BETHEL – A vision of the Androscoggin Valley watershed as a place for recreational and timber businesses was shared at Wednesday’s conference for Maine and New Hampshire interests.
John Scarinza suggested that now might be the time for towns and counties to buy up forests to retain access and traditional land-use rights, rather than leave them for developers and private investors to exploit.
Scarinza, speaking for himself rather than fellow members on the Coos County and Randolph, N.H., planning boards, also downplayed the idea of buying and preserving land so communities could pursue recreation tourism markets.
Instead, he said, communities should marry the forest products industry with recreational-use businesses to grow economies along the 170-mile-long river’s watershed.
“You just can’t buy and protect anymore,” Scarinza said, during the day’s last panel discussion in The Bethel Inn’s Conference Center. The conference was hosted by the Androscoggin Valley Watershed Council and the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments.
“Regarding the recreation industry that some people think will be the savior of the Northern Forest, it’s not going to drive the economy. The reality is that the forest timber resource is our greatest asset, and we need to figure out a way to use that,” he said.
“To maintain the integrity of the Northern Forest, I don’t think you can have recreation without the forest products industry,” he added.
Methods, Scarinza said, would be to encourage expansion and the continuation of the forest products industry by providing business incentives and tax credits.
“Give the people who want to work the opportunity to start small businesses for the wood of the Northern Forest. One good market is alternative energy sources, like making ethanol from wood chips. Business owners need to be engaged to make this work, because they have the financial resources,” he said.
Others, like Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, believe growing the tourism industry will grow economies.
“Ecotourism is a growing market. It makes us a more attractive destination,” she said.
“But tourism research for Maine still indicates that the two top reasons for general tourists to come to Maine are to tour and scenic drives – the passive tourists not the active tourists,” Zinchuk said.
Passive tourists don’t leave their cars to climb mountains, fish with waders on, or get into kayaks.
“We’ve been very good at promoting the active tourist market, but you have to realize, that’s a limiting market. We don’t want to button-hole ourselves as just an active tourist destination,” she said.
Others, like Lincoln Robertson, owner of North Woods Rafting in Milan, N.H., disagreed, saying towns and business owners should pursue the active tourism market.
“I have a vision of Berlin (N.H.) and the Androscoggin River Valley as being a Mecca for people with a passion for doing things,” Robertson said.
The river, he said, “is the lifeblood” for the region between Errol and Shelburne, N.H. That’s why he said water quality is a huge issue for his business.
“Now that the (Berlin) mill is closed, there is a lot of rock climbing in the area, and a real potential for a whitewater park in Gorham. I think the future of the Upper Androscoggin reality is based on the river. To 18- and 22-year-olds, that river is something that is very real to them,” Robertson added.
Sharon A. Penney, executive director of the Northern White Mountain Chamber of Commerce, echoed Scarinza’s comments.
“I don’t think recreation is the panacea for all ills,” she said.
“But, I think the recreation tourism focus will get a lot of spin-off businesses, which, hopefully, will give people a livable wage,” she added.
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