News

Breaking down the rural West – Western planning organization studies rural town challenges

Vibrant Western communities are about more than the beautiful, publicly owned lands that typically surround them.

The West’s new boomtowns usually have a diverse base of businesses. They usually have well-educated populations. They are usually close to airports, ski areas and mountains, and they usually have a well established market that includes arts, entertainment and food.

By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=09-29-2004&ID=200410511

Western towns experiencing negative growth are generally isolated, have specialized economies usually focused on resource extraction and have populations that include an abundance of people who grew up there.

So, while land protection is important to the success of the West’s rural towns, education and access to markets are more important, said Ray Rasker, director of the Sonoran Institute’s socioeconomic program.

“Let’s stop calling tourist towns resort towns,” he said. “Because of their airports, they have a lot more diversity than tourism.”

Rasker gave a presentation Monday, Sept. 27 to about a dozen local residents at the Clarion Inn in Ketchum that focused on the role of protected public lands on prosperity in the West. The presentation was based on a report the institute released last summer.

By overlaying access to airports, automobile commuter distances and public lands on the same map, Rasker said the study pointed to “three Wests”–those that have access to urban markets by car, those that have access to urban markets by air and all the rest.

“Being surrounded by wilderness alone isn’t enough,” he said. “These communities need proximity to markets, too.”

Rasker also keyed in on the discussion of potential wilderness designation in the Boulder and White Cloud mountains, along with the economic stimulus package that would be granted in the bill to help Custer County bounce back from years of economic doldrums.

Rasker said the differences between Blaine and Custer counties, which are on either side of the proposed wilderness area, will provide an interesting case study in what wilderness designation can do for rural Western communities.

Blaine County has a prosperous, established and diversified resort economy. Custer County’s economy, though changing, is steeped in years of extractive industry.

“The short answer is that there is no evidence that designating wilderness will harm the economy, though some areas and residents will thrive more than others,” according to the report. “Blaine County is better situated to profit.”

The report contends that Custer County’s economy needs to diversify.

“Decades of heavy dependence on mining have left these communities impoverished, with low education rates, little economic diversification and no access to larger population centers,” it states. “Most of the recent growth in services has been in the form of low-wage jobs. In these communities, the idea of designating a significant portion of national forest lands as wilderness is unpopular without provisions for economic development.”

Rasker said Blaine County citizens need to do what they can to try to help their neighbors.

“Work with the folks in Custer County,” he said. “They know they don’t want to be like this valley.”

And that is what the Sonoran Institute is doing. They have committed an employee to working with officials in Custer County to work toward controlled and diversified growth.

Part of that effort will be to encourage land-use-planning practices that will shape the county’s future more sensitively.

“Before you even promote your areas, have your land use planning in place,” Rasker said. “Protect it before you sell it. It shows you care.”

Blaine County Commissioner Sarah Michael said she is very impressed with the Sonoran Institute’s work.

“It helps rural counties in the West to do hands-on planning, to facilitate the idea that planning is really going to serve them and benefit them in the long run,” she said.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community.

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.