New Blueprint for Rural Prosperity in the 21st Century- Sierra Business Council publishes new guide to innovations for rural economic and community development

The Sierra Business Council today announced the publication of a new book, Investing for Prosperity, which offers hundreds of ways to achieve long-term prosperity in America’s rebounding rural regions.

The 148 page book — prepared by a unique regional business organization, based in the Sierra Nevada region — brings together many of the latest innovations that rural communities across North America are using to grow their economies, improve their towns, and build their “social capital.”

One of the book’s key findings is that communities in the Sierra Nevada can diversify and expand their economies in ways that were never possible over the last 150 years, thanks to new technologies and the market premium put on the Sierra’s natural assets and livable communities. The same finding applies to many other fast-growing rural regions in America, from New England to the Pacific Northwest.

“It is appropriate that we release Investing for Prosperity as we head into Independence Day weekend,” said Jim Sayer, President of the Sierra Business Council (SBC). “Investing gives rural communities a tremendous array of tools to chart independent courses to economic and community success.”

Guide includes 44 case studies and hundreds of resources: Investing for Prosperity was developed over three years and recommends four integrated strategies to help rural communities build long-term wealth:

Capitalize on existing assets: Investing shows how rural communities can transform existing industries (such as cattle ranching and wood products) and natural and historic assets (such as traditional downtowns) into new economic engines. Case studies range from downtown expansion in Murphys (Calaveras County, CA) to niche marketing beef cattle in rural Arizona and wood products in northwest California.

Cultivate innovation and economic diversity: Investing urges rural communities to utilize the Internet and a new type of economic development — economic gardening – to cultivate a locally driven innovation economy. The book offers many examples of rural communities that have diversified away from dependence on one industry and built on local assets and entrepreneurs. Examples include successful regional development strategies in southeastern Ohio (ACEnet), central North Carolina (HandMade In America), and Humboldt County, CA.

Create long-term social capital: The Sierra and other rural areas can compete in the 21st century innovation economy if they create social capital – good housing, child care, medical care, education, the arts, and cultural amenities – to support the creative business people who build financial capital. Investing features more than a dozen case studies that describe local efforts to create social capital with modest resources, from the Northern Sierra Rural Telemedicine Network to Whistler, British Columbia’s affordable housing program.

Catalyze community partnerships: The “new West” is no longer a place where effective business gets done through duels or brawls, but rather through collaborative projects. Investing offers strategic advice on how to utilize collaborative tools and tracks cooperative efforts from habitat planning in the Sierra Nevada’s fastest growing jurisdiction (Placer County) to community development in Tupelo, Mississippi and the Blue Mountain region of Calaveras County, CA.

Altogether, Investing for Prosperity provides Sierra and other rural communities with 44 case studies and hundreds of contacts to help them tailor their own approach to long-term growth. According to the book’s author, Dr. Amy Horne, Ph.D., “there’s no other guide like Investing that captures the potential for rural prosperity in America.”

Critical time for the “Range of Light” The Sierra Nevada is one of America’s most celebrated mountain regions, thanks to its magnificent scenery, captured in the photography of Ansel Adams and the prose of John Muir. But the region is facing enormous pressures that could irreparably harm its world-class qualities.

The Sierra – stretching from Plumas to Kern counties — is California’s third fastest growing region (after the San Joaquin Valley and San Diego) and receives well over 100 million visitors a year. The Sierra is
experiencing enormous land use change, as foothill communities approve large lot “ranchette” developments and small towns struggle with limited planning and investment resources. Perhaps most important, the region’s economy is at a crossroads, with the closure of many timber mills (a traditionally high paying sector), the significant increase in low-wage service sector jobs, and a major influx of second home buyers and retirees.

Investing for Prosperity is designed to help rural communities turn these kinds of pressure to their advantage, rather than be overwhelmed by change. Already, a number of the book’s strategies are being used up and down the Sierra (the longest contiguous mountain range in the Lower 48), from collaborative programs with Sierra ski resorts to improve environmental performance, to economic redevelopment and ranch conservation in Sierra County.

How to order Investing for Prosperity: Investing is available through the Sierra Business Council by phone (530/582-4800) or on the Web (http://www.sbcouncil.org/publications) for $25 per copy. SBC members (at $200 and above) receive a free copy of Investing, as well as other publications. For information about membership, contact Debbie Cole (at x309).

About the Sierra Business Council: The Sierra Business Council is a non-profit business organization working to secure the social, natural and financial health of the Sierra Nevada region. Founded in 1994 and with more than 600 members, SBC has received national acclaim for providing responsive and innovative services to help the Sierra plan for prosperity. SBC has published two editions of the Sierra Nevada Wealth Index, which tracks 45 indicators of health in the Sierra, and Planning for Prosperity, a guide to rural land use planning that won the American Planning Association’s Robert Burnham Award. Both of these publications have stimulated progressive planning and wealth tracking efforts in other parts of the United States. In addition, SBC conducts many on-the-ground projects in community planning, natural resource protection and restoration, and business practices.

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Testimonials About Investing for Prosperity

Praise from business leaders, elected officials, development
experts, cattlemen and more about the Sierra Business Council’s new guide to 21st century innovations for rural economic and community development

Daniel Kemmis, Director, Center for the Rocky Mountain West

Too often, solutions to rural problems have been prescribed from Washington, DC or distant state capitols. It is encouraging to see a well-written guide to economic development that emphasizes new approaches being created by rural leaders at the local level. The wonderful stories in Investing for Prosperity renew my hope for the rural reaches of the American West.

Phil Angelides, California State Treasurer

California’s economic future will be determined not only by our State’s financial health, but also the health of our environment and our communities. Investing for Prosperity is an excellent resource that offers the Golden State’s rural communities valuable insight into how to invest for sustainable, long-term economic progress.

MC Hubbard, Vice President and Branch Manager (Bishop), Union Bank of California

Working in the community, I’ve come to realize that true prosperity comes from a careful blend of social, economic and natural capital. You can’t have one without the others. Investing for Prosperity is the first economic development guide I’ve seen that drives home that important lesson.

Kevin Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, Yosemite Concession Services

One thing YCS has learned through a lot of hard work is that businesses can be profitable while doing right by the environment and local communities. That’s also the philosophy of Investing for Prosperity, an informative guide to planning for the future of the Sierra, with an eye toward quality of life, steady growth and shared responsibility.

Byng Hunt, Mono County Supervisor

Someone had to put together a "big picture” guide to understand and achieve rural economic development. Now it’s done. We all need the vision, tools, and insight that Investing for Prosperity brings to improving our quality of life in this beautiful part of California. It will be my personal planning manual as we move through the exciting and very challenging years ahead of us in the Sierra.

Jennifer Allen, Sustainable Business Liaison, State of Oregon

Investing for Prosperity shows in practical ways how you can make your community wealthier, healthier, and more resilient. I have never seen so many good ideas about how to spur strategic economic development, assembled in such a reader-friendly document. This is an excellent guide that I’m sure will benefit rural communities in the Sierra, in my home region of the Pacific Northwest, and across the country.

Robert Weygandt, Placer County Supervisor

With Investing for Prosperity, the Sierra Business Council once again provides business leaders with practical solutions to grow the economy and protect the environment of one of California’s fastest growing regions.

Darrel Sweet, President, California Cattlemens Association

As someone who knows how challenging it is to run cattle in a state with 35 million people, I think it’s time we look at creative solutions that help the economy and the environment. Investing for Prosperity does that with its balanced look at Sierra ranching and other rural industries. I highly recommend it.

Kay Reynolds, Vice President, California Association for Local Economic Development

Investing for Prosperity provides an exceptional framework for local professionals, community leaders, and rural citizens to cooperate in making their economies stronger without sacrificing the wonderful assets that surround them. The many quality case studies bring real life applications and provide a "sense of the possible." It is a job well done.

Robert Donnan, Senior Associate, The Aspen Institute

Building long-term community wealth just became a whole lot more accessible to enterprising rural communities in the Sierra Nevada, thanks to the Sierra Business Council’s inspirational new report, Investing for Prosperity. This plain-spoken, well-organized call-to-action distills the best ideas from a wide range of cutting-edge community initiatives. Sierrans have long enjoyed a reputation as hardy pioneers and inventive entrepreneurs. Investing for Prosperity makes the case that they are ready to boost their region’s ranking as one of the best places in the nation to raise a family and grow a business.

Elizabeth Jones, Executive Vice President, Tuolumne Economic Development Company

Investing for Prosperity confirms exactly what our Economic Development Company has been building upon for the last several years. We must strengthen the Sierra’s “community infrastructure” to be competitive.