ADK Futures Update
Where are we now?
PSC Center for Working Landscapes
April 21, 2014
Dave Mason
Good Move
• The Center for Working Landscapes is a great idea
– PSC and CCE are perfect partners in this
• Working landscapes are at the center of the ADK
Futures vision for the Park
– Working forest
– Working farms
– Working recreational landscapes
Thank you to everyone working on getting this going
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
2
We Write Scenario Building Kits
F. ADK State Forest
Endstates
E. Post Big-Gov’t
Based on 150 Interviews plus various
books, articles and research
D. ADK County
C. Sustainable
B. A Usable Park
Feral Pigs Go Hog Wild in
the Adirondacks
A. Wild Park
Just like in California, wild boar populations
have become a serious problem all over
New York. Eurasian wild boars had become
popular on privates hunting estates but
escaped and multiplied rapidly. They are
intelligent, adaptable, eating almost anything
able to live in a wide range of habitats.
These are not your average Porky Pigs.
2020 ±
Events
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Mapping the Scenarios
What does it take to get to the future you want?
Endstate C
Endstate B
Endstate A
Endstate D
Events
Now tracking
news about
these events
2011-12
Apri 21, 2014
•Build paths of events to each endstate
•The most interesting events are:
• forks in the road or
• common to many or
• unique to one
www.ADKfutures.org
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Who Participated?
business
29
39
52
4
tourism
25
healthcare
28
residents
20
part time
68
non-env NGO
100
state gov
seasonal
254
env NGO
33
non-residents
local gov
education
33
38
52
religion
retired/seasonal
• Education had the highest participation
including students, teachers and university
level people
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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A: Wild Park
B: A Usable Park
C: The Sustainable Life
D: Adirondack County
E: Post “Big Gov’t” Solutions
F: Adirondack State Forest
• Wide Support for C: The Sustainable Life Scenario
• C and B tied for Attainability
• Most Desirable = Most Attainable (a 1st for us)
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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The Combined Model
C: Sustainable
Life
+
B: Sustainable
Recreational Tourism
and Early Retirees
A: Wild Forest
Preserve
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Economic Growth Strategies
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Grow the Local Share of the Economy
• These areas of opportunity are all from our working
landscape
– Local food means more farming aimed at local
consumption: meats, dairy, fruits, vegetables, grains and
added value producers like local brewers and distillers
– Local energy specifically means biomass for heat to displace
fuel oil, especially base load heat in large buildings.
• Retrofit old dams for hydro
• Windmills where they make sense
• Solar needs community net metering to grow faster
– Local building materials means wood products from small
local mills and cement from Glens Falls
• Benefits of this strategy
– Rooted in our traditional, self-reliant, culture
– Lower carbon footprint by eliminating transportation
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Tourism to Bring Money Here
• An activity is also rooted in our traditions
• Another part of our working landscape
– Market the whole Park, not balkanized bits of it.
The scale of it is part of our uniqueness
– Grow eco-, agro- and heritage tourism
• The region still doesn’t get eco-tourism as a market
– Activities, arts, hospitality, equipment: we must
offer more “product” for visitors’ spending
– Market to more diverse set of visitors: multicultural, Canadian, European, Asian
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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New Sectors to Grow Here
• Bring more dollars into the economy via telework
– Federal funding for broadband projects comes from the Farm
Bill too.
– There are telework options at many skill levels
– Leverage the region’s colleges and the Capital region’s high
tech boom
• Embrace retiring boomers as an opportunity
– They don’t need a job, they bring their own income
– They create demand for service jobs
• Tap into manufacturing growth at Park edges
– Global Foundries, Bombardier, Fage Yogurt, Ft Drum, etc.
– Light high-tech manufacturing inside Blue Line
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Updated Status Report
Source: ADKfutures.net
This is a database of news and developments
associated with the scenario events used in ADK
Futures workshops.
The intent is to build a pubic feedback loop. The
desired scenario is nice to know, but are we making
any progress?
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Local Food, Agro-Tourism are Growing
Markets
• Farmer’s markets thriving region-wide
• Asgaard Farm and DaCy Meadow offer farm stay
vacations
• Rolling Hills Farm resort sale completed
• 3 schools move to local farm food (Keene,
Schroon, LP beginning)
• Adk Coast wine trail approved, regional grape
harvest growing
• Federal funds help small dairies go organic
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Land Trusts are Supporting New Farmers
• Mace Chasm Farm in Keeseville sold a
conservation easement to the Open Space
Institute, a program OSI plans to expand. See
OSINY.org
• Agrariantrust.org is a new land trust set up for
farmers
Extending the Growing Season
• Demo project in Keene Valley will use solar
thermal to heat soil beds in greenhouses
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Regional Services Improve Local Food
Economics
• USDA certified meat processor opens in
Ticonderoga
• USDA certified chicken processing unit opens
• North Country Grown Cooperative pools
production of 30 farms to serve large
customers in St Lawrence Cty
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Distribution is Improving
•
•
•
•
New CSA farm in Warren County last season
Schools signing on to CSAs, can be big customers
Direct distribution from farm groups starting
New local food buying groups organized by
Wholeshare.com all over the region
• Launch of ADKfoodnetwork.com to connect local
food to local folks
• New Price Chopper coming to Warrensburg
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Brewers and Distillers Popping Up
• $5m brew pub and distillery coming to LG
• AuSable Brewing Company building in Keesville,
growing their own hops
• Paradox Brewery opens in Schroon Lake
• Blue Line Brewery opens in Saranac Lake
• Tupper Lake brewer organizing
• LP Beer ships to 9 states
• ADK Brewing in LG gets 25 county distribution
• Tax cut for small brewers
• Two new distillers getting organized, will use local
grains
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Biomass Fuel, Working Forest
• Vermont has 60% of its schools on biomass heat
– We have 3 school projects
• 2 district heating projects in process: Old Forge and
Tupper Lake
• 7 institutional heating projects
– Paul Smith’s heat project
• Demonstration ‘model neighborhood’ residential project
in the works for Tupper
• Liquid fuel demo plant at Lyons Falls mill site funded
• ReEnergy coal conversion to green chips is up and running
• We need these markets for our 800,000 acre dedicated
working forest
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Other Working Landscape
Energy Assets
• SUNY Canton is getting a single windmill that will
provide 50% of its power needs
• Chester has switched most municipal electricity needs
to solar PV, other towns are moving slower
– We are missing Community Net Metering (NY Senate
4722)
• Lake Flower power dam is being upgraded
• Tupper Lake’s Setting Pole dam has retrofit hydro plans
• The region’s power today is mostly hydro from the
Robert Moses Dam and wind farms in the St Lawrence
valley
– Very little electricity comes from fossil fuels
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Broadband Progress
• State and USDA funding are actively supporting last
mile connections to homes
– Ausable, Schroon Lake, Bellmont, Lyon Mtn, Thurman,
Long Lake and 3 other Hamco towns
– SLIC is adding about 40 homes each week
• 2009 Federal stimulus funds built a fiber trunk from
Watertown to Westport, now operational.
• Numerous cell towers and 4G upgrades in process
• All the region’s health centers are now on a fiber optic
telemedicine network
• AdirondackTeleworks.com is getting REDC funding to
develop telework jobs and workforce
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Tourism Development Efforts
• Integrated public private recreation plan published
• ROOST has evolved from LP only to a regional marketing
group including Hamilton Cty and parts of Franklin
• Sochi Olympics gave LP lots of free PR
• Whiteface won a top 10 international ranking
• Fishing tournaments, white water challenge, winter sport
challenge, all aim for regional promotion
• New paddling and biking events coming this summer 2014
• Highway ‘driving trails’ are being moved from paper to
digital platforms and smartphones
• Saratoga North Creek RR and airport improvements, esp
PBG, making access easier
• Many efforts to combat aquatic invasive species seen as
critical for sustainable recreational tourism
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Adding Tourism ‘Product’
• 2 hotel projects finished(LP and Speculator), 2 under
construction(SLK, Schroon) and 2 in permitting(SLK and LG)
• 1 Marina project permitted(Port Henry), another in
process(SLK)
• $2.3m loan fund for renovations of older properties
• ORDA looking at Whiteface zip lines. Bolton Landing has
one that is doing well. Another is in permitting
• High end camping (glamping) is emerging. See Camp
Orenda in Johnsburg
• Boating, hunting, fishing licensing now online
• Movie theaters have made the shift to digital projection
• Whiteface Highway rebuild this spring
• There is lots of room here for new business activity
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Projects on Public Land
• 20-25 waterfront park projects in process, e.g.
Second Pond docks, LG docks, Bulwagga Bay
• New inter-hamlet multiple use trails
• 3 new snowmobile trail groomers, 100 snow guns
at Gore
• Smaller trail systems seeing promotion and more
use: CATS, the SLK 6ers, LG hike-a-thon
• 2 pond reclamation projects for trout fishing,
hatchery rebuilds
• Added Finch lands to public recreation areas
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Big Learnings from ADK Futures
• Alignment: what we want is what we expect we
can do
– Wow, what a nice position to start from! This is rare
and very powerful.
– Shared intentions bring new energy to the region
– The classic conflicts do not go away, but they fade
from the center of attention
• Aligned public desires attract government help
– Government operations are well suited to helping
an already aligned public
• Individual and small group initiative is key
– If you don’t do it, who will?
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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Thank You
• Use ADKfutures.net to judge the progress of
the region toward the vision
• Use ADKfutures.org as the baseline project
reference info and the blog.
• Use our email to get in touch
– dave12942@gmail.com
– jim12942@gmail.com
Apri 21, 2014
www.ADKfutures.org
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