Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home has been named as one of four communities to participate in the Livability Initiative, an effort to help what are considered “gateway communities” to wildlife refuges, parks, forests and other “treasured” public lands.
The initiative will be a two-year project led by a partnership among the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and The Conservation Fund’s Conservation Leadership Network to strengthen the livability of communities that are neighbors to federally managed lands.
The City of Sweet Home, Sweet Home Economic Development Group and the Sweet Home Ranger District are working with The Conservation Fund to identify how natural assets in the area can be enhanced to complement community and economic development goals related to health, vitality, and overall well-being.
The Conservation Fund is an Arlington, Va., nonprofit organization that works with public, private and nonprofit partners to protect land and water resources through land acquisition, sustainable community and economic development and leadership training that emphasizes the integration of economic and environmental goals.
“The economic vitality of Sweet Home is linked to the area’s potential for tourism, industry and natural resource-based products and services, which nearby public lands provide,” said Cindy Glick, district ranger for the Sweet Home Ranger District. “Benefits from public land include recreation opportunities, habitat for fish and wildlife, forest products and much more.”
It’s something doable, and something Sweet Home can implement over the next two years, Glick said. “Hopefully, we’ll get the community to decide how livable it wants to be.”
A design team consisting of representatives from various agencies, businesses and organizations has come together to plan and prepare for a Livability Assessment, which is scheduled to begin in October.
The yearlong assessment will evaluate the key livability factors, including quality of transportation options, accessibility of affordable housing, attractiveness of employment and business opportunities, and the strength of community character in Sweet Home and surrounding communities.
The assessment is designed to give residents a chance to share their perspective about what already makes Sweet Home a great place, and what can make it better, said Craig Martin, Sweet Home city manager.
“Incorporating the perspectives of residents in Sweet Home and surrounding communities in the assessment is key to the success of this initiative,” Martin said. “There are many opportunities to make Sweet Home a better place to live, work and visit; and this initiative will help us identify where to focus our collaborative efforts.
“It is an opportunity for us to review the components that are important for livability in our community.”
As a gateway community, with increasing numbers of visitors and tourism, this process can help protect Sweet Home’s livability, for example, by finding ways to keep housing affordable, Martin said. The same reasons people say they like to live here are the same things that will draw visitors.
“We want to make sure the community doesn’t get overloaded by the visitors we attract,” Martin said.
The Conservation Fund will develop a livability report that outlines the key recommendations. A subsequent workshop will generate step-by-step plans for its implementation in the second year.
“The City of Sweet Home was an ideal candidate for the Federal Lands Livability Initiative because of the strong relationships that exist with public lands nearby,” said Kris Hoellen, vice president of sustainable programs and director of The Conservation Fund’s Conservation Leadership Network. “It’s our goal to help communities foster valuable partnerships, reinforce development plans that balance environmental and economic goals, and provide technical assistance to enable places like Sweet Home to become even more vibrant and thriving communities.”
The Livability Initiative works hand-in-hand with partnerships and efforts already underway, including the Community Forest, the development of the old Knife River quarry by the county and Jamboree and others.
They’re all linked together, Glick said.
“In my mind it’s all complementary to those efforts,” Martin said. While looking at new commerce and opportunities to increase recreation and use natural resources out the back door, the community will be able to protect its livability.
“It’s another opportunity to leverage some extra resources to help us move forward,” Martin said, and it may lead Sweet Home to be more competitive with grants or developing private support.
Actual projects are already underway among the various projects, which are connected as part of the All-Lands Collaborative, which consists of local government, non-government organizations like the South Santiam Watershed Council and private firms like Cascade Timber Consulting, Glick said. On the Cool Soda project, a plan under development for land managed by the U.S. Forest Forest Service and CTC, the partnership is already implementing fish habitat upgrades and replacing culverts. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has given money to CTC to develop wildlife corridors for elk and deer, planting forage to keep them away from young trees.
“I’m just grateful to be here in this community, where people know how to work together,” Glick said. “We really want to make this effort work, and I don’t see how it won’t with all of these players.”