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A 400 mile corridor with eight million residents stretches from Eugene, Oregon, through Seattle, Washington to Vancouver, B.C. This region accounts for more than $250 billion in annual economic output and if ranked as a nation-state would be the 10th largest economy in the world. Put this against a backdrop of dramatic alpine peaks and glittering waters, and you have the present day "American Northwest". Computer "techies" with hiking tans; cougars attacking family pets in "satellite" communities; and cabins high up in the mountains with all the comforts of a four-bedroom home.
During the last few decades of the 20th century, the shifts in the economy of the Pacific Northwest has had its effects on individual livelihoods and lifestyles in the Northwest. An interesting perspective on the region's trends, not immediately obvious to the traveler passing through, come from longtime writer and environmental spokesperson and current director of the Seattle research center, Northwest Environment Watch, Alan Thein Durning. (An exemplary citizen of Ecotopia?) Durning has taken a snapshot of these changes and their effects in his book Green-Collar Jobs; Working in the New Northwest. In it he sets out the good news and the bad news.
Changing Economy
"Since the early 70s, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia
have seen 500 lumber and paper mills shut their gates, 8,000 fishing boats
come out of the water, and 15,000 farms and ranches close." In 1946 Montana
wheat farmers could expect to get $2.46 per bushel. Now it sells for $2 a
bushel. This is the bumpy transition away from a resource-hungry economy to
low-impact, value-added work. Yet surprisingly, the 90s has seen a slow-down
in the decline, or even an upswing of the rural population. "In Washington,
rural growth has actually outpaced urban growth this decade."
A New Economy
What is going on here? The answer, Durning is pleased to tell us, is the
good news. "In the information age, environmental quality and economic
vitality are compatible, and possibly inseparable." People care about living
close to unspoiled nature, and the Northwest offers this in spades. The
rugged beauty of the Northwest attracts entrepreneurs, as a place to set up
shop. It is the kind of location a skilled labor force will choose, as seen
in the regular influx of college graduates. "Retirement and investment
income are the largest sources of new income in the Pacific Northwest",
indicating that people with the means to "vote with their feet" are
announcing their preference for a proximity to a wilderness. In fact "the
rural zones that have grown the most, have been counties containing
protected wildlands like national parks".
The Up-side
What some of these new rural-ites are getting up to, indicates the promise
of the new economy to provide a low-impact, middle-class way of life, that
could be a model for the world. Tourism with its leisure travel and
recreation services has provided alternative livelihoods. Towns like
Leavenworth in Washington, and Nelson in British Columbia, have positioned
themselves as travel destinations. A development out of the logging
industry, is "the value-added wood products industry, a growing sector that
already employs 54,000 furniture makers and other Northwest workers". Bend,
Oregon, the fastest-growing city in the Northwest, was once home to the two
largest pine sawmills in the world, and is now a recreation and retirement
mecca with an emerging high-tech sector. Conservation itself potentially
offers plenty of work if funding can be found. "The Pacific Northwest has
enough backcountry miles of eroding logging roads to loop around the equator
20 times."
Rising environmental standards, such as the federal listing of local salmon as a threatened species, have played their part in the waning of the timber, mining, fishing and agriculture sectors. In which case, as Durning argues, far from hindering the economy, they have given it a boost. For an environmentalist, this is the icing on the cake.
The Down-side
The bad news is in two parts. The new economy is increasing the gap between
rich and poor. The rich constitute a new threat to the environment.
Here are some sobering facts. Puget Sound, a kind of "urban cybertopia" has per-capita, the highest number of billionaires and "lesser info-riche" in the world. Six individual Northwesterners own ten percent of all private wealth in the region, while ten percent of Northwesterners live in trailers. Gated communities and prisons are among the fastest-growing forms of housing." Economic stress could be behind Seattle's reputation as the teenage runaway capital and correspondingly high level of homelessness and heroin use. It is a characteristic of the new economy that low skills translates to low pay. The wood-products and hospitality industries, mentioned above, provide workers with a more meager existence than did logging or fishing.
Consumerism among the fortunate in the form of "trophy dwellings", "second-home sprawl", motor homes, personal watercraft and sports utility vehicles (SUVs), the "yank-tank" of the 90s, are the emerging threat to the environment.
As Durning says, the Northwest's transitions in livelihoods has been "swift and brutal". The new eco-economy offers both promise and pitfall.
Back to Northwest Culture and Economy.
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Fodor's Pacific Northwest: with Oregon, Washington and Vancouver, 21st Edition. Written by local experts, this guide has the latest information with expansive insights, illustrations, recommendations, advice and trip planning tools, such as easy to read maps, to plan your exciting adventure in the Pacific Northwest. Order now...
Where To Find Hundreds Of Spectacular Waterfalls In Washington, Oregon, And Idaho by Gregory Alan Plumb. At-a-glance table for selecting waterfalls by scenic rating, form, how to access, best season to go and defining characteristics. To help you select, each waterfall is keyed for accessibility by car, on foot, or by canoe or raft and rated for magnitude and aesthetic value. Order now...
Hidden Pacific Northwest: Including Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, Victoria, and Coastal British Columbia by Eric Lucas. The ultimate guide with information on over 300 hiking trails, 700 campgrounds, and 200 beaches, parks, and wilderness areas. The book reviews a wide range of unique accommodations, including boutique hotels in Seattle, stone-and-wood lodges in the Cascades, and seaside B&Bs. Order now...
Lonely Planet Washington Oregon & the Pacific Northwest (Regional Guide) by Sandra Bao. Local authors, detailed maps, easy to use maps, parks and reserves, planning tools and at-a-glance practical information. Order now...
Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest: Tracking and Identifying Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Invertebrates by David Moskowitz. This book includes illustrated descriptions for more than 180 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, northern California, Idaho, and western Montana plus maps. Order now...
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