Rural Case Study: Investing in the Keweenaw's Future

The Keweenaw, the western region of Michigan's Upper Peninsula region, bordering Lake Superior on the north and the state of Wisconsin on the south, is one of the last pristine natural environments in the Midwest. A strong sense of community pervades the region, led by the belief that the quality of the environment is synonymous with the quality of life. The region is unique in the sense that people from all walks of life and all income levels are on relatively equal social footing. Someone who doesn't have a great deal of money can still afford to live on 40 acres of land, though property values are rapidly changing. A working person from Detroit, living on a modest fixed income, can hope to retire here.

The amount of remaining natural assets in the region is surprising considering the fact that Keweenaw's economic history is perhaps one of the best examples of unsustainable development in the United States. Cycles of economic activity have been boom and bust, with resource depletion and profit exportation. The world's richest copper deposit was extensively mined to depletion, leaving towns full of unemployed workers and most of the profits with investors out of the region. One of America's finest hardwood forests was over harvested - an action which has greatly reduced the forest's timber productivity for years into the future. Many believe these days of resource depletion are past, but over harvesting of timber lands is still a common practice today.

Another threat to the Keweenaw, which arose in 1988, was the proposed lowering of the state water quality standards in order to attract the construction of a $1.2 billion bleached kraft pulp and paper mill on an untouched part of Lake Superior. Construction of this mill would have brought clear-cutting of the forests, dioxin, and landfill problems, among many others. This threat inspired a grassroots group of citizens concerned about the future of their region to unite and began to plan the steps they would need to take to travel down a different economic path in the future.

In the summer of 1989, FOLK, Friends of the Land of Keweenaw, was formed by this initial group of concerned citizens to provide an effective forum in which to voice concerns about the environmental soundness of regional plans for economic development. Though promoters of the pulp mill promised hundreds of new jobs in a region with 1013% unemployment, over 2,000 residents signed a petition opposing the mill. These people, firmly committed to conserving the many environmental resources in the Keweenaw, recognized that the much needed economic development in the area could not be incompatible with long-term environmental protection or it would destroy the very reason for living in the Keweenaw. Eventually the proposal was withdrawn, and even Michigan's Governor advocated joining together to oppose development of such polluting industries in the Lake Superior Basin.

In April, 1990, FOLK produced a report which emphasized the need for and ways in which the Keweenaw could progress towards sustainable development - expanding job opportunities and employment security in small-to-medium sized businesses, improving energy and resource efficiency, and maintaining ecosystem health. FOLK devised a three step process for sustainable development in the area: (I) Stop the needless outflows of money and talent, (2) support existing businesses and local control of business, and (3) encourage responsible enterprise and recruit appropriate new businesses. A number of serious realities contributed to the three-steps designed by FOLK. For example, a common complaint among residents in the Keweenaw was that the region's most promising young people got "exported" and that there was little match-up of skills and business needs.

Suggestions on how to address these goals ranged from in-depth strategies to more simple, immediately-impacting approaches. A "Keweenaw Reunion" business development program, run by local entrepreneurs who had previously left the area for better paying jobs or more development opportunities would encourage locals to return to the area and hire new local graduates to curb the "brain drain." Local businesses who had gone outside of the Keweenaw area for hiring could be surveyed to discover what skills were needed that were not available within the community. Subsequently, training programs to give locals the skills for working with area businesses could be devised.

Other strategies for achieving the first step (to stop the needless outflows of money and talent) were more direct, such as working for "buy local" programs by having local governments give preference to local firms when bidding on contracts, or, if local firms aren't adequately qualified by encouraging them to become viable suppliers. Arrangements such as this would not only cut freight costs, but would further encourage the entrepreneurial creativity that would improve the economic situation.

FOLK also recognized that economic problems have been traditionally tackled by looking for a "100% solution," whereas employing 50 "2% solutions" is an approach that stresses local, participatory, and bottom-up activity. A 1988 survey of new businesses in Michigan's Upper Peninsula demonstrated that the 2% approach has proven extremely successful in the region.

FOLK's release of its report spurned on many discussions among the community members. From these regional discussions it was decided that regional, rather than local, planning would better set the base for broad participation in sustainability initiatives. FOLK produced a proposal to establish a Regional Center for Sustainable Development, with the goal of developing and promoting a regional model for a sustainable relationship between human economic activity and the environment. The Center's goal was to create a definition and plan for regional sustainability in interaction with the community itself.

Thirty representatives of the environmental, business and academic communities in the Keweenaw met on July 13, 1993 to build consensus around the proposed plan. The discussion quickly broadened to include members of over seventy groups and organizations which included businesses, schools, environmental groups, labor organizations, Native American communities, public health officials, government organizations and the general public. These discussions were designed to create a free and interactive exchange of both technical information and values and emotions between "experts" in specific areas and the "general public." In this manner, everyone has a say in the topic being discussed; and the decisions that are made are truly representative of the people that they will affect and are not merely imposed on the many by a few "experts."

In the regional discussions, the group decided that population, consumption, and technology were essential to address in planning for sustainability. Group members created several project ideas that are now currently being developed, such as working with the Keweenaw National Historical Park in the area of responsible tourism, developing an inn-to-inn network of cross country ski trails, exploring the sustainable harvesting of wood and the development of value-added wood products, working to clean up a local area that is seriously polluted from copper mining in the past, and developing a regional crafts cooperative.

One of the biggest successes of FOLK is that sustainability is now firmly on the agenda of the people of the Keweenaw. People have become educated and active, and the ball has started rolling. Undoubtedly FOLK will continue to strive to make the Keweenaw a viable place to earn an income while enjoying the splendid natural beauty of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.