Most people almost immediately want to combine what they see as the best features of a couple of the endstates. As part of the workshop series we explored different ways to look at how the endstates might fit together. Based on the rankings and discussion, the consensus was that endstate C (The Sustainable Life) was most desirable. But many elements of B (The Usable Park) were desirable as long as expansion of tourism was done in a way that did not degrade the Park’s natural resources. The core of endstate A (Wild Park) the State’s Forest Preserve remains the foundation. Endstate D (Adirondack County) represents renewed regionalism. Endstates E (Post Big-Gov) and F (Adirondack State Forest) we seen as negative outcomes.
None of this is going to happen overnight. This diagram depicts the evolution over time of the
major strands of change that make up this vision.
Today, our protected landscape is our prime asset and it will remain a major part of our vision throughout.
With investment by the for-profit, non-profit and governmental sectors, we will
sustainably expand and diversify the tourism portion of our economy.
At the same time, investment will be directed toward modernizing traditional sectors such as timber and
agriculture while growing new sectors in high-tech manufacturing and the online economy.
Of greatest impact in the end will be the investment in sustainable communities.
The heavy lift will be acting regionally and making government of the region more efficient and rational but
progress will be made.
Also important will be the decline of infighting and fragmentation that
has characterized the region for too long.
You can download a detailed vision statement based on this framework at:
http://adkfutures.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/adk-futures-vision.pdf