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Horse-Industry Job-Training Programs Provide Employment and a Second Change
Tyler Harris has been to rehab six times in the last 10 years. At one point, he had nearly five years of sobriety. But he could never get it to stick. “My normal thing is, I’ll stay sober for 30, 60, 90 days after [treatment],” Harris said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “But then I fall back into my old ways so quickly it’s not even funny.”
Interview: Emily Hilliard
In February, Emily Hilliard came to Whitesburg, Kentucky, for an oral history workshop and celebration of her new book, Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia. During her workshop, people shared stories of what brought them to the space–the crowd was wildly varied in interest. Many wanted to collect family histories, a local forest ranger wanted to explore people’s relationships with a local old-growth forest, and one artist was excited by comic strips as an ethnographic tool. Emily’s writing and teaching demystified folklore–removing it from its assumed context as something from the faraway past, showcasing the ways that we engage in acts of vernacular culture every day.
Commentary: Conserving Public Forests Pairs Well With Sustainable Timber Economy
Years ago I helped families in the Ozarks and Southern Appalachian Mountains make money from their forests by harvesting timber in sustainable ways and increasing the amount of carbon those forests could pull out of the atmosphere. Currently, the Biden administration is looking at ways the federal government can conserve...
Most Federal Forest is Mature and Old Growth. Now the Question Is Whether to Protect It
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is part of Deforestation Inc., a global investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. More than 60% of the trees managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management make up mature or old-growth forest—nearly double previous...
Small-Town Newspaper Readers Are More Open to New Revenue Ideas Than Publishers
There’s a conflict between what weekly newspaper publishers think are the most likely ways their businesses will generate money in the future and what their readers are most willing to pay for, according to a study conducted in four states in the northern Great Plains. The research – which...
Blown Away: Fishermen Feel Endangered by Offshore Wind’s Political Power
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The New Bedford (Massachusetts) Light. Last May, Tommy Beaudreau touted the potential of renewable energy sources like offshore wind to an audience that included some of his government colleagues and former industry clients. “This industry, this group...
45 Degrees North: Easement Etiquette
For as common as they are in rural areas, easements only seem to come up in conversation when property changes hands or a breach of etiquette gets folks riled up. Breaches sometimes happen because people honestly don’t know how to avoid getting wrong-footed with the neighbors. Life experience limited to neat grids of city streets does little to prepare a person for understanding the patchwork boundaries of rural real estate. They may remember some codger yelling, “You kids get off my lawn!” But out here, our codgers often don’t get the immediate satisfaction of face-to-face communication. Yelling at tire tracks doesn’t measure up to seeing that deer-in-headlights look of kids caught where they shouldn’t be. And it doesn’t do much to educate transgressors, which in most cases is more effective than yelling anyway. In that spirit, here are some things it’s handy to know about easements.
Q&A: Telling the Story of Kansas’ Deadliest Tornado, 70 Years Later
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
Papertown and the Dirty Bird
This story is co-published with Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Beyond the forested banks of the Pigeon River, the Smoky Mountains rise from either side of a steep gorge that leads to the town of Hartford, Tennessee. The river runs through the gorge from North Carolina, parallel to Interstate 40, before widening into a series of shallow, shining, and swift ripples and runs. Lining the shores on both sides are 11 or 12 rafting companies, one right after the other. The guides weren’t very busy on this April day early in the rafting season, so they had taken to the rapids in bright blue boats to enjoy the afternoon. When Jamie Brown was younger, back in the 1980s and ’90s, she never would have dreamed of doing such a thing.
Commentary: A Girl, a Goat, and a Whole Lot of Outrage
Several weeks ago, the story of a young girl and her goat named Cedar made the rounds across a range of media outlets. The Los Angeles Times was the first publication to give the sad tale fresh life after The Sacramento Bee initially reported on it last fall. The rough chronology is this: the Long family of Shasta County, California, bought their daughter a goat, a castrated male (referred to as a wether in the parlance of livestock terminology) in April of 2022. They then enrolled their daughter in a local 4-H club and subsequently signed her up for the market goat project. Next, journalistic accounts of the Cedar saga skip from April to June 2022, the month Cedar was exhibited at the Shasta District Fair and then consigned and sold in the Junior Livestock Auction. Cedar was purchased in the auction by a local politician, selling for just over $900, far above “market rate” for a small market goat. But, after the auction, the girl had second thoughts and Jessica Long, the girl’s mother couldn’t bear to send Cedar to his terminal fate. So, she left the fair with her daughter and the goat in tow, setting in motion a whole series of controversial events.
FAFSA Rule Change Cuts Financial Aid for Some Rural Students
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in Mile Markers, a twice monthly newsletter from Open Campus about the role of colleges in rural America. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox. Growing up in...
What Funding Arts and Culture Can Do for Rural Communities
The word infrastructure can take on many different meanings depending on the context in which it’s used. Most often the term refers to roads, bridges, utilities, and other tangible systems and structures critical to the operation of a city, state, or region. But there’s also “civic infrastructure,” a term used to describe anything from libraries and public spaces to the civil society groups, clubs, and local nonprofits that facilitate community life. A town or region’s arts and culture scene would be another important piece of that civic and social infrastructure.
Bridging the Digital Divide Across the World, but Common Hurdles Persist to Online Access
Whether it’s rural Kansas or rural Uganda, there are many commonalities in the digital divide in both rural areas in the U.S. and internationally, said the head of a Microsoft program aiming to serve rural folks across the globe. Vickie Robinson, general manager of the Airband Initiative, said one...
Rural Main Street Program Says Revitalization Starts at Home
A new program seeks to change the economic development narrative in rural and small-town Main Streets. Main Street America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, recently announced the 10 organizations that were selected for the Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Rural Main Streets Program. Nine states and Puerto Rico were selected.
College To Start a Rural-Based, Globally-Minded Internship Program
In an effort to stand out among other institutions, a rural college in northeast Missouri is starting an internship program to connect students with real-world community and economic development initiatives. Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, has partnered with Tri-State Development, a consortium of 36 counties in northeast Missouri, southeast Iowa...
Some People Just Like to Get Things Done
This story was originally published by Writers on the Range. Although I’ve lived in a small Western town for 30 years now, I have never known much about one of its fundamental institutions, the service club. Many small-town residents still center their lives on Lions, Elks, Rotary or similar organizations.
Accidental Rancher: Sunday’s Best in the Mudroom
Growing up in Michigan, Easter almost always arrived during the first full blush of spring. Our side garden would be alive with daffodils and pastel tulips; our Easter outfits were worn with light jackets and dress shoes. That is decidedly not the case here on the Northern Plains. We’ve had...
Q&A: The Youth-Led Renaissance of Bluegrass Music
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
Dancer Returns to Rural Virginia to Offer Pay-What-You-Can Classes and a Show Meant to Debut in New York
This story was originally published by Cardinal News. Shannon Hummel is rapidly unpacking groceries in her new Clifton Forge home, fueled by five cups of coffee and bubbling anticipation. A team of dancers from all over the world is set to arrive at her doorstep in a mere 90 minutes — all to perform a show meant to debut nearly three years ago.
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