Bozoulian | Guest Column by Pete Talbot
Bridging Montana’s Rural/Urban Divide
By Pete Talbot, 4-15-06
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Another battle shaping up in the New West could be urban v. rural. While the bigger cities are worried about too much growth, the smaller towns are doing everything they can just to survive.
Rural folk don't think that urban folk really care about what's going on beyond those big-city borders. The cities just gobble up the small towns that are close by. Those that are too far away, well, city folk can't be troubled.
The farmers, ranchers, loggers and miners think city folk just like to sue -- over coal and timber, wolves and grizzlies, gold and silver -- just about anything.
While people living in the city have an almost mythical view of what goes on in the prairies and mountains. Those cowboys and farm hands and roughnecks will continue on in their colorful ways.
We've seen this tension before: when the smelters in Butte and Anaconda spewed toxic waste into the Deer Lodge Valley, or the fights over water and land, or when the college kids in the cities start protesting or joining PETA.
Fortunately, we tend to get beyond these problems and continue to work together as Montanans. Let's hope it stays this way because the truth is; we need each other, now more than ever.
Our state government -- that's right, government -- can help. I mean the legislature, governor's office and the agencies under them. There are things that our government can do to encourage urban and rural partnerships. There are also times when our government needs to be aware of the distinctions between urban and rural.
The governor and legislature need to advance sustainable farm-to-city relationships and create local markets for food, biodiesel, ethanol, wind power, and value-added natural resources. They also have to push for smart growth legislation that is flexible -- something for the cities that are bursting at the seams and something for the small towns that are dying.
The things that cities offer rural areas -- technical innovations, university research in agriculture and business, touring theater and art programs -- need to be adequately funded.
Our legislators must look beyond the old biases and cultivate a long-term strategy for our farms, ranches, small towns and growing cities. They can't kowtow to the short-term interests of corporate lobbyists.
The fact is, most Montanans have the same goals: we want a decent life for ourselves and our kids, we want jobs that reward us, and we want to raise our families with some semblance of Montana values. And we'd like some recreation from time-to-time, whether it's going to Grizzly/Bobcat ball games or backpacking in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
I can't imagine Montana or any western state without its rural landscapes and small towns. I like to think that rural Montana enjoys the entertainment, retail and cultural aspects of our cities.
By being creative, enlightened leadership from rural and urban communities can map a course that's sustainable and egalitarian. In these uncertain times of growth and change, we must remember that we're all in this together.
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Comments
Only about 1 in 4 or 5 of rural is farm as prime occupation based rural, the others are lifestyle choice or combination of reasons.
Will the urban/rural mix find a new stable level for the first half of the 21st century like the stable 50%/50% mix for the second half of the 20th century? Or will it keep going ever up reaching 70% at some point? Folks with vary on how much they like the new mix depending on how much they liked the oldmix they experienced. If you lived in a 75-80% urban state most of your life you might not even notice a change from 50-60% that much... or would you? And would it be disappointment of seeing that happen in Montana where you moved? Or excitement about what it brings in addition to the great outdoors? It will of course vary from person to person in this new west but which way will the majority of sentiment lean?
All other western states have already hit at least 70% urban. Wyoming will hit it soon or perhaps already has. Many western states are in fac more urban than national average: Colorado 82% in 1990, Arizona, Utah and Nevada were already pushing 90% urban then and probably over it by now. California was 92% urban then and could be closer to 95% now.
Our state government can indeed help.The state should foster entrepreneurship and attract and retain high human capital, but not try to guess likely winners.
Constructive policies include substantial investments in higher education and fundamental tax reform. Relaxed environmental standards, poor schools, and high marginal income and business taxes invite economic failure. All repel entrepreneurs.
But beware state intervention that portends to "know" our economic future. Our region has a sorry track record in this regard. Here's but one example.
Between 1933 and 1938 the Columbia Basin Project (CBP) impounded water behind the Grand Coulee Dam. It was to provide irrigation and power to 100,000 family farms, and turn the desert of eastern Washington into lush farmland. Two generations later, only a few thousand farmers and corporations work the irrigated land-at great cost to taxpayers and the environment.
What was the problem? Federal planners designed policies for an unknown future, the only kind we have. The CBP plans did not anticipate changes in technology such as the replacement of horses by tractors. The tractors, tillers, and harvesters all became much, much larger and faster. This led to huge consolidation rather than 40-acre farms. Social preferences are even more difficult to predict (e.g., for healthy runs of wild salmon instead of more dams for irrigation).
Montana is fundamentally two states. The fast-growing western counties (e.g., Missoula, Flathead, Gallatin, and Ravalli) are economically and culturally linked with major metropolitan areas.
In contrast, the eastern two-thirds of the state is part of the high desert plains extending east to the 98th meridian. It has fewer people today than during World War I.
Economic and ecological forces have proved that John Wesley Powell got it right in his 1878 Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States. He warned that the region's adverse mix of climate and topography would preclude repeating the successful homesteading experience in the Midwest.
In this region, as elsewhere in the developed world, information, transportation, and technological improvements drive out higher-cost agricultural producers. The consolidation of farms and ranches follows and towns decline.
foster a 'win/win' situation between our 'city and country cousins' and realize we have more
to gain than lose.
Farmers need to communicate better and urban folk need to understand where their food really comes from. Urban dwellers can benefit from farmers markets that are part of German culture at least what I've seen held every Saturday,where
they still control sprawl, and balance the town/village culture with the rich farmland that
surrounds them. The Germans shop locally, HATE
Walmarts, and still take walks in the local woods, and try to appreciate what they have, at
least in the smaller cities, villages and towns.