Homesteading offers independence from the uncertainty of American life, but few people actually make the switch

Homesteading requires resources and 
stamina. (Photo by A. Spratt, Unsplash) 

For people looking to leave the unpredictability of mainstream American life behind, homesteading -- or at least the idea of it -- is becoming more popular in the U.S., reports Anemona Hartocollis of The New York Times. Some regional pockets of homesteaders host expos that draw thousands to learn how to live life "off the grid."

"Pryor, Okla., is a low-slung town of 9,700 people, tucked among hills and woods," Hartocollis writes, "But for two days in March, its population swelled, as the Okie Homesteading Expo brought 3,000 people from all over the country eager to return to the land."

A need for self-sufficiency and a drive to prepare for the end of the world are at least part of what draws attendees to the Okie Expo, where they learn to grow and preserve their own food, raise goats, chickens and other livestock and hunt and fish.

"For all its bucolic, back-to-the-land imagery, homesteading taps into the desire to escape from the discontent and disquiet of modern America," Hartocollis adds. "Homesteaders believe disaster could happen anytime, and few are ready to handle it."

Despite the growing number of Americans who are interested in homesteading, it's a goal few attain. "The number of people who are truly self-sufficient is vanishingly small," Hartocollis reports. "To go back to the land, you need to buy land, which can be expensive." Some homesteaders live in a spot where they keep jobs "in the world" while raising their own food and striving toward independence. 

Some homesteaders view it as a religious calling. Others see it as a way to have more agency in their own lives. Hartocollis writes, "One couple, Matt White, 50, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and his wife, Lara, 51, a real estate broker, are buying 30 acres north of Oklahoma City."

Lara White told the Times, "We’ve always been controlled by our circumstances. We want to try to control our own circumstances.”

Rural lands are cooler than urban spaces; a study suggests a new way to reduce sizzling urban temperatures

Strategic use of rural land and water bodies could
help cool cities. (Adobe Stock photo)

The heat is on cities to do something about sweltering and unhealthy urban temperatures. Researchers looked at the problem and said, "Rural can cool," and began work on configurations where city heat could be mitigated by country cool, reports Erin Blakemore of The Washington Post. "Rural land surrounding urban areas could reduce city temperatures by up to half a degree Celsius, an analysis in Nature Cities suggests, hinting at a way to cool increasingly scorching urban areas."

Scientists studied 30 cities in China "to understand how rural land cover affects urban heat islands — a phenomenon in which cities become significantly warmer than the areas surrounding them." Blakemore explains. "Researchers concluded neighboring rural land cover can explain about 30 percent of such regions’ effect on urban heat. . . . Air warms in cities, leaving a low-pressure zone near the ground that then helps transport cooler air from surrounding rural areas. The rural areas then go on to absorb the heat."

The study's analysis concluded with specific recommendations on how to "use less dense, less expensive rural land to increase cities’ cooling capacities," Blakemore reports. "Planting woodland around cities and consolidating bodies of water in rural areas are potential ways to cool cities. . . . By better regulating rural land, the researchers suggest, it could be possible to both maintain rural landscapes and boost rural economies while making urban areas cooler and more sustainable."

Battle over mining in Arizona is about U.S. green energy needs, religious rights and land use

A view of Palabora, a South African copper mine, which was partially developed by Rio Tinto. Palabora's mine crater is roughly 1.24 miles across. Resolution's crater is expected to be 2 miles across. (Adobe Stock photo)

Resolution Copper wants to dig 5,000 to 7,000 feet into Arizona's Oak Flat desert to mine the region's vast copper-molybdenum deposit. The resistance to the project by Native American tribes and religious groups goes just as deep.

The Resolution Project has been under development by mining behemoths Rio Tinto and BHP Group since 2002. The companies and project supporters insist extracting the region's copper deposit is vital to shore up the mineral competition with China and for the U.S. transition to renewable energy. The opposition sees the mine and its expected 2-mile-across crater as exploitation of tribal holy ground.

Overall, the project has powerful backers: "It has generally been supported by the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, though the latter has asked for more study as it seeks to balance its desire for clean-energy supplies with protections for the environment and the interests of Native Americans. The project can’t advance until that study is completed," report Phred Dvorak and Rhiannon Hoyle of The Wall Street Journal. "Many state and local officials [also] back the project."

Resistance to the project centers on Oak Flat, a stretch of land many Apaches consider sacred ground. The entrance to the mine is on Oak Flat, with the copper thousands of feet below. The main Apache opposition group, known as Apache Stronghold, was formed by the Apache San Carlos tribe and is represented by the Becket Fund, "a high-powered Washington, D.C., law firm known for championing conservative causes," Dvorak and Hoyle write. "Becket said it is planning to take its fight to the Supreme Court, where it has an 8-0 record."

Once Apache Stronghold and Becket joined forces the cause gained "a host of new religious allies. . . . Scores of religious groups have also submitted amicus briefs supporting Apache Stronghold’s suit," the Journal reports, "including organizations representing Mennonites, Seventh Day Adventists, Sikhs and Muslims."

Meanwhile, Resolution developers say "they have invested in an extensive monitoring network for groundwater, springs and other bodies of water that will be checked by regulators and a community working group," Dvorak and Hoyle add. "Resolution’s owners are trying to honor that commitment by consulting and joining with local tribes in good faith for the duration of the project, said Gare Smith, a lawyer who focuses on human rights and advises the project’s owners."

Not all regional tribes oppose the mine. "Other local tribes are attracted by potential economic benefits in a state where the tribal poverty rate is 29%," the Journal reports. "Among the ones with ties to Oak Flat, most have at some time officially opposed the mine."

To read more about U.S. copper needs, click here.
To find out more about the animals and plants that are native to Oak Flat, click here.

Rural Nevada leaders seek a voice in massive energy builds, but almost 80% of their land is federally managed

Across western federal lands, some renewable energy expansion is going at such a frenetic pace that rural county officials in Nevada can't keep up with the requests, reports Jeniffer Solis of the Nevada Current. "Several rural counties are now asking state lawmakers to establish a policy requiring federal agencies to coordinate all their land use planning and management decisions with state and county governments when considering massive utility-scale energy projects. . . . As of June, there are over 130 pending applications to build renewable energy projects across Nevada’s public lands. Most of those projects are in rural counties, where as much as 80% of land is federally managed."

NV Energy photo

Currently, Nevada lacks a statewide utility-scale solar plan, which exacerbates the problem for local governments.  In fact, county officials from Eureka and Lander County told state lawmakers that managing the sheer number of clean energy projects coming to their offices isn't workable because they lack staff and management capacity. Solis writes. "Rural governments told lawmakers that the intensity and scale of utility-scale energy proposals they are seeing in their counties will require targeted state policy to support and protect rural economies."

Eureka and Lander County lands are included in the "proposed Greenlink North Transmission Project — a 235-mile transmission line along Highway 50, which is expected to attract more solar projects in the coming years," Solis explains. And while the project is expected to bring thousands of good-paying jobs to the state, county officials want their offices and residents to have a say in local installations and time to prepare for the profound changes the builds are sure to bring.

Eureka County’s natural resources manager, Jake Tibbitts, "proposed amending state policy to clarify that federal agencies are expected to enter formal agreements with local governments in Nevada when considering projects on public land in their county," Solis reports. "Under the proposed amendment, those agreements would need to include a detailed coordination plan. . .especially when addressing conflicts between local land use plans and federal plans."

Solis adds, "But like Nevada as a whole, land in Eureka County is largely administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, leaving the county at the whims of federal land use policy."

Some solar companies are offering jaw-dropping rates for land leases; prices are a source of profit and concern

A solar company's 'pitch' letter to a farmland
owner. (Farm Journal)

The U.S. eastern corn belt is one of the most popular regions for solar energy companies to vie for land contracts. To convince farmers to negotiate leases, solar companies are offering increasingly high rental rates. Their high-dollar offers can add to land competition and local conflicts, reports Tyne Morgan of Farm Journal. "Todd Janzen, an agriculture lawyer based in Indiana, says solar leasing started in the Hoosier state five years ago. Today, such leasing is gaining traction and some controversy."

U.S. farmland is predicted to decrease in value by 2025, but solar energy leases may change that. "In Illinois, farmers are reporting eye-popping offers that are well above $1,500. One farmer near Morton, Ill., shared with U.S. Farm Report some information regarding an offer he received via an unsolicited letter," Morgan writes. "The company offered him a rate of $3,200 to $4,500 per acre. The company offered an additional $1,000 if the farmer signed a letter of intent, plus $3,000 more upon signing the cash lease."

Most sources say that current solar energy leases range from $500 to $4,000 per acre, which even with a 50-acre lease, is a chunk of money; however, the length of those leases may cause some family farmers to balk. Janzen told Morgan, "Farmers are used to one-, two-, maybe five-year cash rent leases, and these are for 20, 30 or even 40 years. So, they're really a generational decision that needs to be made.”

Despite potential monetary gains, solar contracts come with risks. Jazen told Morgan, “I think there's some risk on a personal level. These are becoming somewhat controversial at the county level. And so it can divide neighbors and counties, which is unfortunate, but it's also a reality.”

A new tool finds abandoned farmland that could be used to fight climate change; 30 million acres have been identified

A map showing the percentage of abandoned farmland within a 36-square-kilometer area.
(University of Wisconsin graph)

U.S. farmland plays a crucial role in the country's battle against climate change, but how that role is structured and implemented is where opinions and landholdings clash. "Solar panels and energy crops are pitted against food production, while well-intended policy choices can create incentives for farmers to till up new lands, releasing even more heat-trapping gas into the atmosphere," reports Chris Hubbuch for University of Wisconsin News. "Abandoned farmlands could play a role in fighting climate change. A new study shows exactly where they are."

Scientists at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center used "machine learning to map nearly 30 million acres of United States cropland abandoned since the 1980s, creating a tool that could guide decisions about how to balance production of energy and food," Hubbuch explains. "Their findings, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, include the most detailed mapping of previously cultivated land in the U.S. to date."

Tyler Lark

Tyler Lark, one of the study's head researchers, told Hubbuch, "“If we can understand where these lands are and what the characteristics are, we can really understand their true potential for things like climate mitigation. . . . Whether it’s for solar photovoltaic, or agrivoltaics, or cellulosic bioenergy development, or just restoration of natural ecosystems: These sites could be great candidates for a lot of those applications.”

Until now, researchers used data from the Department of Agriculture to estimate how much land was no longer being farmed. "But there was no way of knowing exactly where that land was or when it was abandoned," Hubbach reports. "While satellite imagery has been around for decades, without recent advances in cloud computing, Lark says it was impossible to classify the nearly 2 billion acres of land in the coterminous U.S."

To find abandoned farms, researchers deployed their analysis tool to examine cultivation patterns. "The results accurately predict the location of abandoned croplands nine times out of 10 and can even pinpoint the year they were abandoned with about 65% accuracy," Hubbach writes. "The team found that more than 30 million acres of cropland were abandoned over those 32 years."

Quick hits: Locally made farm tools; anger can hurt your heart; cybersecurity for farms; finding lost treasure

Conor Crickmore, owner of Neversink Tools, does a training video. Crickmore's company
focuses on improving or upgrading existing tools. (Neversink Tools photo via Modern Farmer)

In rural America and beyond, buying locally can have a bigger reach than signing up for Community Supported Agriculture or visiting the farmers market. "If we want a future with more farmers, more fresh, healthy food and stronger local economies, we need infrastructure that supports small growers," reports Melissa Julia of Modern Farmer. "Locally made tools, from hoes to tractors, are an important part of that support system and confer many of the same advantages as locally grown food. . . . Meet three U.S.-based toolmakers who want to change the landscape of tool buying and making to support their local farmers and communities."

Just about everyone gets angry at one time or another, but the emotion can increase the chance of heart attacks. "Researchers examined the impact of three different emotions on the heart: anger, anxiety and sadness," reports Sumathi Reddy of The Wall Street Journal. "Those in the angry group had worse blood flow than those in the others; their blood vessels didn't dilate as much." Dr. Daichi Shimbo, a professor of medicine at Columbia University and lead author of the study, told Reddy, "We speculate over time if you're getting these chronic insults to your arteries because you get angry a lot, that will leave you at risk for having heart disease."

Nordic residents tend to trust in the kindness of
each other. (Adobe Stock photo)

If repeated bouts of anger are unhealthy, what can Americans do to become happier? Research on the happiness levels of some Nordic countries may provide clues. "Nordic countries have managed to enter a very virtuous cycle, where efficient and democratic institutions can provide citizens security, so that citizens trust institutions and each other," reports Camille Bello of Euronews. For countries to model Nordic happiness, professor John F. Helliwell, editor of the World Happiness Report, told Bello countries should focus "on the six key indicators in the World Happiness Report - GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption."

From extreme weather to labor shortages to fertilizer price increases, farmers have plenty to worry about; however, the average American may not realize that food producers also have to guard against ransomware attacks. "Last year Dole took a hit, losing $10.5 million in an attack that stole the Social Security numbers of nearly 4,000 employees," reports Jaclyn De Candio of Ambrook Research. "Containing the breach impacted half of their servers and several user-end computers, disrupting a portion of their fresh vegetable processing." To learn more about U.S. agriculture's vulnerability to cyberattacks and possible outcomes, click here.

A forest search for coins can be a day of treasure
hunting. (Adobe Stock photo)

Right now, the cost of just about everything seems high, and $100 does not go nearly as far as it used to; however, there is money to be found for those who don't mind searching for lost coins. "Americans toss millions in coins yearly, abandoning them to sidewalks, parking lots, airports and bus seats. Many end up in the trash," reports Oyin Adedoyin of The Wall Street Journal. "For some, it is easy money. Others do it for luck, as a game, or for the satisfaction of noticing life's tiny triumphs. Many find it downright thrilling."

Some farmland Conservation Reserve Program acreage has increased, and as the program continues to evolve, where and how the land is used has changed. "A new program, Grassland CRP, has driven all the gains. This 'working lands program' allows producers to continue some grazing or haying practices," reports Agricultural Economic Insights. "Also, the program has a much lower rental rate, overcoming the decades-long headwind of consistent program dollars but rising rental rates. . . . A few pockets reported county-level acreage increases as the specific facets of the CRP program . . .  have come forward."

New Bureau of Land Management rule puts conservation work 'on equal footing' with commercial land uses

Photo by Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management via the Montana Free Press

Five years ago, leasing land for conservation purposes wasn't allowed, but leasing it for commercial uses was. A new Bureau of Land Management rule has changed that dynamic. "The BLM adopted a long-awaited rule that aims to put conservation initiatives 'on equal footing' with oil and gas leasing, grazing and other commercial uses of federal land," reports Amanda Eggert of the Montana Free Press. "This shift by the country's largest land manager has been applauded by conservation and environmental organizations and criticized by oil and gas and agricultural groups."

The rule intends to "allow the BLM to lease land for 'restoration' and 'mitigation.' The agency said these leases will help it meet water security, biodiversity and climate objectives," Eggert writes. White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said in a release, "From the most rugged backcountry spots to popular close-to-home recreation areas, these reforms will help deliver cleaner water, healthier lands, abundant wildlife, and more recreation opportunities for all of us."

The Business for Montana's Outdoors and The Wilderness Society applauded the rules, while the Western Energy Alliance criticized it as government overreach. WEA President Kathleen Sgamma told Eggert, "There are hundreds of millions of acres set aside for wilderness and national parks. . . . But there are also working landscapes all across the West that provide food, fuel and fiber for all Americans." Eggert adds, "She anticipates her group will file a lawsuit to overturn the rule."

Eggert reports, "The BLM manages more than eight million acres in Montana, making it the state's second-largest land manager behind the U.S. Forest Service. . . . The agency received more than 216,000 comments on the proposal during a 90-day public comment period it initiated last spring."

Solar companies are offering many farmers more than $1,000 per acre for land leases, survey shows

Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture producer survey
graph via Farm Journal

Solar companies need a tremendous amount of open land to achieve their installation goals, which means asking farmers for acreage leases. "A survey of farmers shows the majority of farmers are being offered more than $1,000 per acre by companies for solar leasing, which could also drive up the price of cash rental rates," reports Tyne Morgan of Farm Journal. "As the Biden administration works to accelerate their 'clean energy' plan across the U.S., land is in high demand, especially for future solar projects."

Michael Langemeier, an agricultural economist with Purdue University, says the Ag Economy Barometer is revealing "the sticker shock of solar leasing rates," Morgan writes. "The survey of 400 agricultural producers is now asking farmers how many have actively engaged in discussions with companies about leasing farmland you own for solar installation, and the response was surprising."

April's survey showed a substantial increase in the number of farmers who engaged in talks with a solar company representative over the past six months. Morgan reports, "In April, 19% of farmers said they’ve had discussions, up from 12% in March. The bigger surprise may be in the high rates solar companies are offering farmers."

According to the survey, 58% say the rates were more than $1,000 per acre. Survey percentages were tallied for the entire U.S., but the offers ranged from around $750 in the Great Plains to more than $1,200 in the eastern Corn Belt.

While top-dollar solar lease prices may offer a good return for landowning farmers, the cost of cash-rent agreements will also increase. Langemeier told Morgan, "That's going to put upward pressure on cash rents, and it's probably going to put upward pressure on land values, given that it's local. . . . And so it probably impacts a fairly local area, depending on whether your area has solar leasing or not, but it certainly has pretty wide ramifications on what's going on in agriculture.”

Crop prices that don't meet production inputs also tempt farmers to consider solar leases. 

For the rural Midwest to grow, communities need to address housing shortages and affordability issues

FarmdocDaily graph, from 2023 UIUC Rural Vitality Survey

Many rural areas would like to see their populations grow, but housing shortages limit their capacity to attract and keep new residents. "In many communities, housing options are limited both in terms of affordability and type," reports Mark White for FarmdocDaily. "Given relatively slow population growth and an aging population, many Midwestern communities struggle to expand and/or update their housing stock."

University of Illinois researchers conducted studies on rural vitality, including resident surveys. They examined the housing limitations in rural Illinois communities and found "that many residents cannot find housing that meets their budget, needs, or standards," White writes. "Almost two-thirds of survey respondents believed that finding an affordable home within their region was difficult, particularly for renters, and almost 60% of survey respondents believed that their community lacked a variety of housing options. . . . It’s also important to note that these housing challenges are not limited to just northern and central Illinois. Communities around the Midwest and other parts of the country face similar challenges."

Too few homes are being built in the Midwest, and a lack of assisted care providers "suppresses turnover as many older residents stay in their homes longer than they would prefer," White reports. "In addition to shrinking and aging populations, other contributing factors have limited new home construction in farm dependent counties. . . . . For instance, the value of land for agriculture exceeds the value of land for housing development — particularly for housing that meets the needs of first-time homeowners or rental properties."

If rural counties and towns want to attract and keep a fresh workforce with new residents who move in and stay, housing shortages must be intentionally and collaboratively addressed. "Local communities might explore programs to address derelict or distressed properties. Such investments can limit the deterioration of the existing housing stock, which can also stabilize property values to benefit the local tax base," White explains. "Rural communities might also consider efforts to promote more diverse types of residential housing (e.g., multi-family, rental) that sometimes face opposition from existing residents and homeowners. Regardless, no one strategy — nor one local or regional actor — can solve community housing challenges."

When smartly planned, windfarms can be adaptable, efficient and incorporate crops, a new study says

Wind turbines take up only 5% of the land.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Instead of hogging up large expanses of usable land, wind farms can "grow" among crops or infrastructure needs. "The huge structures topped with massive rotating blades only take up five percent of the land where they've been built," reports Allyson Chiu of The Washington Post. "The rest of the space can be used for other purposes, such as agriculture, according to a study published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology. . . . .This means developers could fit turbines in places that are often perceived as unsuitable for a wind farm."

Intelligent planning can help wind turbines work with the land and regional needs. Sarah Jordaan, the study's principal investigator, told Chiu, "Use of existing infrastructure, multiple use of landscapes — all these things. . . can really contribute to solutions in areas where wind power is acceptable to the local people."

The study highlighted best practices for wind farm builds. Chiu reports, "Wind farms that piggybacked on existing infrastructure, such as roads, disrupted less land and were about seven times more efficient than projects constructed from the ground up, according to the study."

While many experts agree that improving wind turbine placement and integration into surrounding land needs is helpful, wind farms will still face opposition for other reasons, including visual impact on landscapes, noise, and bird and bat deaths.

Despite challenges, many U.S. citizens "appear to support renewable energy projects, including wind turbines," Chiu writes. "A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted last year reported that large and bipartisan majorities of Americans said they wouldn't mind fields of solar panels and wind turbines being built in their community."

New rule increases royalties for oil and gas companies that drill on public lands; bond will be at least 15 times more

The Interior Department worked to bring oil and gas management
into the 21st century. Drillers are angry. (Photo by J. Evans, Unsplash)

 

For decades, companies that  drilled on public lands for oil paid the federal government small royalties and spent little on cleanup funding, but that era is about to change. "A suite of regulatory changes from the Bureau of Land Management will increase royalties on oil and stiffen cleanup requirements," reports Heather Richards of E & E News. "The rule caps a multiyear effort by the Interior Department to 'modernize' how the U.S. manages vast resources of oil and natural gas under public lands in states like Wyoming and New Mexico."

Initially, President Joe Biden planned to end drilling on public lands "to shrink the future footprint of the nation’s oil program. . . but he retreated due to legal setbacks early in office," Richards writes. "The rule requires a minimum bond for drilling a federal lease that's 15 times higher than the previous minimum of $10,000. Environmental groups and government watchdogs like the Government Accountability Office have asked BLM for years for stronger bonding requirements to cover decommissioning costs of wells and pipelines when they are abandoned."

The new rule angered drillers who "are already panning the rule as an attack on their industry and threatening to sue," Richards reports. "The final rule suggests the Bureau of Land Management will have a higher responsibility to limit oil and gas in areas that are considered valuable for wildlife or recreation by prioritizing leasing in areas with greater oil potential. Oil companies nominate lands for lease, but BLM decides what acres are ultimately offered for sale."

Environmental advocates praised the action as a good stewardship plan. Emily Olsen, vice president of the Rocky Mountain Region for Trout Unlimited, told Richards, "Energy development and conservation need not be mutually exclusive. The BLM is prioritizing energy development where it will have the fewest resource impacts."

Quick hits: Wayne County murals showcase 'Walldogs'; a Midwestern state of mind; the eclipse capital is in Illinois

Willie Nelson singing at the first Farm Aid concert in 1985.
(Wayne Walldogs photo via Successful Farming)

Murals in Wayne County, Iowa, stand as a testament to the region's dynamic and resilient history. "Wayne County, a part of the Mormon Trail, where Brigham Young led his followers from Illinois to Utah in 1846, is also known for its excellent hunting opportunities, large Amish community, and well-appointed historical museum," reports Lisa Prater Froust of Successful Farming. "Last year, these historical events and figures were vividly brought to life in 16 murals painted during the five-day Wayne County Walldogs Festival." Not sure what 'walldog' is? Click here.

The Midwestern United States 
(Wikipedia map, from Census Bureau data)

Think you're a Midwesterner? For most residents, the answer depends on geography, but some people have other ideas. "Everyone knows places such as Ohio and Minnesota are solidly in the Midwest. But a recent poll finds that the Midwest is more a state of mind than just a place you can point to on a map," report Ben Kesling and Jennifer Levitz of The Wall Street Journal. "People from Colorado (42%), Oklahoma (66%) and even Wyoming (54%) think they live in the Midwest. . . . Some locals are baffled: 'Who ARE you people?'"

Pluto was demoted to one of dozens of dwarf
planets. (NASA photo via Nat Geo)

In 1930, a farm boy turned astronomer from Streator, Illinois, Clyde William Tombaug, discovered Pluto, which was designated our solar system's ninth planet, but then in 2006, Pluto got demoted. "Mike Brown, CalTech professor of astronomy and author of How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming, crashed the party and took away Pluto's planetary classification," reports Eric Alt of National Geographic. "Ever since the worlds of science and pop culture have debated Pluto's fate. . . . the matter seems far from settled."

Some news sources say the U.S. economy is recovering from the dark days of the pandemic, with most measures reporting a healthy rebound despite inflation's hold on grocery and housing costs. That's one picture. Talk to a local pawnbroker, and you'll hear a different report. "Accumulating pawnshop inventory means fewer buyers than sellers – a sign that for the lowest-income Americans, times remain tough," reports Lauren Villagran of USA Today. "Some Americans – people with retirement plans, savings and stock holdings – may gripe about inflation and the economy, but they're doing all right. Others are surviving pawn to pawn."

Location of Mikanda in Jackson
County, Illinois. (Wikipedia map)

 

The U.S. eclipse capital is the unassuming southern Illinois town of Mikanda, Illinois, pop. 500. It has been "blessed by the cosmos for the second time in under 10 years," reports Hunter Bassler of KSDK in St. Louis, Missouri. "Mikanda is the exact intersection for both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses, an astronomical wonder that rarely ever happens in such a short time span, according to NASA. . . . Village officials are preparing for bigger crowds this year."

Rainbow over Cheesebox Butte. Cheesebox Canyon is a popular Bear Ears hiking trail.
(Photo by Stephen Trimble, Writers on the Range)

Without knowing the region's history, Bear Ears National Monument evokes thoughts of strength, softness, and beauty. Dive deeper into the story of this 1.36 million-acre site in southeast Utah, and a timeline of battles, historical power dynamics and unresolved conflict emerges. "The political tussle over this stunning expanse of red rock canyons exemplifies all the cultural dissonance in the rural West," writes Stephen Trimble in his opinion for Writers on the Range. "White residents never envisioned challenges to their political power. But in 2009, the feds came down hard on generations of casual pothunting by local white families. Then, after a century of oppressing their Indigenous neighbors, lawsuits strengthened Native voting rights."

Grist offers webinar for journalists who want to report on "land-grab" data involving universities in 14 states

Fourteen public universities were founded with land taken from
Indigenous nations. (Illustration by Marty Two Bulls Jr., Grist)

Grist is offering a free webinar on Feb. 21 for reporters who are interested in reporting on state trust land data involving public universities in 14 states. 

The webinar will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern time. Webinar participants will learn how to use Grist's "land grab" data set from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming to see how institutions got their land and money.

Using state data on land grant universities, Grist's data report examined how these entities established their provenance and how much revenue those lands produce for their associated colleges. The data shows how states use these lands in to generate income, such as timber harvesting, oil and gas extraction, and agriculture.

Grist's investigation explains how about 8.1 million acres of land, which produces income for 14 land-grant universities, was taken from 123 Indigenous nations through more than 100 violence-backed land cessions. Grist's editor at large Tristan Ahtone and spatial data analyst Maria Parazo Rose will explain how journalists can use the data for their own stories.

Rural America shows population growth and a decline in poverty, according to a new report

Rural America added population for the first time
in decades. (USDA photo)

After multiple decades of decline, rural America is growing in population and has fewer counties where residents live in "persistent poverty," reports Jamie Henneman of The Prairie Star, which serves central Montana. The Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service recently released its "Rural America at a Glance" report, which analyzes population, employment, housing and poverty in America's non-urban areas. "Much of the data suggested a positive trend for Americans living outside of cities, according to USDA ERS economist James Davis."

"We saw rural populations grow a quarter of a percent from 2020 to 2022 after a decline or near-zero growth between 2010 and 2020," Davis noted in the report. "That's an eighth of a percent growth per year, or 50,000 people more in rural areas each year. . . . Domestic migration favored rural areas for their recreation and as retirement destinations. Rural areas near metro areas were also popular."

The Census Bureau determines national "poverty" income thresholds. "In 2023, a family of four making under $29,960 was considered to be in poverty," Henneman writes. "And an individual household making under $14,891 was considered to be in poverty."

"We had 244 rural counties considered persistently poor from 2011 to 2021," Davis said in the report. "Since then, 26 more counties entered persistent poverty, but 55 counties left the designation. Overall, we had 9.7 percent fewer counties experiencing persistent poverty compared with a decade earlier."

"Housing was another topic considered in the USDA ERS report," Henneman adds, as well as how rural employment is fairing post-pandemic.

'It's obvious there is another back-to-the-land movement' as many younger people seek to grow their own food

The 20th-century homesteading movement that began in the 1950s and stretched into the 1970s was anchored by people who rejected commercialized, materialistic living and turned toward independent living that reconnected them with the land. Many couples or families who sought a more down-to-earth life moved to Vermont and Maine, seeking to live "on their own terms," writes Kirsten Lie-Nielsen for Ambrook Research. "My mother was part of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and '70s, a generational exodus to the countryside that was so noticeable it changed census statistics."

In the 1960s and '70s, "going back to the land was part of the broader counterculture movement," Lie-Nielsen writes. . . "rejecting many of the trappings of mainstream society. In the 1970s alone, over one million people were inspired to move to the country. It's no fluke that Vermont and Maine became homesteading destinations for so many — it's all about one couple named Helen and Scott Nearing."

The Nearings had moved to Vermont in 1932, in search of a less chaotic way of life. In 1950, they published Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World, and in 1952, "they moved to Brookside, Maine, where they established a homestead that would eventually become the Good Life Center," Lie-Nielsen adds. "Yet it would be more than a decade before the homesteading movement really took off. . . . . Living The Good Life was republished in 1970. . . . The new edition became a sensation, inspiring a generation of back-to-the-landers, many of whom arrived at the Nearings' homestead hoping to learn from the masters of simple living."

Most homesteaders, "including my mother and her husband, embraced an entirely off-grid lifestyle," Lie-Nielsen writes. Eliot Coleman, a back-to-lander who followed the Nearings example, told Lie-Nielsen: "My first wife and I built a house for a thousand dollars back in '68. It wasn't big, but it was simple and warm. We heated with wood, we had a well that we dug that we got water from, we dug a root cellar where we stored food over the winter. We didn't have electricity, we didn't have a phone — talk about economics! Without those bills coming in, there was nothing that could stop us."

Overall, the "back-to-the-landers largely did not seek to enter into commerce with their farm beyond perhaps a modest roadside farmstand," Lie-Nielsen adds. "They just wanted to provide enough food for themselves and their families and live peacefully alongside nature. . . . Today, self-sufficiency is once again in vogue. After the coronavirus pandemic. . . many people began to research growing their own food and rural land sales increased." Homesteading advocate Warren Berkowitz told Lie-Nielsen: "Young people are definitely wanting either to farm, or to do something with food. It's obvious there is another back-to-the-land movement; I think our kids' generation is very food-related."

Mormon church is Nebraska's 'top single buyer' of agricultural land over the past five years

Flatwater Free Press graphic

Mile after farm mile, Farmland Reserve Inc. has purchased large sections of Nebraska land. It has purchased so much land in Garden County, Nebraska, that the county assessor couldn't "calculate the nonprofit's total acres," reports Destiny Herbers of the Flatwater Free Press. "The organization simply owns too many parcels, through too many sales, for county officials to comb through the records." Garden County Assessor's Office told Herbers: 

Farmland Reserve, a nonprofit "owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church, has been quietly buying up ranch land in Nebraska’s Sandhills for the past three decades," Herbers adds. "The Garden County shopping spree, coupled with more buys in four neighboring counties, made the church Nebraska’s top single buyer of land in the past five years."

The Mormon church has purchased 370,000 acres of "zoned agricultural land in Nebraska," Herbers reports. "The church sees its land buys as a force for good, an investment in agriculture to generate long-term value to support the church’s religious, charitable, and humanitarian good works,' said a Farmland Reserve spokesman. . . . The Nebraska Farmers Union sees the Church as another out-of-state corporation that arrives, drives up prices and makes buying harder for smaller farmers."

Since religious organizations don't have to "publicly report their income or assets, including real estate. The Church has never given a total accounting of their properties, in Nebraska or globally while amassing a fortune exceeding $100 billion," Herbers writes. "The Nebraska land is just one slice of the 1.7 million acres of American real estate the Mormon church is now estimated to own."

Some of the church's land holdings go back 30 years and are widely accepted as part of the state's active ranches. Rex Ranch, a "sprawling 365,000-acre cow-calf operation, that covers most of northern Garden County . . . has gone largely unnoticed by Nebraskans in the 30-plus years it’s been owned by the church," Herbers reports. Dale Bills, a spokesman for Farmland Reserve, said "the Rex, and its employees, are very much a part of the local community. The Rex’s employees live on the land they work and regularly participate in the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association and Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition."

Why all the land and ranching? Herbers explains, "The church’s focus on ranching comes down to two factors, a good economic investment, and preparedness for upheaval, said Betsy Gaines Quammen, historian, and author of American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God and Public Lands in the West. Stockpiling food and resources to be prepared for upheaval before a religious event is a central part of Mormon theology, Quammen said."

Monday quick hits: Old school buses now haul crops; outwitting food deserts; are farmhouses too pretty?

Old school buses help get melons from the farm to the
table. (Photo by Edwin Remsberg, Ambrook Research)

"While traveling on Interstate 95 in South Carolina, I noticed a strange sight. . . . A virtual parade of perhaps a half dozen old school buses was headed in the opposite direction. Well, they used to be old school buses. Now they were something different," reports Heath Racela of Ambrook Research. "It turns out that the small caravan of buses I happened to pass is a somewhat hidden lynchpin in the complex process of getting food — melons, specifically — from farm fields to tables. In fact, for watermelon farmers and harvesters, used school buses seem to be the dominant way to transport their delicate fruits out of the fields."

Gas. Electricity. Flintstones footwork. There are many ways to get vehicles going, but some truckers are getting behind hydrogen. The element is "gaining a following among some heavy-duty truck operators who see it as the industry's best path toward zero-emission technology, especially for rigs traveling long distances," reports Paul Berger of The Wall Street Journal. "Hydrogen offers longer trips and faster refueling than battery-cell technology, supporters say, while allowing trucks to haul heavier loads because they aren't carrying industrial-scale batteries."

Thank you American farmers.
(Photo by M. Sullivan Wirecutter)

While not singularly rural, festive cookies are loved by rural folks far and wide, and American farmers can brag that they helped make the cookies! In a nod to all the eggs, flour, sugar, and delightful dairy ingredients that flow from American farms during the holiday season, here's a list of all the loot that can help you make the best cookies.

The Mobile Farm Market gets fresh food to
grocery deserts. (ILSR photo)

Living in a food desert creates grocery challenges, especially for those lacking transportation. "When a new mobile grocery market launched in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, its first stop was Maple City Apartments, a 40-unit complex for low-income, elderly relatives. Maple City's residents have felt the region's lack of grocery stores acutely," reports Kennedy Smith for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. "The county's residents can now buy groceries from a farmers market on wheels. It started when the Cooperage Project, a regional nonprofit organization, wanted to get fresh, healthy food to people during the pandemic. . . .Cooperage created Mobile Farm Market — a small, refrigerated van — to bring fresh produce, milk, cheese, and eggs to towns and neighborhoods lacking full-service grocery stores."

People with no desire to work the land are purchasing farms. (Photo by Zach McNair, AR)

Take a peek at Instagram, and "you'll be hard-pressed to escape romanticized images of farm life: rolling hills, broad wrap-around porches, oddly clean baby goats," reports Nora Neus for Ambrook Research. "The popularity of the farm aesthetic and farmhouse lifestyle is creating real estate problems among working farmers, especially younger and newer ones who already face challenges in finding affordable land across the country. . . . Farmhouse properties are so pretty, they're getting too expensive to use for agriculture."

New study shows grass and shrubs -- not trees -- help to spread many catastrophic wildfires

Researchers built data sets that show where wildfires burned homes and indicate if those homes were rebuilt. (Map by Radeloff, UW, from Census Bureau, NASA, Forest Service data)

Grasses and shrubs are more often the cause of extensive wildfires, not forest fires "jumping from tree to tree," a new study published in the journal Science shows. "When people think of wildfires, they often think of huge forests burning," Elise Mahon of UW News reports. "But according to new research led by Volker Radeloff, a professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin, in the United States, the largest areas near humans burned by wildfires are grass and shrublands, not forests."

To look at the primary cause of catastrophic wildfires, Radeloff looked at areas "where people and wildlands meet, which are known as the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, these areas cover about 10% of land in the United States but are home to about one-third of the population," Mahon reports. "As Radeloff explains, many people enjoy living in these places because they like to be near the amenities of nature. But these areas are also hot spots for environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of diseases from animals, habitat fragmentation and loss of biodiversity."

In areas with population growth "such as the American sunbelt, more human development is expanding the WUI. Add to that a changing climate with warmer, drier conditions, and the likelihood rises that wildfires will affect humans more frequently," Mahon explains. "While the total area burned by grass and shrubland fires is much larger than forest fires, grass and shrublands are also much more widespread than forests. They burn and move faster than forests, meaning grassland fires can spread to a larger number of homes than a forest fire might."

Regardless of risk, many communities choose to expand. "Researchers found that the risk of wildfire in any kind of WUI vegetation is not deterring the development and rebuilding of homes in areas that have burned in the past," Mahon reports. "That's especially concerning for homes in grassland and shrubland because the vegetation, which can become fuel for fire, recovers much more quickly than a forest would. That means there's more fuel for a fire to burn again in the same grass and shrubland area more frequently."

To help build safer homes in these areas, "Radeloff believes learning from the homes that don't burn would be a step in the right direction for people that choose to rebuild after a fire," Mahon writes. "However, Radeloff says this burden shouldn't be entirely on the homeowner. He believes there is room for policymakers to influence how prepared a community is and where zoning should allow new housing developments."

Opinion: Returning lands to Indigenous people is one way to ensure treasured landscapes thrive

The tiers of stone placed in the river are a method of fishery
restoration. (Photo by Tristan Spinski ,The Washington Post)

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world. ~ John Muir

John Muir, an American naturalist who is credited with founding our national parks, imagined a world "stripped of the Native Americans. . . to create his ideal of pristine wilderness," writes Bina Venkataraman in her opinion for The Washington Post. What a surprise conservation in Maine would be to Muir, where Indigenous knowledge and people are saving some of the state's most beloved lands.

"The Penobscot Nation's record of caring for nature while still using it — hunting moose and duck while keeping their populations steady, selectively harvesting timber to preserve forests and restoring rivers to support fisheries — inspired an effort to return a 31,000-acre tract of forested land to tribal ownership. Late last year, the Trust for Public Land, a conservation group, bought the parcel from an industrial timber company, and it announced it would give the land to the tribe once it pays off $32 million in loans. Called Wáhsehtəkʷ by the Penobscot, which means east branch of the river (and is pronounced WAH-seh-teg). It's the largest contiguous tract that the tribe will have acquired in more than four decades.

"The transfer is part of a movement to return lands to Indigenous stewardship and work with tribal communities to protect biodiversity. The hope is both to restore justice for tribes that were long ago stripped of their ancestral homelands and to learn from long-standing Indigenous practices new ways to save a beleaguered planet. The pending land return in Maine, or 'rematriation' as some Indigenous people call it, stands out because of its scale — many previous land returns in the eastern United States have been on the order of hundreds of acres — and because the Penobscot will decide how the land will be managed.

"This is a significant change. For most of the past two centuries, Western conservationists have largely ignored Indigenous people's knowledge of landscapes and wildlife, along with tribes' historic claims to the land. But that is no longer tenable. Worldwide, Indigenous-managed lands host 80 percent of the world's biodiversity, by some estimates, and encompass much of the world's remaining intact forests, savannas and marshes. If environmentalists and political leaders hope to conserve more natural landscapes, including carbon sinks and critical buffer ecosystems such as wetlands that can protect against the harms of climate change, collaboration with tribal nation leaders is critical.

"Modern environmentalism has been deprived of Indigenous knowledge, in part, because it has seen nature as something apart from humans. Early thinkers hold some responsibility for this. . . . In the Muir tradition, the U.S. government drove tribal people out of areas that today are considered America's most beloved landscapes — Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Everglades — a history documented by David Treuer, an Ojibwe writer.

"When Henry David Thoreau — someone I long admired for his quest to 'live deliberately' — traveled to the Maine woods in the 19th century, he distinguished between 'scientific men' and Indian guides, even as he acknowledged the latter's navigational expertise. It's laughable now to think that communities that had inhabited a place for centuries, gaining intimate knowledge of the natural features, flora and fauna and passing down that knowledge across generations, could have less to offer scientifically than settlers encountering those lands for the first time. Yet it was only last year that the U.S. government formally recognized how much tribes can contribute to ecological knowledge of their ancestors' landscapes."