Plymouth State University and several other New Hampshire organizations and government entities, including the Governor's Office, are playing an integral role in a new, multistate economic resurgence plan for the Northern Forest region, an area that is home to two million people and which encompasses just under 400 miles, stretching from upstate New York through northeastern Vermont and New Hampshire as well as most of Maine and into Canada.

The plan, the culmination of two years of research, is outlined in the final report, "Economic Resurgence in the Northern Forest", which was released earlier this month by the Sustainable Economy Initiative.

The Sustainable Economy Initiative, which is spearheaded by the Northern Forest Center, headquartered in Concord, was formed in 2006 to develop partnerships between the state leaders, entrepreneurs, organization heads, educators and people that live and work in the region. The goal of the Initiative was to spark economic growth and job creation in the region while promoting conservation and sustainable management of forest land.

"SEI has created the first-ever integrated strategy for the region's economy," said Joe Short, program manager for the Initiative at the Northern Forest Center. "The strategy is based on balanced investment in business, community and environment, and it can help build a resilient economy and create good jobs in the four-state region."

Short added that the Northern Forest Center and the Initiative's steering committee have been working closely with groups in New Hampshire's North Country, including PSU and the North Country Council, based in Bethlehem.

Short said the council already is working to find ways to integrate recommendations from the Initiative into its Coos County Economic Action Plan, a five-year plan the council currently is developing.

Rachael Stuart, vice-president of the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and who also serves on the Initiative's New Hampshire Steering Committee, said collaboration and cooperation among the four states is key to growing local and regional economies.

"The Northern Forest areas in these states have more in common with each other than most of these states do with their southern halves," Stuart said.

In New Hampshire, Stuart said, Coos County is poised to be a large part of the renewable energy solution. Yet the challenge will be to utilize the county's potential in positive ways.

"We need to do that in a way that builds the wealth of Coos County and creates jobs, not a way that just mines the resources out of the county," Stuart said.

Stephen P. Barba, executive director of university relations at PSU and a member of the Northern Forest Center's board of directors, said the work of the Initiative built off previous research and findings of past collaborative efforts between the four states, such as the Northern Forest Lands Council, formed in the early 1990s.

In 1990, Barba said, the Northern Forest Lands Council, which existed until 1994, as well other regional efforts, provided for the conservation of more than three million forest acres between the four states, valued at $500 million.

Barba said the Initiative's goal is to see how communities can utilize already-conserved land and work to protect more land while at the same time using the resources to build local and regional economies.

He said it only makes sense for people in the four states to work together because of the similarities of their Northern Forest communities.

"The area is homogenous in many ways and across state lines," Barba said. "These areas of the four states suffer from the same kind of challenges, including the decline of farming and paper mills. The question becomes, 'How can we work with each other to help the region advance in the new world economy?'"

Barba said one current barrier to economic development in the region is the lack of high-speed Internet and broadband communication capabilities.

One of 10 key suggestions made by the Initiative is to improve higher education opportunities in the region, including building upon the existing higher education structure and utilizing the institutions to provide educational, cultural and entertainment resources to the larger community.

"We at PSU are working to create a college and university network that could be accessed by people and institutions across the four states," Barba said.

Thaddeus Guldbrandsen, Ph.D, director for the Center for Rural Partnerships, is spearheading the educational information-sharing project, which is still in its infant phase.

Guldbrandsen said that, in many ways, the Center for Rural Partnerships is already engaged in the collaborative work that the Initiative is encouraging.

Dennis LaRoche, right, and Joe Rozak, former employees of the Brown Company, at a recent exhibit on campus from the company's archive of images. Courtesy photo The exhibit, which runs through Dec. 15, conveys the crucial role the paper mill played not only in the economic vitality of the region, but also the cultural, historical and educational contributions the company and its employees made. Now, the North County area of New Hampshire, which is part of the Great Northern Forest region that stretches from upstate New York to Maine and into Canada, is seeking to reinvigorate its economy now that the paper mills are no more. Plymouth State University has and will play an integral role in a multistate economic resurgence plan being spearheaded by the Sustainable Economy Initiative of the Northern Forest Center, located in New Hampshire. Courtesy Photo

"The Northern Forest Center and the Center for Rural Partnerships have similar goals," Guldbrandsen said. "Both organizations are concerned with the relationship between a sense of community and economic well-being to sustainable environmental practices."

Guldbrandsen said he will be meeting with educators and administrators from other learning institutions to discuss ways to share information and collaborate on research projects at the upcoming Northern Forest Summit, on Nov. 13-14 at the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch.

Guldbrandsen said one collaborative, educational effort already under way and overseen by the Northern Forest Center is the "Ways of the Woods," a traveling exhibit that includes historic, cultural, environmental, scientific and economic information, pictures and displays.

Guldbrandsen said faculty and students at Plymouth State are assessing the current exhibit and are looking for ways to enhance the science ecology information and displays.

When finished, Gulbrandsen said, Plymouth State could be contributing information to an exhibit that will travel all over the Northern Forest Region and help to educate thousands of people.

Guldbrandsen said colleges and universities in the Northern Forest area will also be resources for innovation and economic development, such as when research projects are done on new forest products or the tourism industry, or through other methods of building regional economies which can be shared with the New Hampshire Employment Security Department and New Hampshire Economic Development Division, or their counterparts in other states.

New forest products being developed include plastics made from wood or wood composites, energy-efficient wood shingles, and new, thin, flexible but strong wooden hulls for boats.

He added that forests can be sustainably managed to produce renewable energy such as wood chips and perhaps the forests can be utilized for pharmaceutical purposes.

"It's not clear yet what new technologies or industries would best fit in the area or reinvigorate our economy," Guldbrandsen said.

The final report of the Initiative coincides with a recent decision by the Northern Border Regional Commission to invest $30 million per year in federal resources for economic development and job creation in the Northern Forest region.

The Northern Forest Sustainable Economy Initiative's full report may be downloaded at www.nfsei.net.