Story-telling has taken a new form at Sustainable Northwest: through the medium of digital video. SNW’s first documentary short, The People and Place of Lake County, debuted at the 2007 SNW Auction and Awards Gala. Through interviews with community members and sweeping images of the quiet Lake County landscape, the film provides a beautiful history of the early days of the community-based sustainability movement in the Northwest.

In the mid-‘90s, the passage of the Northwest Forest Plan to protect endangered species resulted in the loss of timber supply coming from National Forest lands. Initially, the rural town of Lakeview, Oregon was the scene of natural resource management conflict. Eventually, conflict yielded to collaboration and agreement between working rural families, the local timber industry, and regional and national environmental interests. The People and Place of Lake County tells the story of the reauthorization of the Lakeview Federal Sustained Yield Unit, an inspiring reminder of what’s possible when people put aside their differences and work together for the common good.

This is the first in a series of short films that SNW plans to produce, serving to tell the stories of the people and places finding holistic solutions to create a sustainable economy and healthy environment. Watch this film.