PISCATAQUIS SUCCESS

Maine in the past couple of years has either produced or purchased several studies that exhort development officials to emphasize high-end tourism and to do so in a regional way. The Piscataquis County Economic Development Council and the county’s commissioners have been building capacity for this kind of tourism during that time, reaching across town lines to develop a coherent strategy for both expanding and controlling growth regionally. It is an impressive beginning.

Drawing on statewide work, such as the Fermata Nature Tourism Assessment last year, and local studies -“Potential for Expanded Dog-Powered Activities in Piscataquis County, Maine” – the county’s tourism task force set out eight goals for 2006 that will help the region build capacity, assist businesses, produce complete tourism packages and more tightly link the county’s efforts to the state’s. The result creates a homegrown agenda that helps Piscataquis direct its own fate.

The task force is just one part of the council’s efforts in well-known places such as Greenville and lesser-known communities to turn around a demographic slide that would otherwise doom the county. The council states this plainly: for income, population growth, education and employment, Piscataquis lags behind state averages, and the state lags behind the New England region in several areas. But rather than complain to Augusta about conditions, the Piscataquis council has acted regionally to begin

to solve its problems.

Since forming in 1997, the council (www.pcedc.org) has been working to support existing businesses, often forestry-based, while promoting the county’s cultural heritage as a draw for both new businesses and tourists.

An attractive natural setting as a means to development has been talked about in the region for many years and actually carried out on occasion. In 1991, a Greenville development plan said that along with forestry and tourism, “Greenville stands, over time, to generate a third class of industries driven to the area by their owner’s personal interest in the amenities of the area.” (It anticipates what is now called the creative economy by a half-dozen years.)

With major resorts talked about for Moosehead Lake and Brownville, the council now has a fourth industry to consider in the mix of what it wants to look like in the decades ahead. How it will solve these challenges can be seen in the size of its board of directors – up to 50 residents at a time, ensuring not only many different ideas are heard but that the council is able to build broad support for its agenda.

Forestry and tourism will continue side by side in Piscataquis County and across the larger region. How well they do, and how well Maine residents do by them, however, is very much an open question. The council has given Piscataquis a means for success with both, which should reap the rewards of this work in the coming years.