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Who Can Save Ketchum?

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Dale Bates: Diagnosis Ketchum

The very question has a very important underlying assumption that I believe holds the answer: What is the threat from which Ketchum needs saving? Did we just get the inevitable flu that has infected the world economy and will pass in due course? Or do we have a long-term systemic disease that will require a lifestyle change to health and balance? What can we do to regain our health?
 

There are some obvious threats:

1. The decline of our local economy.
2. An increasingly unbalanced demographic population.
3. Lack of a common identity.

Over the horizon, loom some even larger threats that could make the recession feel like a sneeze. We are aware of them, but it is difficult to see how they could effect our small mountain town dramatically.

1. Structural economic instability.
2. Fuel shortages and spikes in fuel costs.
3. Climate Change.
    

These are frightening thoughts and not within our control. It is no wonder we either deny their possibility or are paralysed into inaction—after all what are the chances?

I believe we need to look at the threats and chart a course of action. Even though the chance of our house burning down is very small, we all have fire insurance. What would a Community able to withstand these changes look like? What steps would we take to get there?

1. We must first of all share the awareness of the local and global threats. Understand their nature and understand how our lifestyle choices reduce the threat or increase it.
    
2. We need to take stock of the resources we have. We have access to clean air, pure water, abundant bio-mass fuel, ties to tremendous financial resources, human resources that reach far outside our valley, and strong non-profits supporting arts, culture and community. Above all, we still have a very vibrant sense of community.
    
3. We need to have a plan with steps that we can take to create a more resilient community capable of reacting to outside forces without shattering. What can we do to create a stronger more diverse local economy? Rely less on fossil fuels? Grow a local food shed?

The ski resort towns of Europe have plans for transition as climate change makes snow an uncertainty. San Francisco, Portland, and other cities around the world have action plans with local responses. What would our plan look like?

Could Ketchum transition to a sustainable community, relying on alternative energy and local food sources? Could Ketchum be ecologically responsible for resource-use and waste recycling, with a diverse local economy and a vibrant community? What if Ketchum became a model for ecological Mountain Towns for the 21st Century?

Who can save Ketchum? Only ourselves: the residents and business owners, the part-time residents/full time homeowners, the workers and visitors, the governments and non-profits. But first we must see where we are and begin the discussion of what we want to become.
 

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