CONTACT:
Shelly Angers, Northern Forest Center, 603-229-0679 ext 109; email:

On April 19-21, a new celebration of the Northern Forest will take place in Morrisville.

Northern Forest Days is a series of community events being held in towns across the Northern Forest region of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Each local celebration is coordinated jointly by the Northern Forest Center and community partners to ensure that it reflects local needs, interests and opportunities.

In Morrisville, partners include the Lamoille County Planning Commission (LCPC), Manosh Hardwoods, the Northern Forest Alliance and the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire.

“From conversations about our economy to traditional entertainment to the amazing Ways of the Woods exhibit, Northern Forest Days are sure to get us all engaged in thinking about both our rich past and our promising future,” said Michele Boomhower, executive director of the LCPC. “We are thrilled to be involved in such a dynamic, important celebration.”

Thursday evening will be a major celebration of where the region has been and a discussion of where it’s going. The Center’s Ways of the Woods mobile museum will set up at the Hannaford’s parking lot and will be open to the public for visits from 6:00-6:45p.m. From 6-8:30 p.m. there will be an appetizer reception at Hilary’s Restaurant. Programming begins with Mike Wilson, senior program director at the Northern Forest Center, giving the presentation “A Hopeful Future for the Northern Forest.” This will be followed by a presentation from the Northern Forest Alliance and a detailed discussion of the region’s economic future, which is currently being examined by the Center through its Sustainable Economy Initiative. The evening’s programming ends at 8:30.

On Thursday and Friday, school visits to Ways of the Woods will be coordinated with tours of Manosh Hardwoods’ milling operation, giving local students the opportunity to learn how locally harvested timber becomes lumber.

Ways of the Woods will again be open to the general public at Hannaford’s on Saturday, April 21 from 11am-3pm. Demonstrations of traditional arts will take place at this time.

Ways of the Woods, the Center’s mobile museum about the changing relationships between people and the land, elicits powerful, emotional responses from attendees as they explore both the history of the region and their personal connections to it. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, this traveling exhibition combines interactive displays, interviews with people who live, work and play in the Northern Forest, and artifacts that illustrate the region’s history in action.

“Last year’s Ways of the Woods tour confirmed that people have deep connections to the Northern Forest,” said Wilson. “Northern Forest Days creates new opportunities to bring people together to share their hopes for the region’s future.”

The Northern Forest’s past is a vibrant one, and despite the economic challenges of the recent decades, the future can be, too.

“A Hopeful Future for the Northern Forest,” a 30-minute multi-media presentation that highlights dynamic and innovative business and community initiatives from across the four Northern Forest states, illustrates that the region does indeed have a bright future—economically, culturally and environmentally.  This presentation also details the work of the Northern Forest Center and local partner organizations, and outlines opportunities for people to help ensure the future is indeed a bright one.

The Northern Forest Center’s Sustainable Economy Initiative (SEI)—operated in partnership with the North Country Council (NH) and funded by the federal Economic Development Administration and private contributions—is developing a strategic blueprint for sustainable economic development in the four-state Northern Forest region that is based on balanced investment in business, community and environment.

During each Northern Forest Days celebration, Northern Forest Center staff and local members of the SEI steering committee will organize a forum to collect information from community members about the challenges and opportunities they see ahead regarding the region’s economic future. This forum takes place at the conclusion of Thursday evening’s programming at Hilary’s Restaurant.

“We’re very excited to work with communities across the Northern Forest to hear their perspectives on the challenges they face and the opportunities they see for the future,” said Joe Short, SEI program director. “This input—which will come from people across the Northern Forest representing a variety of perspectives on community and economic issues—will impact SEI’s work to create a long-term strategy for the region’s economic future.”

Other Northern Forest Days celebrations have already taken place in Gorham/Berlin, NH and Colebrook, NH. Others are currently scheduled for: 
May 17-20: Old Forge, NY
May 24-26: Watertown, NY
May 31-June 2: Farmington, ME
June 7-9: Greenville, ME
June 13-16: Ft. Kent, ME

Specific details about Northern Forest Days events will be available from partner organizations, in the calendar sections of local newspapers and at www.aannh.org. Northern Forest Days schedule updates are available at www.northernforest.org.           

The Northern Forest Center, a nonprofit organization, mobilizes people to build healthy communities, economies and ecosystems by working together across the Northern Forest region. Learn more about the Northern Forest and the Northern Forest Center at www.northernforest.org.

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NOTE TO MEDIA: Photos of the Northern Forest Center’s Ways of the Woods exhibit are available for publication. Please contact Shelly Angers, Marketing/PR Coordinator, at 603-229-0679, ext. 109,