{"id":868,"date":"2014-02-24T18:06:48","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T01:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/?p=868"},"modified":"2014-03-11T10:18:40","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T17:18:40","slug":"communities-natural-resources-interact-example-vernonia-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/treetopics\/2014\/02\/24\/communities-natural-resources-interact-example-vernonia-oregon\/","title":{"rendered":"How communities and natural resources interact – an example from Vernonia, Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Amy Grotta, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension – Columbia, Washington & Yamhill Counties<\/em><\/p>\n

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Source: Vernonia School District<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Typically, northwest Oregon forests are considered in terms of their high productivity, their ecological characteristics, or their contribution to the state\u2019s economy. But how do our forests shape the rural communities they surround? And how do these communities influence the forests?<\/p>\n

These questions have been on my mind over the past couple years, as I\u2019ve been working with community members in Vernonia on a study of “community vitality”*. Ninety-five percent of the land surrounding Vernonia is forest, and most is privately owned. So, it would seem natural that forests and forestry are important to the local economy and culture. We wanted to dig deeper into these assumptions, so we examined existing data plus information from surveys that we conducted last summer. <\/p>\n

Regarding forestry\u2019s contribution to the local economy, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 5% of Vernonia\u2019s workers are directly employed in \u201cFarming, Fishing & Forestry.\u201d While higher than the state average (2%), it reflects a decline from the 1980\u2019s; and certainly from the 1950\u2019s, when the Oregon-American Mill<\/a> was still operating in town. Nowadays, many of Vernonia\u2019s workers commute to Washington County.<\/p>\n

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Learning about log markets on family forest land near Vernonia<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

On the other hand, 27% of Vernonia area residents obtain at least some<\/i> of their household income from natural resources-related activities or services, according to our survey. If only a small fraction of people are directly employed in these sectors, what makes up the difference? I have a few hypotheses:<\/p>\n