Deep Roots 2 — the Harrop-Procter Community Forest Story

Of the over 50 community forests in British Columbia, only one — in tiny Harrop-Procter, located on the rugged eastern shore of Kootenay Lake’s West Arm — has its own mill. With its emphasis on creating local employment and its commitment to ecosystem-based forestry, Harrop-Procter Community Forest stands as one of Canada’s most interesting —…

Read More

Deep Roots 1 — the Harrop-Procter Community Forest story

Harrop-Procter Community Forest, located on the rugged eastern shore of Kootenay Lake’s West Arm, is one of Canada’s most innovative — and intriguing — community forest operations. Harrop-Procter Community Forest’s 11,300 ha community forest tenure comprises 100-year-old mixed forests, domestic watersheds, and steep, sensitive terrain. The HPCF takes an ecosystem-based approach to management which is based…

Read More

Successful BC Farmers’ Market Farmers

Successful BC farmers markets rock!

In partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems, the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets has developed a resource guide to highlight successful farmers’ market farmers, and communicate their best business and operations management practices.   The objectives of the resource guide are to strengthen the marketing skills of farmers selling at farmers’ markets. identify…

Read More

Youth Exodus to Art Epicentre?

What kind of future should a struggling rural town choose? In the town of Green River, Utah, population 950, a nonprofit called Epicenter aims to use art and architecture to bring youthful new energy, life, and economic development to the community, as Jeffrey Brown reports in this PBS video.  

Read More

Young City Couple “Escape the City”!

Young rural couple "escape the city"!

Rochelle and Jean-Michel Longval are typical young urbanites. Or are they? Both are professionals. They have no children, an extremely cute dog named Geo, and a nice home in a leafy Calgary neighbourhood. Life for the Longvals would seem to be idyllic. There’s only one catch: they long to escape the city! With some help…

Read More

Highlands & Islands Enterprise — Prickly Thistle

Highlands & Islands

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is an ambitious Scottish organization with a unique mandate, one that successfully integrates economic and community development in rural northern Scotland. HIE, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year,  works in a diverse region which extends from Shetland to Argyll, and from the Outer Hebrides islands to Moray, covering more…

Read More

By Their Own Hands — St. Andrews, Nova Scotia

By their own hands — the people of St. Andrews take charge!

Building on the legacy of pioneering Scottish and, later, Dutch immigrants, St. Andrews, Nova Scotia, a rural agricultural community, has been able to muster active and enthusiastic volunteers for a series of ambitious community initiatives and has maintained a thriving community into the 21st century. This 22 minute video explores some of the reasons why…

Read More

Cormac Russell Explains Asset-Based Community Development

Cormac Russell on ABCD

Cormac Russell is Managing director of Nurture Development, one of eleven strategic partners of the ABCD Institute, and the lead partner in Europe. Russell and his Nurture Development colleagues have worked as ABCD social explorers, trainers, mentors, facilitators, researchers, and consultants with change partners and disruptive innovators around the world. These include communities, charities, NGOs/NPOs, faith-based organizations,…

Read More

Farmers Have a Future — Lindsey Shute

Farmers have a future

  Farmers have a future. At least according to Lindsey Lusher Shute, Executive Director and co-founder of the National Young Farmers’ Coalition, (NYFC) a membership-based organization dedicated to the success of the next generation of sustainable farmers in the United States. NYFC’s supporter network includes thousands of farmers and consumers from all fifty states, who…

Read More