CARIBOU — Work continues to grow the woods economy of northern Maine through the Northern Forest Products Industry Cluster, facilitated by the Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP).
Cluster members met for the third time April 2 at the Caribou Inn and Convention Center, moving a step closer to implementing an action plan to develop strategies to nurture the area’s forest products business. The group formed subcommittees to develop strategies in six areas: workforce development/education, transportation, energy, access to capital/insurance, state bureaucratic barriers and long-term economic plan for Maine.
“I’m very pleased with the participation, engagement and frank dialogue within this group,” said APP President Bob Dorsey, “and I think the networking, sharing of information and increased collaboration among the members will really pay off for the growth of this entire sector.”
The cluster was formed with the goals of increasing value-added processing, both current and potential, as well as creating jobs and grow the forest economy of Aroostook County and Maine.
The group, which represents industry officials, loggers, educators, economic development officials, bankers and others, met for the first time in January to discuss opportunities and challenges. The second meeting in February was to solidify the inputs, set up a timeline and to set and refine the priority focus areas.
The cluster was organized by APP and is supported by Northern Maine Development Commission through grants from the Maine Technology Institute and USDA Rural Development, and will meet again in April or May to hear from the subcommittees on suggested actions and strategies, from which a formal action plan will be developed.
“I can see progress already,” said Dorsey. “There are a number of positive bills being considered that address some of this group’s key concerns. We’re conducting the third year of logger business augmentation training and we are seeing the governor and the speaker more engaged and making more references to the forest industry.”
The forest products industry represents more than 6,750 jobs in Aroostook County and is the major economic engine of the region. Key to growing this sector will be the development of additional training programs, and there are a number of approaches being considered.
In addition, this year’s business acumen training for logging and trucking companies will be held May 5 and 6 at Lakeview Restaurant in St. Agatha.
For more information on that training, contact Alain Ouellette, NMDC Planning and Development Division director, at 543-1801 or by email at aouellette@nmdc.org.
