Report from the Director

At the recent Currents of Change workshop, held to discuss the implications of the information presented in the Narragansett Bay Environmental Status and Trends report developed by the NBEP, guest speaker John Howell traveled from Seattle, WA, to tell the workshop participants about the experiences and lessons involved in creating the Cascade Agenda. The Cascade Agenda, or CA, is a landscape-scaled effort that, through an extensive inclusive process, developed a well-defined set of goals and objectives that were tied to a long-term vision for the multiple-watershed area. It describes a future of conserved landscapes and vibrant towns and lays out a series of pragmatic, marketplace strategies for the region to consider in order to achieve that vision. Government officials, business interests, NGOs and citizens joined in to build this agenda which was initiated by the Cascade Land Conservancy. The CA identified what people considered most important to protect and enhance in the Cascade region, including forest and natural resource industries, reduction of impervious surfaces and urban sprawl, transportation systems that support the CA goals, recreational opportunities for all, and sustainable, livable communities.

What started 20 years ago with only a few dedicated advocates and a very small budget has grown into a 50-person effort supported by state, municipal, foundation and business interests funding. John Howell, former government official, currently a consultant and one of the Cascade Agenda's founding board members, described the process by which thousands of local and regional voices from all interests were heard and used to create the long-term vision and the goals that support that vision. The effort has attracted significant support and participation due to both the way the CA conducts its business and the vision it seeks to make a reality. In marketing its messages, the CA spent extra care in the language it used to build public support and invested in visualizations of the lands that conveyed a powerful message - given current land use practices and zoning, they were in clear danger of losing the things that people found most important to their work, their lives, their forests and their futures.

NBEP invited John in the hopes that his story of a successful regional approach would provide lessons that we could all draw on to better manage the Narragansett Bay ecosystem - that the CA experience would resonate with the Currents of Change audience. By all accounts, John's expert and engaging telling of the CA story did just that and the lessons of that effort were reflected in the action recommendations that were part of the workshop's results. The NBEP will continue to seek out and bring to the discussion ecosystem management experiences that that can be valuable to our collective efforts to protect and restore Narragansett Bay and its watershed. For information on the Cascade Agenda, see http://www.cascadeagenda.com.

~Richard Ribb

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