APP solidifies workplan to help improve the forest economy of Aroostook County
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A Region 2 forestry student in Dyer Brook gets some real world experience with a modern piece of equipment.
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CARIBOU - The Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP) forestry working group has adopted a guiding document to lay the ground work for efforts to grow the forest products and manufacturing economy of northern Maine.
As part of the Mobilize Northern Maine strategic planning initiative, the forestry sector was identified as one of Aroostook County's largest strengths with a huge asset base. It then became a key focus area for APP, which formed a working group to identify strategies to grow the industry, concentrating on value added processing/manufacturing initially for Aroostook and ultimately statewide.
Meeting Wednesday, the group, which consists of governmental representatives, forestry experts, the banking sector and others, adopted a vision and guiding document to help prioritize its efforts going forward.
"Maine is in a very unique position to provide for a more vibrant forest economy with more manufactured products translating into more jobs and prosperity for the State," said working group member Don Tardie, former mill manager for Maine Woods Products.
The mission of the initiative is for Aroostook and Maine to develop a more vibrant, competitive and sustainable forest economy that will provide greater prosperity in the forest industry.
The guiding document calls for five strategic components: provide for workforce development to support the mission; create new value added processing and products utilizing available forest resources; encouraging Maine to provide a consistent policy and regulatory platform enabling growth of the forest economy; for Maine to develop an long range economic development platform that is competitive to other states and regions; and for the group to develop a comprehensive communications plan to support this effort.
Some of these components will fall on APP and the working group, while others will be met by engaging with other strategic partners throughout the State.
Initial stages of the effort will focus on establishing a workforce feeder system.
"We will place a priority on training," said Bob Dorsey, APP president. "We have a May break coming and need to focus our short term effort on spearheading some follow-on contractor training, similar to the Northern Maine Development Commission program that was so successful last spring for logging company owners and their bookkeepers."
The two-day workshop at the University of Maine at Fort Kent attracted more than 50 participants and may serve as the pilot to replicating the effort elsewhere in Maine.
Dorsey said efforts will also include helping startup mills find the necessary workers and enhancing the image of the forestry worker.
Working group member Dana Saucier, a forestry consultant, who also served on the Mobilize Northern Maine goals setting team, said to effect change requires a clear vision of where you want to end up.
"It is the focal point around which everything else revolves; telling your story, seeking and obtaining buy-in, measuring your progress, determining success (or failure), etc," he said. "A very simplistic way to think of this is to imagine change management as taking a trip -Where am I going. How will I get there, and when will I know I have arrived."
Other near term steps for the group will be to address specific regulatory barriers hindering the growth of the industry and identifying value added opportunities in the secondary and tertiary processing of timber.
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