The Rural Blog

A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.

The Rural Blog

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Virginia's coalfields are losing residents at an alarming rate

Opinion: Virtual cattle fencing offers a multiple-benefit solution for ranchers and helps migrating wildlife

To prevent bird flu, farmers invest in lasers to discourage wild birds from flying over farm animal operations

Quick hits: Super Bowl food line-up; heavy metal plants; immigration explained; changing U.S. geographical names

Spring migration is active along Mississippi River Flyway; 40% of waterfowl and shorebirds in North America use it

Monarch migration has begun. They're 'marathon runners.'

You can do more than just observe bird migration season; resources are available to help with conservation efforts

The pandemic turned many employees into remote workers; some are moving to less costly states and rural areas

Rural America grew last year for the first time in a decade, even more so than metropolitan areas, but future uncertain

How do rural communities recover from disaster? Recovery is often bumpy, and that can lead to loss of population

Royal beekeepers tell their hives about the Queen's death, following a centuries-old tradition that echoes in Appalachia

Climate change effects increasingly drive U.S. migration

73% of counties had more births than deaths in 2020-21, but most micropolitan areas gained people as they fled cities

Rural population fall mainly from out-migration; international in-migration was more than natural increase; see state data

Quick hits: Fire-department funding model could help rural ERs; developers say new plant 'milk' tastes like real thing

Fact-checking Biden's first presidential news conference

House passes bill to create pathway to citizenship for farmworkers in U.S. illegally and their family members

How Trump won over Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley

2 p.m. ET webinar TODAY discusses report on how population migration can make it hard to assess rural trends

Rural home prices rise as people consider leaving cities during pandemic