Finding Balance Forum a success!

Thank you to everyone for helping to make the event a success – your participation in the Forum and the engaging conversations was what made it all worthwhile! A special thanks to those who travelled to our community – we had good representation from places throughout the East Kootenay and beyond. It was great to see people from many different sectors, including municipal and regional governments, agriculture, the building industry, small business, conservation, education, tourism, NGOs and others. Here is what Kootenay Business Magazine had to say: http://www.kootenaybiz.com/general/article/wildsights_public_forum_was_successful Thank you to our primary sponsors: Columbia Basin Trust, Regional District of East Kootenay and District of Invermere. We invite you to download the Forum guest speaker presentations: John Thompson, AMEC Environment and Infrastructure (Statistical Overview of the East Kootenay Economy; and Economic Impacts of Conservation & Protected Areas) Dr. Richard Kool, Royal Roads University: (The Economics of Buying Locally) Amy Robinson, LoCo BC: (Engaging Small Business in Sustainability Through Local Business Networks) Mark Anielski: (Measuring What Matters: Accounting for the Genuine State of Natural Wealth) For more on Mark’s keynote presentation on the Economics of Happiness, go to www.anielski.com Also, for your use here are some links to related information on topics that were raised at the Forum: Amenity Migration Economic Change in the American West: Solutions to the Downside of Amenity Migration, Ray Rasker of Headwaters Economics http://headwaterseconomics.org/pubs/protected-lands/Rasker_2008_Managing_Amenity_Migration.pdf www.headwaterseconomics.org Economic Benefits of Protected Areas Canadian Parks Council http://www.parks-parcs.ca/english/cpc/economic.php Business Networks Business Alliance for Local Living Economies http://www.livingeconomies.org/ LoCo BC http://locobc.com/ Thank you! Juri Peepre Chair, Wildsight Regional Council