Well written human interest piece by Jesse Hicks at The Verge on the impact RIM’s slide is having on its hometown of Waterloo, Ontario:

As Google is to Mountain View or Apple is to Cupertino, Research in Motion is more than just a company. It’s a symbol of accomplishment, a defining feature of the community’s self-image.

This is really important: I hope the folks in Waterloo realize what an opportunity RIM’s demise could have for the city.

I just spent a few days camping in the middle of no where in central Oregon. The area we camped was in the Cascades mountain range that runs all the way from Canada down into California. Mt. Rainer, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Crater Lake, and Mt. Shasta are all part of this range. There are dozens of beautiful mountains in this amazing, tree- and river-rich landscape.

The forests in which we stayed are decades if not centuries old and over that time period the trees have grown quite large. We saw some that had to be at 200 to 300 feet tall. But those trees form a canopy and that canopy keeps rain and sun from getting to the forest floor, snuffing out new trees in the process. Eventually, though, these trees die and fall over. Not only does sun and rain get to the forest floor but these trees are stock-full of nutrients that new sprouts use to grow. These fallen monsters are called nurse logs.

Waterloo, you are in an amazing position. One of the worlds largest conifers is dying off and could, if the conditions are right, become a nurse log for the next generation of your companies.

I sure wish Portland had one of those!

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[via Watts Martin]