Why Unrestrained Development Could Be Bad for NH's North Country

            I no longer live in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region, having chosen instead to live and work in its North Country, which includes the Great North Woods and the White Mountains.  The lake whose shores I grew up on has been ruined. 
No longer can I paddle my canoe peacefully around the edges of a bay or take a dip in early autumn at a local beach.  I risk being swamped in the wakes of cigar boats that speed selfishly past, leaving a stinking oil slick that lasts now through the winter, building up spring after spring and collecting in the shallows so clogged by milfoil that swimming is more torture than relief. 

            Some have not noticed this, focusing attention instead on the unhealthy growth of the business community, whose primary purpose is profit-making.   I can imagine what it could have been like (and how much more valuable, attracting tourists more interested in watching than in wrecking) if only those who represented us years ago had written legislation to prevent it.  Yes, the town where I grew up has become obscenely wealthy because of its lakeside location, but over time the real wealth of the lake itself will continue to be spent away shortsightedly, leaving only a gooey mess where once the Great Spirit smiled.

            As developers from densely populated regions look this way,  northern New Hampshire will be under siege.  As New Hampshire’s back yard,  it is the only remaining region where what has always been, pretty much still is.  If it is not protected from mindless, unregulated development,  hoards of developers will accept the invitation to ruin its natural beauty, which is holding its own at the moment against an expanding urban population increasingly hungry for wilderness.  The wealth of this region is its lack of development, wealth that will only become more and more valuable through time.  It is part of New Hampshire’s identity, and the people of New Hampshire deserve to own it, protect it, and enjoy it without interference by private interests.

            Our mere concern is not enough.  Action is required.  During the last five years this region has been threatened by three bold attempts at irreversible development:  the building of condominiums around Cannon Mountain; construction of a drag strip at the juncture of three adjoining towns in a natural amphitheater overlooking the Presidential Range; erection of a high-towered transmission line to carry hydropower from Quebec’s border to southern New England. These attempts are more than abstract issues.  They are about either the selling or the preserving of the wilderness north of the Notches--forever. 

            New Hampshire’s Lakes Region has become an environmentally devastated playground for the wealthy and the well-heeled, its natural resources continuously degraded in the names of progress and “economic development.”  Though it is all spiffed up and gentrified, the area is for all its wealth not such a nice place any more, and we have only the shortsightedness of previous politicians to thank.  That is why unrestrained “development” of New Hampshire’s North Country must be stopped before it starts.  It is a unique region with unique features that are—and should remain--part of its history and its landscape, off limits for development.  Offered up to private business interests,  whatever wilderness still remains will be forever ruined, and development among these mountains will metastasize.

            A good portion of New Hampshire lies north of Plymouth, vulnerable to the ravages of development as those who come here looking to exploit, do so, then leave for warmer, friendlier climes with cash in their pockets.  Recent mill sales and closings are examples.  In more than thirty years I have seen this pattern repeated in human services, in education, and in natural resource-management.  There is a smaller talent-pool here, so losers from elsewhere garner authority, make a mess, then leave. 

            It isn’t close to funny, considering that wilderness is delicate and irreplaceable in the face of modern development practices.  Witness what happened in 2003 to the State’s emblem, the Old Man of the Mountains, right above an interstate highway that, for all its usefulness, brought the regular pounding of overloaded eighteen-wheelers to the base of a structure already weakened by the forces of weather.  I desperately hope this event does not come to symbolize future “progress” in the North Country.

            It isn’t funny, either, to hear politicians decrying the lack of employment opportunity in the North Country even as they scheme to repeat this pattern of exploitation.  For example, one man has run a trail-groomer each winter night at Cannon Mountain for more than twenty years, gaining attention as one of the most capable and gifted groomers in the entire nation.  His expertise deserves decent reward, not by-the-hour,  minimum-wage nickel and diming that would undoubtedly occur under the “free market” conditions of a private business leasing Cannon Mountain to save the State the trouble and expense of his benefitted position.  Protecting this man’s livelihood and that of many others who have embraced the way of life here is not charity but fairness to local people who have developed the skills necessary to survive in this region.

            Legislators and other officials need to keep the greedy fingers of private development out of the North Country and look for other strategies for managing the State budget.  One look at the condo-ization of Loon Mountain and  Bretton Woods is enough to convince any reasonable person that privatization ruins wilderness.  If encouraging small business is a goal, then effort would be better spent bringing high-speed internet access to the region so that high-tech, low-impact businesses can locate here, value the region for what it is, support local schools, hire people who want to live here, and reinvest in local communities.  The argument that free-market development brings jobs is no longer valid.  Gone are the days when a high-school diploma was a ticket to guaranteed and lucrative employment at a local paper or lumber mill.  Nowadays such employees work at a local Wal-Mart or MacDonald’s in unbenefitted postions that earn them low wages and little job security.  Worse, the profit generated by such businesses is not reinvested here but sent to corporate headquarters somewhere else.

            Let private business interests and profit-seekers continue to exploit what they have already ruined, but keep them away from here.