Clark County in top 6 percent for natural amenities

We don’t need a federal researcher to tell us that Clark County is a pretty good place to live.

Still, the Department of Agriculture has made it official. USDA data has determined that — by one scale, at least — Clark ranks among the top 6 percent of counties in the United States.

It’s perfectly natural.

Actually, that’s what the data is all about: natural amenities.

According to an analysis of scenery and climate, Clark County ranks 181st among 3,111 counties in the lower 48 states. Research by the USDA generated a natural amenities index, which it says is a measurement of “the physical characteristics of a county area that enhance the location as a place to live.”

After taking several measurements into account, the USDA gave Clark County a score of 4.25 on its natural amenities spectrum. Our 4.25 score ranked 181st on the list of 3,111 counties.

By that yardstick, Clark County was among the top 5.8 percent of the counties that were studied. (Alaska and Hawaii were not included.)

The top score in the country went to California’s Ventura County, 11.17; all of the top 10 counties are in California.

At the bottom was Minnesota’s Red Lake County, in negative territory at minus 6.40. North Dakota and Minnesota had nine of the 10 bottom spots, with scores of minus 4.97 or worse.

And in another USDA number crunch, Clark County received a grade of 5. That translates to “high” on a natural amenities scale that went from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest).

The topic came up a few months ago when Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham wrote a story based on the government research.

Not surprising

This is not merely a matter of knowing where to avoid the extremes of frostbite and sunstroke, or of enjoying 360 degrees of appealing scenery. Natural amenities can be a factor in community growth. That’s actually why the USDA published the 1999 report (search online for “USDA AER-781”). It’s a study of population changes in rural counties over a 25-year span.

As USDA senior economist David A. McGranahan wrote in the introduction, where natural resources once attracted farmers, miners and loggers, “they now attract people seeking a pleasant environment for recreation and residence.”

Local civic leaders didn’t have to see the report to recognize those amenities — and what they mean.

“It’s not a big surprise,” said Kim Bennett, president and CEO of Visit Vancouver USA. “A lot of people visit here and have relocated here. I can’t say enough about the beauty of the area and the temperate weather and the friendly outdoor environment.”

As part of recruiting new businesses, “Our marketing materials talk about the beauty of the area,” she said. “We also put out an annual travel magazine; 120,000 copies go out each year, and there’s a pretty prominent section on livability and outdoor recreation.”

West of the ‘Nice Line’

Everybody in the economic development business tries to play up their community’s quality of life, said Mike Bomar, president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council.

“They all claim it. It’s a very loose and vague topic,” Bomar said. But in the Northwest, “it is easier to make the case for quality of life.”

Local residents benefit from being on the west side of what might be called America’s “Nice Line.” You can actually draw a line on the USDA color-coded amenity map that divides the United States in two. The line runs from Glacier County, Mont., to Refugio County, Texas. Most of the counties to the left (western) side of that slightly slanting line rank higher in natural amenities than most counties on the right (eastern) side.

That, of course, means that a lot of other Northwest communities score as high as we do — or higher. There are 11 counties in Oregon with “very high” grades of 6; in Washington, eight counties grade out at “very high.” That’s more than the portion of the United States east of the Mississippi River, where only 15 counties — all in Florida — have very high natural amenities grades of 6.

By definition, these natural amenities do not reflect the built environment. However, community leaders can play a role in protecting particularly appealing natural features. In Clark County, that is being done through the Conservation Futures program.

Buying amenities

“We have used part of the property tax to buy natural amenities,” noted Paul Dennis, president and CEO of the Camas-Washougal Economic Development Association.

As his association and similar community advocacy groups pitch this area to possible employers, they certainly include natural amenities.

“Obviously, it’s part of the message,” said Dennis, a former mayor of Camas. But other topics are in play as well, including good schools, cost of living, and tax advantages.

This echoes something Ingraham wrote in his Washington Post story. He acknowledged that “it would be easy to overemphasize the importance of natural amenities in the decisions Americans make about their lives.”

Ingraham had no idea how true that would be after he spotlighted Red Lake County as the “absolute worst place to live in America.”

He got so much pushback from Minnesotans that he decided to visit the place to judge for himself. In a follow-up story, Ingraham wrote: “I kind of fell in love with Red Lake County when I visited last year and we’ve always wanted to raise the boys in the country.”

So the Ingraham family, he said, would be moving to Red Lake County.