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Monday Mailing Quote of the Week: "Still round the corner there may wait a new road or a secret gate. And though I often have passed them by a day will come at last when I shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien Oregon Fast Fact: Oregon is located nearest the 45th parallel. The 45th parallel is equidistant from the North Pole and the equator and is found just north of Salem.

Year 23 • Issue 30 01 May 2017 1. Gorge Towns to Trails 2. 2018 Urban and Community Forestry Challenge Cost Share Grant Program 3. Not All Trails Are Created Equal. Here’s How To Tell The Gold Standard From The Imitators 4. Greenhouse Gas Reduction Toolkit Now Online 5. Historic Anchorage Theater Deserves State Protection, Advocates Say 6. Building “Buy Local” Campaigns that Shift Culture and Spending 7. Why Rural Towns Get Left Behind, and What We Can (Should) Do About It 8. NEA Creative Placemaking Portal 9. Wind Map 10. Bike More Challenge 11. Free Webinar: Fostering Smart Growth in Rural Communities - Thu, May 4, 2017 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PDT 1. Gorge Towns to Trails Picture yourself lacing up your boots for a Gorge hike--except this time, the day hike with great views and wildflowers becomes a multiday adventure trekking from temperate rainforests into sagebrush grasslands. Step by step, you discover never seen waterfalls and viewpoints tucked deep into the recesses of the Gorge and stop at wineries and orchards as you fully immerse yourself in the Gorge’s five distinct ecological zones. At the end of each day’s hike, rather than heading home, you’re rewarded with great local food, wine or handcrafted beer, and a night’s rest at a comfy bed and breakfast, lodge, or hotel. What was a day hike to remember becomes an unforgettable multi-day journey.

To learn more about this initiative, click here.

2. 2018 Urban and Community Forestry Challenge Cost Share Grant Program The National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council seeks innovative grant proposals for program development, study, and collaboration that will address strategies in the National Ten Year Urban Forestry Action Plan (2016-2026). The 2018 Request for Proposals is to address the following priority issue in the National Ten Year Action Plan Research Needs: Planting, Inventory, and Analysis for Forest and Environmental Health. Organizations, local governments, tribal agencies, and partnerships are encouraged to submit proposals that will demonstrate the reach, resources, and expertise needed to address the priority issues in ways that will lead to meaningful, replicable results across the country. Applications due May 24.

For more information, click here.

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3. Not All Trails Are Created Equal. Here’s How To Tell The Gold Standard From The Imitators Trails are a huge part of ensuring that walking and riding a bike are among a person's transportation options. But when it comes to building them across our region's many jurisdictions, whether or not they’re safe and inviting can really vary. One group is working on a way to change that.

In some jurisdictions, a "trail" is defined as an off-road pathway through an open space. In others, sidewalks and on-street bike lanes can fall under the umbrella of "trails." When the understanding of what a trail is varies, it's hard to create a true regional network that people of all abilities are comfortable using.

That network would not only let people know where to find great trails, but also would lead to lowstress access to open space and healthy, reliable transportation for everyone. The Capital Trails Coalition, a recently formed group to build support for trails, wants to create this network. As part of the effort, the organization developed a set of criteria to determine what factors make a trail good.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Greenhouse Gas Reduction Toolkit The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Toolkit is designed to help local jurisdictions identify and explore the kinds of actions and programs they can undertake to reduce vehicle emissions, as well as meet other community goals, such as spur economic development, increase biking and walking, support downtowns, create healthy livable communities, and more.

Each Strategy Report describes an action, program or policy which can be implemented by a jurisdiction. The report gives an overview of what it is, how it can benefit a community, how costly it is implement (and how long it takes to see results), and gives examples of where it has been used.

The reports are an entry point to a topic, and intended as a tool for planners to explore and communicate about the strategies described.

The Case Studies in the Toolkit explore the strategies more deeply and show on the ground examples within Oregon where they have been used. They illustrate the benefit of multiple strategies used together, and show how collaboration and patience are used to achieve results.

To access the toolkit, click here.

5. Historic Anchorage Theater Deserves State Protection, Advocates Say The Alaska Historical Commission has declared the 4th Avenue Theatre in downtown Anchorage culturally and historically significant, a first step toward asking the state to prevent the current owners from razing the structure — if the owners even want to.

Meeting Monday in Anchorage, the commission, chaired by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and an official state forum, stopped short of recommending that the governor and the state Department of Natural Resources declare the theater a state historic site or monument. Mallott said the commission would return to that question, sought by preservation advocates, at a future meeting.

Despite assurances from the owners, Peach Investments, that they want to protect the building, not tear it down, many residents expressed alarm about a demolition permit issued for the building late last year. They pleaded for the state to step in, while detailing the theater's importance as one of Anchorage's few iconic historic structures.

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To access the full story, click here.

6. Building “Buy Local” Campaigns that Shift Culture and Spending The American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) has developed a new guide to help independent business owners, localist advocates, and local officials promote local business and community wealth building. The guide outlines strategies to build successful “Buy Local” campaigns that encourage consumers to shop at locally owned stores. It includes tips and resources for campaign content development, message framing, targeted marketing, and execution.

To access this new guide, click here.

7. Why Rural Towns Get Left Behind, and What We Can (Should) Do About It If it doesn't make someone a lot of money, it's just not worth doing.

That's the general response to just about everything, from helping a company raise money, to offering legal services, to brokering business buy-outs when someone needs to retire. There are many important middlemen who grease the wheels of an economy, helping provide unique expertise.

When a place is small, and business isn't always brisk, this expertise is often missing. These services are as essential in rural towns as urban ones, so what (and who) picks up the slack when a service would make all the difference to success but simply doesn't exist?

YES! Magazine just put out its April 2017 issue, and it contains an interesting article about a service headquartered in Kansas, called RedTire. It helps ensure that businesses in need of a new owner don't go out of business, by assisting with finding and settling in a new owner. Their tagline is great: "Retiring and aspiring business owners can apply today."

To access the full story, click here.

8. NEA Creative Placemaking Portal Creative placemaking projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core. Creative placemaking is when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work - placing arts at the table with land-use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies. Creative placemaking supports local efforts to enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents, increase creative activity, and create a distinct sense of place.

To access this resource, click here.

9. Wind Map This beautiful conceptualization uses wind data to weave art from science. Created by visualization specialists Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, the map uses information from the National Digital Forecast Database to create a “living portrait” of the wind blowing through our world.

Although the artists warn not to use the map to fight wildfires or fly planes, it is a lovely tool for getting a better understanding of wind movement.

To access the wind map, click here 10. Bike More Challenge The Bike More Challenge is a fun, free competition to encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to experience first hand joys and benefits of riding a bike. There are lots of fantastic prizes to tempt Page 3 of 4

your team, which we'll announce as the Challenge approaches. Show off your #bikemore pride with these awesome merch items!

How it works: Businesses compete against each other to see who can get the most staff to ride a bike and log their trips between May 1-31. We use a simple points model to allow workplaces to compete with each other across their size category (see the points system below). The points system has been carefully selected to ensure a fair and exciting competition, and to strongly encourage workplaces to engage new riders if they want to climb the leaderboard and secure victory!

It’s not just about who can ride the most miles, but also who can encourage the most people to give bicycling a try. Of course, if you log more miles and more trips you'll earn more points (and have a shot at some special individual prizes), but the fastest way to earn more points is to encourage more people to get on a bike and ride!

For more information, click here.

11. Free Webinar: Fostering Smart Growth in Rural Communities - Thu, May 4, 2017 10:00 AM 11:30 AM PDT The vitality of rural communities has become a focus of national debate as policymakers and stakeholders pursue strategies to create more jobs in rural areas. The success of these efforts will depend upon political will, capacity building and workforce development.

In this webinar, Kendra Briechle of the Conservation Fund will look at how rural communities are carrying out smart growth principles by investing in their downtowns, expanding transportation choices, creating economic opportunities and protecting the cultural and natural resources of rural landscapes. The Conservation Fund partners with communities nationwide to complete livability assessments and apply a range of tools to help enhance their quality of life. This webinar will explain these approaches and highlight success stories in Colorado, Michigan, Oregon and South Carolina.

Panelist: Kendra Briechle is Manager for Community and Economic Development at the Conservation Fund in Arlington, Virginia. She forges on-the-ground conservation solutions by developing balanced economic and environmental results that meet the needs of diverse professionals.

To register for this webinar, click here.

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