Aging Boomer industries

[nakodo]

With the aging baby boomers seeking to live forever, what have small towns and rural areas done to capture some of this change for the benefit of the area?

Walking on nature trails, bird watching, bird feeding, bike paths. The small town I grew up in, in MB, has a population of under 250 people and yet attracts tourists by advertising it is the home of the "Yellow Rail" a marsh bird that is fairly uncommon and draws "Birders" who want to add it to their bird records. Building blinds, paths into the swamps and setting up some concessions is next ???

How about packing off some bird seed, packaging animal fat into tallow pads for woodpeckers and chickadees?, Double fencing the pasture and creating a mountain bike path?

What else do boomers want to do, like to do, wish they could do that we could capitalize on in the rural areas and small towns?

[cowman]

I don't think you should use thoughts that the baby boomers want to live forever... I am a baby boomer and I certainly know I'm not going to live forever! Next year would be nice(cancer!) Coming soon to a theater near you!

[Deb]

Some boomers want to be somewhere in the country where they can find solitude, lie down and see the stars at night, hear the coyotes howl, and know that the only one around to talk to is their own spirit, and God.

Some boomers just want to go sit somewhere in an aspen forest alone and watch the wind come over the hill and work its way down over the tops of the trees and listen to the roar and swoosh as it gets closer and louder and passes over and flows away.

Some boomers are tired of making money and just need to retreat and learn how to enjoy their own company. They don't always need a lot of pampering.

Lots of rich boomers want to buy foothills ranchland because they think that is the only way they can have a place to reconnect with the earth's renewing energy and get away from the rat race. So if there were places they could go and cocoon for a few days in the arms of nature ( I guess that's why they have national parks) that would be nice. I've always thought that there'd be fewer abused children if the government paid to send parents away to a soothing natural location (retreat) twice a year at least. It wouldn't cost as much as paying social workers to take on another case, or to prosecute and jail a parent, or treat a mother for post partum depression or mental illness. Many mothers just need sleep, solitude and silence; the 3 things they don't get with babies and toddlers. "The Country" could provide this. Maybe farmers and ranchers don't always need to "produce something". The land is worth a lot just as it is.

[cakadu]

Could it be that the "me" generation is moving away from material things and moving back towards a "spiritual" quality of life? How productive has technology been for us? It was heralded as the greatest thing, but there is no way to escape the office and the pressures of the working life (turn of the cell phone would be a start).

Perhaps it's time we joined forces with our urban cousins and sat down to brainstorm some of the ideas that have been mentioned already in this topic.

What is going to happen as these well educated, better than average salary earners want to move out to the country for the peace and tranquility and they come up against the rural realities? We've seen some conflict up to now, but I don't think we've seen it all yet.

[ValueChainFX]

I think your boomer has extended right down to the X generation, many people are
getting tired of being pushed beyond their limits. Yet technology is a double edge
sword. Alberta will soon have the super net, bringing high speed internet access to all
of Alberta!

Many of the minds that are bringing us into the future are soon going to be able to get
away from the cities. Kinda adds a whole new dynamic to the world around us.

Personally I am looking forward to moving to a small town and carrying on my
research and arranging my time to fit the life style.

[nakodo]

Deb just compared your response to this challenge and the one you posted regarding developing the eastern side of the rockies :-)

The citizen meets the consumer, consumer do you want a theme park like disneyland you can take your kids to on the weekend within 1 hour of your home, you bet

the citizen in you says but not in Banff, Canmore, not if it creates nature issues etc. etc.

we wear many hats these days.

[cakadu]

While at the Land Use conference the following acronyms were bandied about.

NIMBY - Not in My Back Yard
NOTE - (by the way) Not Over There Either
BANANA - Build Absolutely Nothing Anytime Near Anything
DEEP - Develop Everything Everywhere Pronto
NETMA - Nobody Ever Tells Me Anything

[Deb]

And out on the range, the boomers are building "starter castles"!