Small towns working together to stay strong

After more than two decades of a devastated timber industry in our state, and with today’s struggling economy, it’s no wonder that our rural communities are hurting — a 1997 study found that Washington ranked 48th in a measure of urban to rural income.

Fortunately, a vast array of options are now being explored statewide to improve the quality of life in increasingly impoverished timber communities while allowing them to maintain their autonomy and independent character.

And now, former logging towns in Snohomish County have jumped on the bandwagon.

In the last six months, development agencies in and around Snohomish County have been working hard to give our local small towns healthy economies — and independence from the commercial Goliath that is Seattle. This has been possible with some help from the big city itself. Together with Snohomish County’s Planning Department and Economic Development Council (EDC), Seattle’s Central Puget Sound Economic Development District helped create the Evergreen Crescent Initiative in March. This alliance between Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Snohomish, Monroe, Sultan, and Gold Bar will allow the six small towns to better compete with big cities for development funds.

More recently, the EDC has added a new liaison to coordinate the development efforts between the old logging towns of Darrington, Granite Falls, and Sultan. The three towns will be able to cooperate with each other to receive development resources and will provide for each other’s commercial needs — without relying on the businesses of suburban areas along I-5.

A marketing plan that encourages local shopping and tourism, coupled with community development that provides vital services for the growing number of residents in these small towns, should enhance chances of business retention and recruitment, and will help produce much-needed family-wage jobs.

Through ecosystem restoration projects, improved ecoforestry, and Telework programs that will enable large companies in big cities to set up a remote workforce in rural areas, isolated communities across the state are looking to diversify their economies.

The fact that many logging towns in Washington are now facing extinction often escapes the attention of those of us living in the comparative affluence of Snohomish County’s 1-5 corridor. It is certainly encouraging to see that several small but valuable communities in our neck of the woods are exploring new and innovative ways to thrive.

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