Sustained forests; sustained profits

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Just imagining ...

A Tale of Rural System as if Implemented from within a State Park

"It's too complicated to wrap your mind around it. Just tell a little story!"... so I tried.

Rolf drove down the Parkway to the Park. He wasn't sure what he would find there but he had heard that he might get some ideas for what do do about his land. He was afraid of downsizing, he had children, and questions about what to do with his old dad's 112 acres of pasture and woodland were gnawing away at his soul. Besides, taxes were due on it soon.

He walked through the historical section and saw Rural System sign pointers. The custom-made signs changed from rustic to formal as he walked down the trail. Symbols were beside the trail on steel engraved markers (he found out later that these were to show where members of the Rollers, a trail building group from the juvenile courts had worked with pride). He walked through an arboretum and under a wooden laminated arch into an area where it was claimed that more modern forestry could be learned in a shorter time than any place in the world. There were county-fair like exhibits, all self-teaching that included old forestry tools of the trade, nursery practice, the living tree, wood products, a cord of wood, lumber, bales of energy wood, oil equivalents of firewood stacks, mine props, pulp sticks, pulp chips, paper products. In one area there was a pacing lane, another demonstrated the basal area prism, another the Biltmore stick along with modern electronic calipers. Another area provided a quiz "game" in tree height estimation, then an answer from an instrument. At each site there were sale brochures for the items displayed. A large commission from all sales was received by the Park for its operation and development. Two large rough-wood-covered trailers stood in a L across a field near the river. The field was "torn up" but the signs clearly indicated that this was an area where massive work horses and modern machines pulled logs for demonstrations on certain announced days. They were not there today.

There were stops along the trail and at each a few more words were given about Rural System. He still wasn't sure what he was seeing. One stop suggested visiting the first-ever Avi course, an area where a new sport of bird watching was being developed. He got a brochure because he thought that his area might be right for developing such a golf-like course. Another stop overlooking an area sure to be rich in spring blooming flowers invited him to join the Park Poets who published their work in an e-chapbook. He took along a card for his daughter and wife ... no poetry for him! One kiosk showed custom routed signs and there a person took orders for them. Nearby, a person took orders for unusual wooden fences. These were made from woods from lands of the Rural System. The next kiosk provided the answer to: "What is Rural System?"

"Sir, it is a modern enterprise that tries to improve natural resources and land use and help land owners make money. It's center is here at the Park but it "rents " land from owners and puts their land under superior management. Such lands are the Forests. The Park benefits, the managers benefit, the owner benefits, and the region benefits.

"We call our work the Park Initiative and it is just one of many things that we do here but we are committed to sustained management of the Park and we believe that we have an alternative to tax-based management. Park users pay, as you found out, but also "we do it the old fashioned way; we work for it." Rural System is part of the Park. We work together for money for the Park and an improved region ... maybe even the world.

"We have a concept - sustained profits can only come from well-managed, sustained lands and waters. We use the best of research findings and put them together -- a little financial ecosystem -- that provides employment, sustains the Park, improves the land, uses results of tax-supported research, and links people to the Park as a vital part of their family future.

"I know that you, if like others, have more questions, but please go to the next box. You'll learn more. Of course you can come back later if you want to. All of this is described in www.RuralSystem.com.", and she handed him a card with the website name and email source.

In the next "box" a local woman advised joining The Fishery, a collection of pond owners in the region (about 50 of them had signed on). Staff of this enterprise group managed ponds, held angling tournaments, rented angling opportunities, sold equipment and boats, sold fresh-water native fish aquaria (one bubbled in the background) and delivered a 3-dimensional picture of each pond with an ecological and chemical analysis.

"Ponds are a part of the system?" he asked.

"Rural System is a complex enterprise like a big corporation with many divisions. It is grounded, like a good stock buyer, in a diverse portfolio. In the forests and fields, everything is linked, and so we gain from these linkages. We do more than study and talk about ecology, we use it and work with its principles. We have 15 active enterprises now and designs for another 30. You have seen some today. The owner of small land unit does not have the time, knowledge, equipment, and marketing resources to make profits from his or her lands, even pay the taxes, and still retain the land (as most want to do) for beauty, recreation, and their friends and families. Working together within Lasting Forests is the way to do this."

The next stop showed work of the Wood Sculptors a group of whittlers and wood carvers who held an annual conference in Roanoke, conducted workshops at the Park, had a website, sold superior tools and magazines, arranged international tours and a carving school, and sold work by award-winning sculptors at the Park (with commission to the Park). Woods (basswood and walnut) exclusively from lands of participants were solar cured and sold. (Part of the message of Rural System: add value to products and services.) Forests of cooperating owners were computer planned, FSC certification gained, select woods removed, a productive future forest developed, products were processed locally, and then stored or sold for maximum profits.

Other stops in the county-fair booths in one long building were those of the enterprise units of Fences, Gardens, and the Nature Folks. The latter was the largest for it displayed opportunities within specialized-interest groups such as Owls, Coyotes (the wild canids such as foxes), and the "Seep-People" (for those who love field trips and learning about creepy places). They all held conferences and training within Roanoke. There were sales of the "super staff", a delicious hiker's cookie, an Alaskan sourdough start, beautiful T shirts, colorful flags, and paintings and photos of local artists. At the end, was information about wildlife enterprises (Deer Group, Wild Turkey Group, and Raccoon Group). Each provided management and financial opportunities for participating landowners. A poster announced Rangin' 'Round the Region, a new regional approach to outdoor recreation, primarily on Rural System. The emphasis in most groups -- how to gain annual income while waiting for select forests to grow to a size for maximum financial return if removed and re-forested.

Rolf got out of the way of a group, evidently foreigners, lead by a skinny guy who kept using words like "incubator", "launching site" , "ground zero", and "control center" as he tried with limited success to explain the Lasting Forest concept to the visitors. Rolf wished he had had a person along with him, like these guys did, to explain and help him decide for his land and his family situation.

Across the river was the Pasture Group of Rural System. He overheard someone commenting on cars near a building there suggesting that a class was in progress. There was being managed for display and education a beautiful purebred herd of Toggenberg dairy goats. Children loved to visit the young animals, but the herd was only one of many distributed about the region that developed superior pastures and range management using computer optimization, sold services, and developed cheese, meat, hide and other product units.

A grove of trees over there near the pasture was established as a memorial area. There, brass plates on a rock face honored the dead. Many came to the area to scatter the ashes of the deceased and to remember them there. (Similar groves were developed on other Forests.)

Inside the dark-colored L-shaped structure were walls covered with geographic information system photos and maps showing the Park, Roanoke region, and western Virginia. The ceiling was star covered in one area to emphasize the night work encouraged on the Park (aids, rented night-vision glasses, night hikes, owl calling, nightime-ecology, etc.).Computer maps of land ownerships could be purchased. The Realtor Group offered a service to realtors, providing more information on any tract of land in the region than ever before for buyer or seller. Services were offered to land managers in the region. 3-D maps were also available for purchase as people walked through and sought out where they or their friends lived and began to comprehend the complexity of the data systems available from the Conservation Management Institute (Va Tech) for superior land management and impact analyses.

In the next area computer systems produced dynamic "plans" from The Trevey, a developing planning system. There were seen (and sold) forest inventory systems, GPS units, and forestry and wildlife related computer products. Maps, computer games, as well as all of the field instruments and land inventory items just seen were put to use in this lab in the woods. The visitor was literally viewing human use of the area from the 5000-year post-glacial period of land use to the 50-year future of land management (that also included stand and tract preservation.)

Rolf saw that his land could become one of the Rural System, a marked, dedicated area like a little state forest or national forest under one management, marketing, accounting,insurance, survey, and security system. He thought to himself as he drove home, every land unit in the Roanoke Region needs such help and work. He would retain ownership and set limits and objectives, but he would have to turn his land over to superior, sophisticated modern management. He had no time; it seemed the only way to make any money, even stay even. Lands that he saw off to the sides of the Parkway, like me, he thought, are all are too small. Cost effectiveness cannot be gained by the individual land owner. Even the single natural resource consultant has difficulty stabilizing cash flow. Small improvements are never enough; cooperative work is needed. It is needed for the land owners, the land, the future owners, for businesses in Roanoke and the County, and for the region. "Lasting Forest is not a bad idea!" A Pennsylvania-license then a Georgia-license car turned into the Park from the Parkway." I wonder what they will think of the Rural System concept, whether from the farm or the region, only by sustaining the land, can you sustain profits from it?"

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision August 17, 2001.