NOVEMBER 2007: EDITOR’S LETTER
Something old, something new
One thing became clear to me while standing in a former
lumber mill on the outskirts of Burns a few weeks ago on a
cold, bright day, learning about a new business that had taken
up residence there.
Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it’s also
reinvention’s midwife.
Few counties in Oregon are struggling with the loss of an old
economy (in this case, timber) as much as Harney County, and
the zeolite plant is as good an example as any of a new
industry growing, literally, on top of an old one. The zeolite
plant, operated by ZeoCorp, is housed in the old Hines lumber
mill site. An unlikely phoenix, but a rebirth nonetheless. Out
of the ashes of timber a mineral business has risen, bringing
new jobs with it.
Few people I’ve met are as clear-eyed about the
challenges facing Harney County as Steve Grasty, the county
judge. As Grasty and I walked through the plant, he talked
about his frustration with a failed state data archive center
that could have brought a high-tech hub to the area, in
addition to the ongoing need to find an economic path out of
the timber decline. The county, which has one of the highest
unemployment rates in the state, recently lost dozens of jobs
when the Louisiana-
Pacific mill in Hines closed. As Grasty earlier told me,
“Our future is somewhere between doing nothing, and doing
what we used to do.” But what will that be?
Maybe the answer is in something like zeolite, a volcanic ash
found in large quantities in Hines that’s used in
products from livestock feed to cat litter. Maybe it’s in
going organic, like Harney County rancher Louie Molt with his
alfalfa and natural beef operation. Maybe it is in something
yet to be created or even imagined. As we witnessed in our
travels around Oregon in September on the Business is Good
tour, the same questions exist in rural towns, coastal
communities and inland cities.
In this issue, we drew upon what we found on the road and in
other travels to gauge where the state’s economy is
headed. Three themes emerged in places large and small: New
economies are taking root where others have faded; many main
streets are under construction and thriving; and the green
dream is getting stronger as businesses and governments give
sustainable practices more than just lip service.
But there still are many communities and businesses in every
corner that are not thriving, where there are just as many
challenges that have yet to meet a solution as success stories.
So our coverage of the innovation that will help drive the
state’s transformation won’t end here because these
themes are only part of the story, and Oregon is still in the
middle of its metamorphosis.
And it will be the smart, dedicated people who live and work
in every one of those corners who will, along with necessity,
be the midwives for Oregon’s future.
