Update: Watchable Wildlife Workshop

Greater Prairie Chickens, photo by Aaron Price

Back in February, we posted some information about an upcoming wildlife watching workshop we were working on with our economic development partners.  Good news!  It’s ready to roll.  We did move the date back a bit, and you can read the first of many, press releases below.  Enjoy!

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:     Sharon Hueftle
South Central Economic Development District, Inc.
PO Box 79; 502 East Avenue (2nd floor)
Holdrege, NE  68949
308-995-3190, www.scedd.us

Nature and Wildlife Tourism Workshops

Holdrege, NE – Jim Mallman of Watchable Wildlife Inc. will be hosting several workshops to share insights into how individuals and businesses can build sustainable nature/wildlife tourism programs.  The first workshop will be held in Red Cloud on May 18 followed by workshops in Ord on May 19 and Ogallala on May 20. Watchable Wildlife Inc. is a nonprofit working with federal, state and local wildlife and tourism professionals to help communities and wildlife prosper.

Figures generated by public agencies, private institutions and news sources are showing substantial growth in “non-game” wildlife related to recreation. Simply put, people with money want to watch birds and animals in their natural habitat. The economic influence of this area of recreation has been conservatively estimated at $46 billion in the U.S. economy alone. After all these years, what is the explanation for this explosion in wildlife viewing?

The real story seems to be hidden in an interesting shift in our culture. Understanding these reasons and defining ways to predict future growth can generate substantial benefits to rural communities with abundant access to nature.

“This is designed for businesses and individuals that have an interest in beginning or may already be involved in the area of tourism or are considering expanding into this lucrative area,” says Sharon Hueftle of the South Central Economic Development District. “Nature based tourism can be a wonderful addition to a bed and breakfast, motel, hunting enterprise or restaurant. Landowners can derive additional income without additional inputs by granting access to wildlife enthusiasts. We’re also looking for people who have knowledge about the natural environment of Nebraska who are interested in sharing that knowledge with visitors.”

Watchable Wildlife Inc. is an organization dedicated to helping communities harness and conserve this great natural resource. Come learn more about the key factors responsible for fueling the tremendous growth of this industry.

The workshops will begin at 8:30am and will run until 4:00pm with lunch and refreshments included. The registration fee is $25 before May 11^th (after this date the fee increases to $40).  For registration forms, please visit the Nebraska Development Network Central Region website at www.ndncr.com or if you have any questions, please contact Sharon or Jodi at (308) 995-3190.

Tourism meeting tonight

Tonight at 5:30p the Valley County Tourism Advisory Committee is meeting for our bi-monthly meeting.  Meeting details can be downloaded here.

One of three meetings tonight.  It’s going to be a fun evening!

2010 Action Plan

We’ve finalized our 2010 Action Plan, for your perusal here.  Let us know what you think – 2010 looks to be a fun year!

Photograph Nebraska

I’m heading to the big city today, and tomorrow I’ll be in Hastings for Photograph Nebraska, a symposium on photography in the Good Life.  The events look pretty stellar, and the headlining speakers are Nebraska’s very own Joel Sartore (of National Geographic fame) and Michael Forsberg.

Unfortunately, registration is now closed.   I hope to network and meet a few people who share a common interest with me:  using photography as our canvas to showcase the beauty of our great state.

We’ve dabbled a bit in this realm last summer, and will start to really push efforts this coming spring to bring in more great photos of the area.  As you recall from our 2009 summer marketing campaign, we’ve really tried to pull together a gallery of photos that represents what Ord and the surrounding communities have to offer, with a little help from many of you.  Have a look and let us know what you think.

Until then, we’ll see you Monday.

Watchable Wildlife Workshop

Hummingbird, photo by Jeff Boilesen

We just received confirmation about an upcoming watchable wildlife workshop in Ord this coming May.  We’ll be hosting the workshop May 6th (updated, May 19th) at the Ord Learning Center (1514 K Street – we’d have a link to Google Maps, but the directions are wrong at the moment).  A description and an rough agenda for the workshop can be downloaded here.

The workshop will cover the essentials of the business behind wildlife watching, including site assessments and successful business models.  We’re looking forward to hosting folks from around the area.  See you in May!

UPDATE: The first news release can be found here.

Greener Byways of Nebraska

This group looks interesting.  They’re promoting environmental business awareness as part of  the Nebraska Scenic Byways program.

They make some good points about the value green initiatives bring to the table in building better business models. It also makes sense because the people driving the back-roads are seeking natural wonder and species diversity.  To get away, as they say.

I’d like to see these guys in action and some projects they’ve been working on.  You can download a few goodies here that help your business toward a greener path.  There is definitely a market niche for these folks and I haven’t seen too many businesses venture into this arena yet.  I bet someone will sooner than later!

Tourism in the Loup Valley

The Tourism Advisory Committee is holding their bi-monthly meeting tonight at the Valley County Visitor’s Bureau (5:30p).  Meeting particulars can be downloaded here.

One specific item I’m really excited to talk about is our emerging tourism coalition with Central Nebraska Adventures.  Give them a look here.  We’ll be enhancing our local tourism promotions effort in collaboration with the group and hopefully we can measure the impact of those efforts directly (ie, increased lodging tax receipts, sales tax receipts, etc.).  The Central Nebraska folks are also responsible for the fantastic Sandhill crane website that came on-line in early 2009 (we blogged about it here).  To date, that website has helped drived a *ton* of traffic to our own.

Some of you may be wondering why we spend so much time on these efforts for little ‘ole Ord.  Simply put, tourism coalitions work.  Remember, NPR came to Ord because of a blog post about winetasting in Central Nebraska.  I’m stoked to see where this one goes.  We’ve had a tremendous amount of success with our ESCAPE coalition, and we’ll continue those efforts into the future.  It’s very possible that when we finish the new http://www.ordnebraska.com website, we’ll be tackling a new website for our tourism efforts as well.

Stay tuned!

Beauty in the Valley

One thing I’ve neglected lately on the blog is our efforts in tourism promotion, and general reflection on the beauty of the area.  As I tell the folks out here, it’s one of the major reasons why my family and I live out here, and why 15 minutes on the road is free therapy.

One particular promotional effort supported by the Nebraska Byways, Naturally Nebraska, had me thinking about ways we could integrate the work created by VisitNebraska.gov and the Nebraksa Byways with our new Ord, Nebraska website.  If you like road trips, winery excursions (we have 3 in the area), Nebraska wildlife, the Sandhills and the epic migration just beginning in Nebraska at the moment, look for all that as part of the launch this month.  We’ll be pulling a lot of the material created through our own summer marketing campaign into the effort as well.

If you’re interested in looking at the Naturally Nebraska publication, give us a shout.  We have plenty of copies.

Monthly report now available

You can check out our monthly report here.  Major highlights include the Ord Learning Center, WinterFest, the East 2 West Competition and more!

The Brain Drain

Newsweek has great coverage of a new book out, Hollowing Out the Middle, which takes an in-depth look at the implications of brain drain and how rural communities can address the challenge of losing their best and brightest.

Many of you know me by now – I’m not a native of the area, my wife and I have been here a year now and we love it.  LOVE IT.  We also believe this community is and will continue to be a leader in rural opportunities because of one simple phenomenon:  positive change.  We’ve written about the impact of positive change here, here and here.  The infectious attitude is prevalent wherever you look.  We are lucky to be in a community that continues to invest in itself:  civic, community and economic.  This impact has created a community that is primed to tackle brain drain head-on.

The lessons to be learned from Hollowing?  There are many, and in Valley County we’ve nailed them all and in many respects are ahead of the curve with respect  job creation, educational engagement and long-term investment.

I’ll leave you with this from the article.  As a community, we’ve been able to deliver on several mechanisms that provide a pathway to deal with the hallowing effect.  Have a look at how far ahead we really are:

But there are people maybe with young families or who tried urban living and wanted to opt out and try something else, who could be lured to the region—maybe not every 22-year-old, but maybe a 32-year-old who would think, “This is great. I can raise my kids, I can buy a gigantic house. And as long as I have the digital infrastructure, I can telecommute. I can have a very good quality of life.” I think the lifestyle rural communities have to offer is really more compatible for young families. There are also ways to lure back professionals through more aggressive tuition breaks for medical students [in exchange for a commitment to return to the community after graduation], which I think is going to become more appealing as students take on more and more debt. And finally, the other thing we want to talk about is pushing the development of our community-college students, creating that infrastructure to match up economic demands for the regional economy with the young people who are most likely to stay.