning restrictions, not to mention securing startup money to buy land, are just a few of the obstacles to achieving a cottage-laden utopia.

To access the full story, click here.

8. Where Did the Food Movement Go Wrong?

I should have seen it coming. In a time when politics are more polarized than ever, when every party seems to have their own news station, why would I think the food movement was somehow above sensationalism? I should have known that we were in for a rough ride when we started saying, “Big Ag is evil” and promoted GMO labeling campaigns by insinuating that if Monsanto produced Agent Orange (once reported as being “harmless”), anything else they made would be equally bad.

When did the food movement become more about politics than actually making what we eat better?

I got involved with food policy five years ago because something wasn’t quite right with the way we were putting food on the table. I was – one might say – bothered by the idea that people go hungry while 35 million tons of food waste goes to United States’ landfills each year. Troubled by the agricultural fertilizers that help to poison the Chesapeake Bay with 300 million pounds of nitrogen each year.

Disturbed that, while I could become a vegetarian, meat production in the U.S. would continue being responsible for the inhumane lives and deaths of 10.2 billion animals each year.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Five Tips for Making Decisions Based on Shared Community Values Our Community Heart & Soul approach to planning asks folks to ask each other, “What matters most?” because we believe in the power of shared values to shape better futures. When enough people agree on the qualities of their town they care most about, everyone is better connected with each other and the

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community. Those strengthened ties inspire people to work together to protect and enhance what they care about. We know, because we have seen it happen.

We’ve been along for the ride as places like Polson, Montana discovered their shared commitment to a natural environment and a healthy, active lifestyle. In Colorado’s North Fork Valley, residents identified freedom, independence and personal responsibility as a key community value. Essex, Vermont’s six core values include thoughtful growth and community connections. The content may differ from place to place, but we know firsthand that the positive impact on social cohesion of defining and describing shared values is universal.

To access the full story, click here.

10. Columbia Gorge Education and Industry Summit The Columbia Gorge Education and Industry Summit will be held Friday, April 18, 2014 at the newlyopened Fort Dalles Readiness Center on the campus of Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles. The purpose of the summit is to grow the Columbia River Gorge economy by fostering seamless cross-sector instruction of all ages in partnership with industry, education and training providers, students and parents.

Our Goal: Industry understands education; education understands industry.

Summit planning is coordinated by a team representing all key sectors. This will be a working conference, with opportunity for cross-sector involvement leading to concrete outcomes. We need to create a bridge to promote bi-state collaboration, and encourage legislative awareness of common regional issues in common. We invite your representatives to attend. Please consider sending counselors; school district, college and universities administrators; and board members. We are also inviting industry leaders, economic development professionals, and chamber execs.

For more information about this event, click here.

11. New Report Features Added to Oregon Historic Sites Database Oregon’s State Historic Preservation Office recently added new features to the online Historic Sites Database. There are now three ways to find Oregon’s historic places on the database: the detailed search screen, the statewide map or the report screen. In addition to single property reports, you can now print out detailed summary reports for selected cities, counties, or “groupings” (historic districts, survey projects, thematic groupings, etc.).

Statistical summaries include date by decade, National Register of Historic Places eligibility evaluation, original use, construction materials, and architectural styles. To see the reports, choose the Report Menu tab at the top of the database’s main Search Screen, enter your selection, and print.

To explore Oregon’s historic places, click here.

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