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  31. <title> Q&#038;A: Author Emilee Hackney&#8217;s Fundamentalist Youth</title>
  32. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-emilee-hackneys-fundamentalist-youth/2026/08/14/</link>
  33. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-emilee-hackneys-fundamentalist-youth/2026/08/14/#respond</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Olivia Weeks]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[Religion & Faith]]></category>
  39. <category><![CDATA[Path Finders]]></category>
  40. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242317</guid>
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  43. <p>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&#38;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. [&#8230;]</p>
  44. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-emilee-hackneys-fundamentalist-youth/2026/08/14/"> Q&amp;A: Author Emilee Hackney&#8217;s Fundamentalist Youth</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  45. ]]></description>
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  47. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in </em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/path-finders/"><em>Path Finders</em></a><em>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can </em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-appalachian-potter-josh-copus-has-mud-in-the-blood/2025/06/20/#signup"><em>join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</em></a><em> and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.</em></p>
  48.  
  49.  
  50.  
  51. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Emilee Hackney is a writer from Tazewell, Virginia. Her book, <em>All That’s Unseen: An Appalachian Memoir</em>, was released in July. In it, she writes about her childhood in southwest Virginia, her descent into fundamentalist Christianity, and the perspective she gained on those experiences when she left home.</p>
  52.  
  53.  
  54.  
  55. <p class="has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph"><em>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.&nbsp;</em></p>
  56.  
  57.  
  58.  
  59. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The Daily Yonder: I want to start where the memoir leaves off. What are you up to now?</strong></p>
  60.  
  61.  
  62.  
  63. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Emily Hacknee: </strong>I love that because that&#8217;s usually the last question I get. So that&#8217;s fun. I am living in the Charlottesville, Virginia area. I actually work in the University of Virginia English department, but I&#8217;m on the administrative side. I&#8217;m married and I have a six-month-old. I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2022, which was immediately after my dad passed away. I just went on this long, long hike and that&#8217;s where I met my husband and now we have a baby. So that&#8217;s where all my free time goes.</p>
  64.  
  65.  
  66.  
  67. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: That&#8217;s lovely. That&#8217;s crazy timing, having a six-month-old and a brand new book out that&#8217;s getting a lot of attention. How does that feel?</strong></p>
  68.  
  69.  
  70.  
  71. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>Well, the baby, she was a surprise. I was gonna wait until after the book came out, because I thought “That&#8217;ll be a lot to be a mom and have a book coming out.” And I was not wrong about that. But she came exactly when she was supposed to. And it&#8217;s been a lot of fun. She was at my book launch event the other night and lately she&#8217;s been really fussy because she&#8217;s been teething, but she slept through the whole thing, which was great.&nbsp;</p>
  72.  
  73.  
  74.  
  75. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: What a blessing! Ok, for readers, can you just share the basic premise of your memoir, and maybe what motivated you to write it?</strong></p>
  76.  
  77.  
  78.  
  79. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>Yeah, it&#8217;s about my life growing up in the Appalachian coalfields, growing up in a Pentecostal church and falling very deeply into religion. It’s about entering into a pretty unhealthy relationship when I was a very young teenager with an older guy, planning to get married and become a pastor&#8217;s wife and just live this life of motherhood and subservience.</p>
  80.  
  81.  
  82.  
  83. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And when our relationship fell apart in a really dramatic way, I ended up applying to Harvard, unexpectedly getting in, and experiencing extreme culture shock. I was coming from the coalfields to Harvard, which you know is just its own culture and world that’s really hard to describe to somebody that&#8217;s not been part of it. And to me especially it was a really big transition. So a lot of the book grapples with my feeling of “unbelonging” at Harvard, but also once I returned home, my feeling of unbelonging there since I left. So there are a lot of questions about identity and themes of home and what it means to belong in a place.&nbsp;</p>
  84.  
  85.  
  86.  
  87. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: Can you talk a little bit about your motivations for sharing those experiences with the world? What made you want to write about it in this way?</strong></p>
  88.  
  89.  
  90.  
  91. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>When I went to Harvard, because of that culture shock, I just kinda withdrew from everybody and everything. I was just really lonely on campus. I didn&#8217;t speak in class. I didn&#8217;t really have any friends. I just isolated myself, basically, because I was always getting stereotyped based on my accent and where I&#8217;m from. And then I took a class in narrative writing with <a href="https://michaelpollan.com/">Michael Pollan</a> in my junior year. He was really interested in my background and my stories and encouraged me to write about my experiences growing up in Appalachia and growing up in the church I did. He was really encouraging of my stories and not in the pitying way that I often experienced when I told people. He was such a curious teacher and his encouragement led me to writing about all my experiences. Those essays ended up becoming my senior thesis, and from there Michael encouraged me to think about turning them into a book. He connected me with his agent and she saw something in it she really liked too. And I got a lot of advice from her.&nbsp;</p>
  92.  
  93.  
  94.  
  95. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I wasn&#8217;t just writing it because other people were saying, “You should write this.” I wrote it because I was so frustrated with how the outside world sees Appalachia, just by its stereotypes. And that&#8217;s all that I felt like I was seen for. So I just wanted to write about my experience there, even though it&#8217;s kind of an unusual one, in the church that I grew up in. I felt like there needed to be a narrative out there of what it&#8217;s like to come from real Appalachia.</p>
  96.  
  97.  
  98.  
  99. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: It was interesting to me because so many of the entries to this genre, this kind of memoir, have an incipient trauma that the rest of the book follows. And obviously your experiences in the church and with your former fiancé were really crazy and traumatic in many ways, but it was interesting to me that your childhood itself, in a lot of ways, seemed pretty normal. Not that the way that you wrote about it was banal or anything like that, but there was a sort of banality to the childhood chapters. It was a display of normalcy in some ways. Does that resonate with you at all?</strong></p>
  100.  
  101.  
  102.  
  103. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>No, it totally does. Things start to fly off the rails once I become a teenager and get really involved in this church and this relationship. But I&#8217;ve heard that from other people, that it&#8217;s kind of interesting in the way that things sort of go backwards from the typical structure.&nbsp;</p>
  104.  
  105.  
  106.  
  107. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: Just to go back to something that you said about trying to push back against outsider perspectives on Appalachia, can you try to characterize what it is that you were writing against or felt compelled to write against when you were in college?</strong></p>
  108.  
  109.  
  110.  
  111. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>I transferred to Harvard in 2017 and this was right on the heels of the 2016 election and <em>Hillbilly Elegy</em> and I feel like that probably played a large part into why I was always getting stereotyped by people. Like I had somebody ask me if I’d ever shot a gun. I had somebody else ask me if I voted for Trump. Just these really invasive questions, solely based on stereotypes from the media about Appalachia. Especially at that time a lot of Appalachia voted very red. And then <em>Hillbilly Elegy</em> was perpetuating these stereotypes about Appalachia that have been around for decades, about poverty and addiction and domestic abuse. That book was in my head as I was writing mine because it was, unfortunately, the big Appalachian narrative. So I didn&#8217;t want to do what JD Vance did in his book, like talk about Appalachian culture as a whole. I wanted to talk about <em>my</em> experiences in Appalachia, <em>my</em> personal experiences. But through that hoping that people would see that there&#8217;s a lot of nuance to the origins of these stereotypes, even if some of them do ring true. You know, there&#8217;s poverty in my book and there&#8217;s addiction and domestic violence. All the themes that are present in Vance’s book are present in mine. But I wanted to give a different picture of what it could look like and not say this is the norm, necessarily.</p>
  112.  
  113.  
  114.  
  115. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: To dig into your individual life experience a little bit more, can you describe a little bit what the kind of Pentecostalism that you grew up in looked like?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  116.  
  117.  
  118.  
  119. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>I guess I should start with the pastor because he lived in a different state and he visited my part of Appalachia, southwest Virginia, in the late nineties or early two thousands. He said that he saw a lot of hopelessness, and I guess the opioid crisis was starting to have an effect. So he relocated his family there and built a church. And it was a different kind of church from everything that was around there at the time. It labeled itself non-denominational. It had this veneer of contemporariness and modernity that most churches didn&#8217;t have. We had Christian rock music and the pastor was wearing t-shirts and there were young families. It was something new and different that people hadn’t experienced before, including my mom, which is why she was drawn to it.&nbsp;</p>
  120.  
  121.  
  122.  
  123. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">There was freedom to worship however you wanted. It was loud, rambunctious, charismatic. And it became pretty popular in my community. It grew to have two services, and there were hundreds of people that went there, which is pretty significant for where I grew up because it&#8217;s a town of a few thousand people. But I say it was a veneer of contemporariness because underneath it there were a lot of fundamental ideas.</p>
  124.  
  125.  
  126.  
  127. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I should say that the pastor himself was not as radical as a lot of the members of the church. When I started to get more deeply into religion with the man who became my fiancé, we became involved in this group of people that had some really radical ideas, like really extreme ideas about men being superior to women and what a woman&#8217;s place is.</p>
  128.  
  129.  
  130.  
  131. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: I wanted to ask about what it was like to reflect on that time in your life really closely as you must have had to to write this book, and also whether you miss any parts of that time of your life. What do you think fundamentally that that really intensive churchgoing was giving to you?</strong></p>
  132.  
  133.  
  134.  
  135. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>I felt this very, very strong sense of community and friendship and kinship with these people that I was going to church with four or five times a week. I felt so close to them. We would go to each other&#8217;s houses and spend time together, go out to eat together. It was a very close circle of friends. But also, and I talk about this in my book, as soon as I left the church we never spoke again. So how sincere were those relationships? It was basically built on what we collectively believed and so reflecting on it makes me a little bit sad, I guess, because it seems like there was not a lot like holding our friendship together. But yeah, that community I really miss.&nbsp;</p>
  136.  
  137.  
  138. <div class="wp-block-image">
  139. <figure class="alignright size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242319" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?w=972&amp;ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=570%2C760&amp;ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=900%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=600%2C800&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=150%2C200&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=400%2C533&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?resize=706%2C941&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-19.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">At Harvard in 2017, on the heels of the 2016 election and &#8220;<em>Hillbilly Elegy</em>,&#8221; Hackney encountered questions from peers that were based in stereotypes. (Photo provided by Emilee Hackney)</figcaption></figure>
  140. </div>
  141.  
  142.  
  143. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I also really miss the feeling of having something special, having a special connection to God. It&#8217;s something that&#8217;s hard to explain, that feeling of being so supernaturally in tune with the divine. That feeling is unlike anything I can describe or anything I&#8217;ve ever experienced since.</p>
  144.  
  145.  
  146.  
  147. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: Yeah, I mean, I can imagine doing a lot of things that I otherwise wouldn&#8217;t if I was experiencing a supernatural connection with the divine.&nbsp;</strong></p>
  148.  
  149.  
  150.  
  151. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>It&#8217;s interesting to hear you talk about the friendships that you had within the church, and I think it sort of helps me make sense of my experience of reading the book, because one thing I really noticed while I was reading is that we don’t get much close description of your friends from that time period. The characters that stand out are the pastor and your boyfriend at the time and and your parents. But it&#8217;s almost like the other people that you were surrounded by don&#8217;t seem to stand out in any clear way at a lot of different points.</strong></p>
  152.  
  153.  
  154.  
  155. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>A lot of it is just that the book started to go so long that unnecessary stuff got cut, but also I guess where those friendships were not very long lasting, it didn&#8217;t feel as important for me to describe them.</p>
  156.  
  157.  
  158.  
  159. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: It makes sense, especially given that that&#8217;s your read on it now.&nbsp;</strong></p>
  160.  
  161.  
  162.  
  163. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>I also got the sense the break from that form of Christianity was much sharper than your break from the kinds of conservative politics you grew up in. You seem to lose all sympathy for that kind of proselytizing Christianity very quickly. You have an anecdote about being at college and being invited to a Christian students group and being so horrified by it that you throw your plate of food away and leave. But one thing that you described holding onto pretty deep into college is a complicated sympathy for pro-Trump politics, and then much later on you have a change of heart about that. But I was wondering if you could reflect on or compare those two breaks in your thinking.</strong></p>
  164.  
  165.  
  166.  
  167. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>I think the break with the church was so immediate because it was just such a shock to see the excuses that were made for my fiancé preying on a child in that church. It was such a horrifying thing that the disillusionment was instantaneous. I didn&#8217;t feel like there was any way I could make excuses. For the politics, it felt more like a hazy middle ground that was not as stark. Most people I knew were Trump voters at the time. Quite a few have reversed at this point, but back then it seemed like most people I knew were still fairly conservative and I guess, you know, it&#8217;s kind of sad, but a lot of times we change our opinions when we&#8217;re personally affected by something. And to me that didn&#8217;t happen until I was writing my essay in an undergraduate investigative journalism class about what Trump had done for coal country.</p>
  168.  
  169.  
  170.  
  171. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I had in my head that he was helping my home region. I saw coal making a little bit of a comeback when he was elected. And Trump had promised to do that, so I just assumed that it was his doing. And, you know, come to find out that it wasn&#8217;t. It just took longer for me to see the truth of what was really happening. In my church, I saw that truth immediately. On the political change, it just took longer and it took more digging and more thought.&nbsp;</p>
  172.  
  173.  
  174.  
  175. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I will say too, there&#8217;s another aspect of it that&#8217;s interesting. When I went up to Harvard, Cambridge was so liberal, right? And I come from this very conservative place. I was getting stereotyped by all these professors and other people. So I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I was like, “All these liberals, they just think they know everything. They think they&#8217;re better than me.” It just made me feel very spiteful. So I felt like I had to cling onto that conservative identity in a way because I just felt so looked down upon because of my background. I wasn&#8217;t even <em>that</em> conservative, but I was like, “I&#8217;m way more conservative than all these liberals that think they&#8217;re better than me.”</p>
  176.  
  177.  
  178.  
  179. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: It reminds me of the part of the book which I loved and really related to where you go home for one of the summers of college and you&#8217;re like, “I was shooting guns and drinking beers and I never did that before but all of a sudden it felt like part of my identity.”</strong></p>
  180.  
  181.  
  182.  
  183. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>Yeah, like, “I have to do this because the liberals think this is all we are, so maybe that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ll be.”</p>
  184.  
  185.  
  186.  
  187. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: I&#8217;ve talked about this before, but I did the same thing with country music. I loved country music as a kid, but I kinda rejected it as a teenager and then as soon as I went away to college I got so into it and sort of performatively made it part of my identity. And I stand by my tastes but it was funny that being in a sterile liberal city made me want to listen to the country music of my childhood again for the first time in years.</strong></p>
  188.  
  189.  
  190.  
  191. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>I lived next to one of the <a href="https://harvardpolitics.com/final-clubs-explained/">final clubs</a> one year and every single weekend they would play “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” I was like, “How bizarre to hear this song about West Virginia in Cambridge?” It made me homesick, but it was also a really strange feeling.</p>
  192.  
  193.  
  194.  
  195. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: You’re very fresh off of the book’s release right now. Has there been anything surprising to you about the reception, or what&#8217;s the release experience been like for you?</strong></p>
  196.  
  197.  
  198.  
  199. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>EH: </strong>Well the morning of the launch party my publicist asked me how many people I thought would come. I was like, “I think 25, hopefully more.” And there were 80 people. They sold out of books. It was absolutely insane. I was not expecting that kind of reception at all. And a good chunk of them were people I didn&#8217;t even know. People seem to be genuinely interested in what an Appalachian experience is like, and not in like the way that people were in 2016. It seems more curious and more genuine. And I&#8217;ve gotten tons of messages from people from my hometown or people that grew up around Tazewell or southwest Virginia and I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback. People are like, “Thanks for putting Tazewell on the map and talking about us.”</p>
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  216. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This interview first appeared in <strong>Path Finders</strong>, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. </p>
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  257. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>
  258. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-author-emilee-hackneys-fundamentalist-youth/2026/08/14/"> Q&amp;A: Author Emilee Hackney&#8217;s Fundamentalist Youth</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  259. ]]></content:encoded>
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  266. <item>
  267. <title>Yonder Radio: Hay Rake Ballet, Rural Cemeteries, and the Appalachian Robin Hood</title>
  268. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-hay-rake-ballet-rural-cemeteries-and-the-appalachian-robin-hood/2026/08/14/</link>
  269. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-hay-rake-ballet-rural-cemeteries-and-the-appalachian-robin-hood/2026/08/14/#respond</comments>
  271. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff]]></dc:creator>
  272. <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  273. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  274. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242136</guid>
  275.  
  276. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  277. <p>Tune in to Yonder Radio for conversations about the future of small rural cemeteries, the Appalachian Robin Hood, and a unique ballet - performed by hay rakes. This week's musician is Bill Salmon.</p>
  278. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-hay-rake-ballet-rural-cemeteries-and-the-appalachian-robin-hood/2026/08/14/">Yonder Radio: Hay Rake Ballet, Rural Cemeteries, and the Appalachian Robin Hood</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  279. ]]></description>
  280. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  281. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  282. <iframe loading="lazy" title="Yonder Radio 8/13/26 Billboard" width="780" height="439" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hjL2pn7ZJ8g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  283. </div></figure>
  284.  
  285.  
  286.  
  287. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Every week, Yonder Radio brings rural conversations with national reach to listeners around the country.</p>
  288.  
  289.  
  290.  
  291. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">We start out talking to Daily Yonder contributor Kaitlyn McConnell about the future of small <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/ozarks-notebook-rural-cemeteries-shift-in-changing-times/2026/06/10/">rural cemeteries in the Ozarks</a>. As donations decline and cemetery caretakers age, communities and individuals will have to decide what happens to these sites of local history.&nbsp;</p>
  292.  
  293.  
  294.  
  295. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Then we head to Montana, where theater-maker Michael Rohd is taking his show on the road, bringing interactive performances about mental health to communities around the state. Next, we’ll learn about a one-of-a-kind ballet in Wisconsin, where the dancing is done by farm equipment – hay rakes, to be exact.&nbsp;</p>
  296.  
  297.  
  298.  
  299. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">We’ll hear from French filmmaker Luce Fayolle about her time documenting the American Southwest, and musician and professor Trevor McKenzie brings us the story of Otto Wood, also known as the Appalachian Robin Hood.&nbsp;</p>
  300.  
  301.  
  302.  
  303. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Our featured musician is Bruce Salmon, who combines influences from funk to Klezmer in the hills of New Mexico. </p>
  304.  
  305.  
  306.  
  307. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tune in for all that and more on this week’s episode of Yonder Radio.</p>
  308.  
  309.  
  310.  
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  312. <iframe title="Spotify Embed: Yonder Radio 8/13/26 (Podcast version, no breaks)" style="border-radius: 12px" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/5EwCHPJuV5BdIeIer8fDU8?si=5b91bc20251e4d91&amp;utm_source=oembed"></iframe>
  313. </div></figure>
  314.  
  315.  
  316.  
  317. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yonder Radio is available across all digital platforms, and on air with partner radio stations around the country. If you&#8217;re a station interested in broadcasting Yonder Radio, sign up below or get in contact with the team at <a href="mailto:info@yonderradio.com">joel@ruralstrategies.org</a>.</p>
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  326. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Join our Network</h2>
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  360. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>If you want to broadcast or publish Yonder Radio, sign up here to be the first to know when the show goes live. If you have questions, you can also reach our team at <a href="mailto:info@yonderradio.com">info@yonderradio.com</a>. </strong></p>
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  362.  
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  364.  
  365. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">More Information About Yonder Radio</h2>
  366.  
  367.  
  368.  
  369. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What?</strong></p>
  370.  
  371.  
  372.  
  373. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio</strong>&nbsp;is a new, free, hour-long show that is fresh every week and designed to help fill programming gaps. We’ll feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home.</p>
  374.  
  375.  
  376.  
  377. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Each week will start with a news round-up: think of this as the top headlines read through a rural lens. For instance, how does a government shutdown affect federal workers living in rural communities? Or, what do changes in Medicare policy mean for small town hospitals? We’ll also talk with reporters for in-depth but conversational segments going beyond the headlines, exploring their coverage on topics shaping rural communities. We’ll highlight how these stories unfold across different regions, offering local nuance with a broader perspective.</p>
  378.  
  379.  
  380.  
  381. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is not just news. It’s also a show focused on rural lives and livelihoods. That means weekly human-interest stories, hearing from hunters, farmers, gardeners, and shopkeepers; conversations with artists supporting and reimagining traditions; performances by regional musicians; and vibrant analysis of rural representation in pop culture. Add in a round of engaging trivia, and you’ve got a show that’s as rich and varied as the places it comes from.</p>
  382.  
  383.  
  384.  
  385. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why?</strong></p>
  386.  
  387.  
  388.  
  389. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Public media just took a $1.1 billion hit, thanks to recent Congressional cuts, and as we’ve all seen, it’s rural broadcasters that bear the brunt. And even before these cuts, the rural communities we all cover have felt the consequences of a media landscape transformed by conglomerates, consolidation, and the declining resources available to local outlets.&nbsp;</p>
  390.  
  391.  
  392.  
  393. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is designed to fill programming gaps for those stations struggling to find quality content. It will be formatted to fit stations’ needs with internal breaks built in.&nbsp;The show&nbsp;gives stations an accessible, flexible, high-quality hour of content every week.</p>
  394.  
  395.  
  396.  
  397. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Who?</strong></p>
  398.  
  399.  
  400.  
  401. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is produced by the Center for Rural Strategies, publisher of the Daily Yonder. Centering rural stories with nuance, context, and care has made the Daily Yonder the nation’s preeminent source for rural news for nearly two decades. Rural Strategies’ additional programs, including Rural Assembly, Rural Faith Initiative, and Living Traditions, will provide enriching voices and stories to this collaborative radio show.&nbsp;<strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is hosted by Jared Ewy, a veteran radio personality and regular contributor to the Daily Yonder.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  402.  
  403.  
  404.  
  405. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>
  406. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-hay-rake-ballet-rural-cemeteries-and-the-appalachian-robin-hood/2026/08/14/">Yonder Radio: Hay Rake Ballet, Rural Cemeteries, and the Appalachian Robin Hood</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  407. ]]></content:encoded>
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  413. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242136</post-id> </item>
  414. <item>
  415. <title>Doctors Work to Address Access to Trauma Care for Rural Residents</title>
  416. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/doctors-work-to-address-access-to-trauma-care-for-rural-residents/2026/08/13/</link>
  417. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/doctors-work-to-address-access-to-trauma-care-for-rural-residents/2026/08/13/#respond</comments>
  419. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Liz Carey]]></dc:creator>
  420. <pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  421. <category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
  422. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240993</guid>
  423.  
  424. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="675" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C675&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C501&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C854&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C506&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1012&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1350&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C791&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1318&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C514&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C264&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C465&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C675&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  425. <p>For rural residents, suffering a traumatic injury doesn’t just mean a quick trip to the emergency room. Research has shown that rural residents are at higher risk of death from trauma due to a lack of access to care. For many rural residents suffering from a traumatic injury, the greatest challenge they face is how [&#8230;]</p>
  426. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/doctors-work-to-address-access-to-trauma-care-for-rural-residents/2026/08/13/">Doctors Work to Address Access to Trauma Care for Rural Residents</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  427. ]]></description>
  428. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="675" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C675&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C501&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C854&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C506&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1012&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1350&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C791&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1318&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C514&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C264&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C465&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/AP18040702524025-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C675&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  429. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For rural residents, suffering a traumatic injury doesn’t just mean a quick trip to the emergency room.</p>
  430.  
  431.  
  432.  
  433. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5118091/">Research has shown that rural residents</a> are at higher risk of death from trauma due to a lack of access to care. For many rural residents suffering from a traumatic injury, the greatest challenge they face is how quickly they can get to a trauma center. Some doctors and researchers are working to fix that.&nbsp;</p>
  434.  
  435.  
  436.  
  437. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“When it comes to getting rural patients to an appropriate level of care, in some cases we’re talking about hours, not minutes,” said Bracken Burns, professor of surgery at East Tennessee State University (ETSU).</p>
  438.  
  439.  
  440.  
  441. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">At ETSU, Burns was one of a number of physicians and community leaders who developed a regional network of hospitals that could better serve trauma patients in Appalachian Tennessee.</p>
  442.  
  443.  
  444.  
  445. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In 2018, Ballad Health partnered with the<a href="https://www.etsu.edu/com/"> ETSU Quillen College of Medicine</a> to establish an advisory group to assess the trauma system in their area. They determined the best solution was to consolidate the regions’ two Level 1 trauma centers into one at Johnson City Medical Center, while maintaining Level 3 trauma services at Holston Valley Medical Center and Bristol Regional Medical Center. That consolidation became the <a href="https://www.balladhealth.org/medical-services/trauma-care">Ballad Health Trauma Network,</a> a regional system that coordinates care and gets patients to the hospital that best meets their needs.</p>
  446.  
  447.  
  448.  
  449. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Even if there is a hospital nearby, that emergency room may not have the equipment necessary to adequately treat traumatic injuries, Burns explained. Transportation to a larger hospital can sometimes take hours, and there may not be ambulances available to transport them. And if a patient gets to a larger hospital for treatment, there may be a time lag between the time they arrive in the emergency room and when they can be admitted and seen.</p>
  450.  
  451.  
  452.  
  453. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Trauma is not always the result of auto or equipment accidents, but can result from a wide range of more common incidents, Burns said.</p>
  454.  
  455.  
  456.  
  457. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“One of the most common things we see that people probably wouldn&#8217;t think about as trauma care is falls — not particularly meaning falling off a ladder or off a skyscraper, but literally falling from a standing height or out of a chair. That can be a life-threatening issue to an older person on anticoagulants,” he said.&nbsp;</p>
  458.  
  459.  
  460.  
  461. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We certainly see a lot of people involved in motor vehicle accidents. and we do see penetrating trauma as well, like stab wounds, and gunshot wounds … but another area that is a little more unique to the rural environment is activities that you don&#8217;t see in urban environments, things like ATV accidents and injuries related to farm animals,” he said. “It&#8217;s a really, really wide range as to what those injuries might be.”</p>
  462.  
  463.  
  464.  
  465. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ensuring rural patients have access to care that could address those injuries required collaboration, he said.</p>
  466.  
  467.  
  468.  
  469. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">”The importance of establishing a network is understanding what resources are available at each facility,” Burns said. “Say we have an elderly person who falls and breaks their hip. We have several hospitals within the health system that can repair a broken hip. We also have several hospitals within the health system that don&#8217;t have orthopedic care. So, for those facilities, it&#8217;s about getting the patient to the closest appropriate facility to get the care that they need.”</p>
  470.  
  471.  
  472.  
  473. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In 2024, a national study looked at the success of the network and found “significantly decreased’ death rates and decreased transfers to other facilities from the most serious traumatic injuries.</p>
  474.  
  475.  
  476.  
  477. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That study,<a href="https://www.balladhealth.org/news/national-study-consolidation-saves-lives"> published in The American Surgeon</a>, reported that after the consolidation, the rate of deaths among patients who were at the highest level of trauma activation (those who required surgery within the first 24 hours of admission) decreased by almost 24%. The study also found that, regardless of the level of injury, patients were less likely to need skilled nursing or rehabilitation after being discharged.</p>
  478.  
  479.  
  480.  
  481. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The change meant that hundreds of lives were saved because of the work put into the trauma system.</p>
  482.  
  483.  
  484.  
  485. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The only thing surprising about the results of the study is the significance of the improvement in survival rates for patients most likely to die from their injuries,” Burns said. “We expected improvement in mortality rates, and we expected to see fewer patients transferred out. But the significance of the improvement is stunning and is a result, I think, that experts will point to as support for the regionalization of trauma care.”</p>
  486.  
  487.  
  488.  
  489. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That change in the way trauma care is handled in rural communities could impact the lives of millions, Dr. Jeffrey Kerby, chair of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma,<a href="https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/the-power-of-quality/quality-in-action/sudden-impact-vs-distance-and-time-rural-patients-and-trauma-care/"> wrote in a blog post for the American College of Surgeons.</a></p>
  490.  
  491.  
  492.  
  493. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Nationally, as of 2022, about 47 million people in the U.S. live more than an hour away from a high-level trauma center. Simply equipping rural hospitals to handle traumas isn’t the solution, Kerby noted.</p>
  494.  
  495.  
  496.  
  497. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“If we wanted to address the immediate needs of rural patients, we would need to build 110 trauma centers across the US, which is not realistic,” Kerby wrote.</p>
  498.  
  499.  
  500.  
  501. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In April 2026, an opinion paper published in the BMJ Journal by Kerby and nine other physicians recommended the creation of “Regional Medical Operations Coordinating Centers” that would function like hub-and-spoke networks to foster collaboration between healthcare facilities.</p>
  502.  
  503.  
  504.  
  505. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“In rural settings, where distance, low volume, and resource scarcity pose ongoing challenges, RMOCCs can knit together disparate systems by coordinating communication across the region, managing hospital capacity and patient flow to minimize potentially avoidable transfers, and facilitating transparent management of resources like teletrauma capability and blood products to ensure equitable care throughout the region,” the authors wrote.</p>
  506.  
  507.  
  508.  
  509. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Burns said having trauma networks doesn’t automatically mean rural residents would leave their communities to receive treatment. The goal, he said, is to keep patients as close to home as possible. But when a patient needs services their home hospital cannot provide, it’s important to get them to the right facility, and to smooth their transition so other hospitals are prepared for them.</p>
  510.  
  511.  
  512.  
  513. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I’m a doctor, so my first and only priority at any given time is patient care,” he said. “When we try to build a network, that&#8217;s really where our focus is — what&#8217;s in the best interest of the patient and how do we do that safely and efficiently?”</p>
  514.  
  515.  
  516.  
  517. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  518. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/doctors-work-to-address-access-to-trauma-care-for-rural-residents/2026/08/13/">Doctors Work to Address Access to Trauma Care for Rural Residents</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  525. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240993</post-id> </item>
  526. <item>
  527. <title>Balanced Stewardship of the Land to Save the Prairie</title>
  528. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/balanced-stewardship-of-the-land-to-save-the-prairie/2026/08/12/</link>
  529. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/balanced-stewardship-of-the-land-to-save-the-prairie/2026/08/12/#respond</comments>
  531. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Nhatt Nichols]]></dc:creator>
  532. <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  533. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
  534. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  535. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=241818</guid>
  536.  
  537. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  538. <p>If you spend any time at all on the prairie, someone is going to hurl that quote by Willa Cather at you, about how anyone can love a mountain, but it takes a soul to love a prairie. It’s normally offered with both apology and pride: “Look, we know the prairie is subtle, but we’re [&#8230;]</p>
  539. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/balanced-stewardship-of-the-land-to-save-the-prairie/2026/08/12/">Balanced Stewardship of the Land to Save the Prairie</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  540. ]]></description>
  541. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Horizontal-Cattle-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  542. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you spend any time at all on the prairie, someone is going to hurl that quote by Willa Cather at you, about how anyone can love a mountain, but it takes a soul to love a prairie. It’s normally offered with both apology and pride: “Look, we know the prairie is subtle, but we’re the kind of people who can appreciate subtle things.”&nbsp;</p>
  543.  
  544.  
  545.  
  546. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The thing about being subtle is that it’s easy to be undervalued, and for a great deal of the grassland, that means converting prairie to commodity farming and losing thousands of acres of quietly crucial prairie ecosystem.&nbsp;</p>
  547.  
  548.  
  549.  
  550. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The prairie needs preservation, which is how <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/colorado/">The Nature Conservancy</a> ended up partnering with a rancher to run a historic ranch in eastern Colorado.&nbsp;</p>
  551.  
  552.  
  553.  
  554. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Going Way Back</strong></h3>
  555.  
  556.  
  557.  
  558. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Fox Ranch sits on Colorado’s eastern border next to Kansas and Nebraska, on a corner of the prairie that looks nothing like the flat expanse that you may have seen out your car window as you pass through middle America’s miles of grassland.&nbsp;</p>
  559.  
  560.  
  561.  
  562. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here you’ll find canyons, dunes, sagebrush, cottonwood trees that sound like a river when the wind rushes through them, pronghorns, box turtles, rattlesnakes, burrowing owls, and entire prairie dog cities.&nbsp;</p>
  563.  
  564.  
  565.  
  566. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Fox has been a ranch in one form or another since settlers first arrived in Yuma County in the late 19th century, but in 2000, the ranch was acquired by a different kind of owner: The Nature Conservancy.&nbsp;</p>
  567.  
  568.  
  569.  
  570. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Before visiting Fox Ranch, my understanding of the role of cattle in conservation was tied to my first job, working for the Forest Service. At 15, I joined the Job Corps with the hopes of getting to work for the Okanogan Gazette as a photojournalist. Instead, I was brought to the ranger station and assigned to trail after a couple of young ornithologists studying goshawk habitat.&nbsp;</p>
  571.  
  572.  
  573.  
  574. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">We would hike for hours to the most remote parts of the national forest, only to find a cow standing in the middle of a stream, defecating. The ecologists I was assisting complained about the relationship that ranchers had with the National Forests, lamenting the fact that a domestic animal would be allowed to damage the environment they were so deeply invested in.</p>
  575.  
  576.  
  577.  
  578. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">My two take-aways from time with the Goshawk crew were that I needed my work to involve being outside in the world, and that cattle are an ecological disaster whose presence needs active conservation efforts to mitigate.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  579.  
  580.  
  581.  
  582. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I’m not alone in feeling uneasy about animal agriculture. When we’re talking about farming animals as a large commercial industry, we’re talking about one of our world’s biggest ecological issues. Animal agriculture uses 83% of the world’s farmland and contributes over 50% of all agricultural emissions. Cattle are a driving factor in climate change, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to include them in conservation, or ways to bring the carbon hoofprint down to a more reasonable size.</p>
  583.  
  584.  
  585.  
  586. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Cattle are a large part of the conservation plan at Fox Ranch. Forty minutes on a sandy road from anywhere, we find a place singing to balance, to abundance, and to the idea that the undomesticated can exist, even thrive, alongside a cultivated human and bovine existence. Perhaps that’s where Cather’s prairie soul truly dwells – in the possibility of those working to balance the land.&nbsp;</p>
  587.  
  588.  
  589.  
  590. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Underappreciation Leading to Loss</strong></h3>
  591.  
  592.  
  593.  
  594. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tyler Smith, the conservationist at Fox Ranch, is a true lover of the prairie and an advocate for the role cattle can play in conservation. A native of Colorado, Smith came back from the East Coast for the big skies and the grass.</p>
  595.  
  596.  
  597.  
  598. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I think our grasslands are so underappreciated,” Smith said as we stared over the edge of a canyon, “and one of the most endangered terrestrial ecosystems on the planet, because they&#8217;re flat, they&#8217;re easy to convert into agriculture.”&nbsp;</p>
  599.  
  600.  
  601.  
  602. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">At that moment we were looking at a grassland that was decidedly not flat; beyond the canyon, an immense sea of grasses lapped at the Arickaree River’s cottonwood tree border. Below us, burrowing owls and prairie dogs peeked out from their holes, using rock features as protection.&nbsp;</p>
  603.  
  604.  
  605.  
  606. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Fox’s geography is an outlier in the region, and part of the reason it’s stayed prairie is that it would be almost impossible to convert it to farmland.</p>
  607.  
  608.  
  609.  
  610. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">However, Smith is generally right about the ease of conversion to commodity farming. If you’ve ever flown over plains country and seen circular patterns in fields, then you’ve seen what the conversion of grassland to center-pivot ag looks like.</p>
  611.  
  612.  
  613. <div class="wp-block-image">
  614. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-241821" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=972%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=570%2C760&amp;ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=900%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C200&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1600&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C2667&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C533&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C941&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-scaled.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Tyler_Smith_-conservationist-1-972x1296.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Nature Conservancy’s Tyler Smith helps guide the ecological work on Fox Ranch. (Illustration by Nhatt Nichols)</figcaption></figure>
  615. </div>
  616.  
  617.  
  618. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Monocrop farming impacts <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/crop-livestock-practices/soil-tillage-and-crop-rotation">soil health</a> through tilling and fertilizer practices, and <a href="https://ento.psu.edu/news/the-impacts-of-modern-agriculture-on-insect-diversity#:~:text=Pollinators%2C%20including%20bees%2C%20butterflies%2C%20and%20even%20some%20flies,of%20bloom%20that%20most%20pollinators%20need%20to%20thrive.">pollinators</a> through pesticides and loss of diverse habitat. We pay a hefty environmental price to separate ourselves so deeply from our food chain, to create whole food systems that don’t contribute positively to our ecosystem and instead compromise the survival of its elements.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  619.  
  620.  
  621.  
  622. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Fox Ranch is an experiment in braiding conservation and cattle together, balancing what’s best for the land with what’s best for ranchers and their community.&nbsp;</p>
  623.  
  624.  
  625.  
  626. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And it’s working. The ranch hosts eight species of fish on the Arickaree River, and conservation work has helped to keep what Smith calls “woody encroachment” at bay through efforts to remove eastern red cedar before it establishes itself on grassland.&nbsp;</p>
  627.  
  628.  
  629.  
  630. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">They have also seen sand bluestem, a native grass that signifies soil health, bounce back through careful grazing practices. The 350 calf/cow pairs that live at the Fox are constantly being shifted over its 14,700 acres; in fact, Smith tells me, they never graze in the same place twice in the same year.</p>
  631.  
  632.  
  633.  
  634. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Historic Role of a Ruminant</strong></h3>
  635.  
  636.  
  637.  
  638. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Great Plains, which the Fox is a part of, are in a deep relationship with ruminant grazing animals, first with the bison, and for the last few hundred years with cattle.&nbsp;</p>
  639.  
  640.  
  641.  
  642. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you want to preserve grassland, you need grazing animals. Ruminants convert grass into fertilizer, providing the nutrients plants need in order to grow. They also create habitat and food for the insects who feed animals like wild turkeys and prairie chickens.&nbsp;</p>
  643.  
  644.  
  645.  
  646. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">On my trip out to Colorado, I stopped at the Wind River Reservation to meet Jason and Patti Baldes, who the poet Chris La Tray introduced as the “Indian power couple” bringing buffalo back to native lands for their respective tribes. Their experiences with rematriarching buffalo are moving on emotional and ecological levels, stories of tribal members reconnecting with who they are along with the ways plants and insects flourish in buffalo wallows.&nbsp;</p>
  647.  
  648.  
  649.  
  650. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In his book <em>In the Country of the Kaw</em>, James Locklear explained the relationship between bison and the shortgrass prairie: “<em>Elegant </em>is not a word that springs to mind when contemplating a bison, but there was a profound ecological elegance in the relationship between bison and shortgrass prairie. I wonder if&nbsp; there is another place on Earth where the grazer and the grazed were so well fitted to one another.”&nbsp;</p>
  651.  
  652.  
  653.  
  654. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Patti took me through her own experiences of the elegant symbiotic nature of a buffalo and their habitat, the way their sharp hooves aerate the soil, the way their beards spread seeds. I, a vegan since my days with the Forest Service nearly thirty years ago, may seem to have very different feelings about the role animals and humans play in the food system than the Baldeses, but we overlap in our beliefs that creating a sustainable food and ecosystem is paramount to combating <a href="https://polycrisis.org/">the polycrisis</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  655.  
  656.  
  657.  
  658. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Though cattle are not as beneficial to the prairie ecosystem as bison, they help preserve the prairie by providing an economic benefit to the ranching community in Yuma County, Colorado, in ways that bison wouldn’t be able to. Because cattle are incompatible land users with center-pivot agriculture, their presence as an economic driver keeps prairie from going under the plow to become a monoculture farming entity.</p>
  659.  
  660.  
  661.  
  662. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In my brief stint with the Forest Service, I learned about the plants and small animals that make up a successful goshawk ecosystem. Most of my time was spent looking for habitat, trailing the grad students and professional ecologists that made up the goshawk team through the Okanogan wilderness. I learned to love the art of observation, of understanding the ways a wildflower could indicate the food source for a foodsource of a hawk.</p>
  663.  
  664.  
  665.  
  666. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Green Energy Isn’t Always for the Birds</strong></h3>
  667.  
  668.  
  669.  
  670. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">With birds and their habitat being at the pivotal to of my environmental awakening, it was hard not to fall in love with the greater prairie chicken. They’re elaborately costumed in stripes and bright colors, and their mating ritual includes making booming noises with their wings. So, when their numbers started to fall, the Nature Conservancy stepped in to figure out why, and what to do about it.&nbsp;</p>
  671.  
  672.  
  673.  
  674. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Fox Ranch is prime prairie chicken land, so naturally, they became a priority.</p>
  675.  
  676.  
  677.  
  678. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Smith explained that most of the issue is a loss of their habitats; prairie chickens are ground nesters, so habitat conversion to monocrop farming has been a major contributor to their downfall. But another surprising problem has been Colorado’s push for green energy.</p>
  679.  
  680.  
  681.  
  682. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Wind and solar farms are constructed out on the eastern plains, and they need utility lines to connect the power they generate to the people who use it.&nbsp;</p>
  683.  
  684.  
  685.  
  686. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Utility lines are really great places for raptors to perch, and raptors are probably the number one predator of prairie chickens,” Smith said. “Prairie chickens didn&#8217;t have high things that they lived around, and now they have all these utility lines and these really high posts for raptors to find them and prey on them.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>
  687.  
  688.  
  689.  
  690. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here is where cattle become prairie chicken heroes. Nathan Andrews, who runs the ranching side of Fox Ranch, has found a way to feed his herd without exposing the prairie chicken. When cattle bring a patch of grass down to around 14 inches, Andrews moves the cattle on to the next plot, leaving the perfect amount of cover to protect prairie chickens from hawks and other predators. This system has worked incredibly well for restoring the prairie chicken population to the ranch.</p>
  691.  
  692.  
  693.  
  694. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It&#8217;s not necessarily uncommon to be out there, especially in the winter, and flush out 20 to 50 prairie chickens at once, which is basically unheard of,” Smith said. “One of our staff entered it into one of those nature apps. And it rejected it because it didn&#8217;t believe that she counted 48 birds.”&nbsp;</p>
  695.  
  696.  
  697.  
  698. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>“If It’s Good for the Bird, It’s Good for the Herd”</strong></h3>
  699.  
  700.  
  701.  
  702. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Burnidge, Smith’s predecessor at the Nature Conservancy, was one of the people who set up the Fox Ranch to be both a working ranch and a conservation property. In other parts of the West, The Nature Conservancy works with tribal leadership to re-establish buffalo on the prairie. But on the Fox, Burnidge explained why they chose cattle over the arguably ecologically superior bison.</p>
  703.  
  704.  
  705.  
  706. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“No ranch is an island. And so if you need to have good community relations. And if you want to do that, finding a way to work with the local community, in a sense, culturally is very important,” Burnidge told me over the phone, explaining how they recognized the power of working with the local community instead of bringing in outsiders.</p>
  707.  
  708.  
  709.  
  710. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The land that is now Fox Ranch was historically part of the regional hunting grounds for the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute tribes. Since the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 and the subsequent relocation of those tribes, these lands have been under the stewardship of cattle ranchers, so that’s the community that the Nature Conservancy turned to.</p>
  711.  
  712.  
  713.  
  714. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We recognize that ruminant grazing is important, and practically speaking, going with cattle served a pragmatic need that is very difficult to do with bison,” Burnidge said. He explained that if you are in an area without an established tribal presence, you have to bring someone new into the community who is willing to become a part of the existing community. Since this is ranching country, it made sense to continue with the culture of cattle.</p>
  715.  
  716.  
  717.  
  718. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Everybody is deeply attached, from a cultural standpoint, to their livestock. And everybody cares about the health and well-being of their animals, whether they see them as a commodity product or as a relation,” Burnridge said.</p>
  719.  
  720.  
  721.  
  722. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>A Call for Prairie Heroes</strong></h3>
  723.  
  724.  
  725.  
  726. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Nature Conservancy put out an open call for proposals from ranchers, and that call was met with glossy pamphlets and pitches with charts and graphs. Amongst all of those professional pitches, there was one from a 21-year-old rancher and his dad.</p>
  727.  
  728.  
  729.  
  730. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Nathan and his dad put together one page; one-sided, 10-point font, half-inch margins, single-spaced. It described what they would do economically and ecologically, with actual rationale for why their management would improve ecological outcomes,” Burnidge said.&nbsp;</p>
  731.  
  732.  
  733.  
  734. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Now, there was more to come about what ecological outcomes we really wanted to see and how to fit the management to that, but, but with a single, one side of a piece of paper, they clearly stood out as really understanding what we were asking for and so we selected them.”&nbsp;</p>
  735.  
  736.  
  737.  
  738. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now in his 40s, Nathan Andrews is an interesting mix of frank, open rancher and cautious official Fox Ranch spokesman. He’s a seventh-generation rancher in eastern Colorado, and he is a part of the land in a way that’s hard for someone from elsewhere to fathom.&nbsp;</p>
  739.  
  740.  
  741.  
  742. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Andrews sees himself as a steward of the land, and his philosophy is that this land is his livelihood, and so he’s going to make its health a priority. One example of that philosophy in practice is a small, bright-horned variety of native dung beetle. Andrews noticed that there didn’t seem to be enough of them on the ranch, which, according to him, is a concern that universities and grazing managers talk about a lot.</p>
  743.  
  744.  
  745.  
  746. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Dung beetles do two important things: they eat fly larvae, which prevents flies from irritating cattle, and they tunnel through the cow pies and then down right underneath it into the soil, turning the manure into fertilizer.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  747.  
  748.  
  749.  
  750. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Andrews wasn’t happy with the number of dung beetles he saw on the ranch, and so, after researching, he found that the ivermectin they had been using for fly control and deworming kills dung beetles and can be active within manure for 150 days after application.&nbsp;</p>
  751.  
  752.  
  753.  
  754. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The beetle-friendly medication costs around $3,000 a year more than the ivermectin, according to Andrews, but he felt like it was a worthy investment in the future health of the soil.</p>
  755.  
  756.  
  757. <div class="wp-block-image">
  758. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-241823" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=972%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=570%2C760&amp;ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=900%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C200&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1600&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C2667&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C533&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C941&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-scaled.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Fox_Ranch_Beetle-1-972x1296.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">One sign that the ecosystem is healthy on Fox Ranch are the amount of beetles seen breaking down cow pats. (Illustration by Nhatt Nichols)</figcaption></figure>
  759. </div>
  760.  
  761.  
  762. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I&#8217;ve never done any dung beetle counts, but you go out into the riparian area and a six-hour-old cow pie will literally be moving with all the dung beetles that are in it. We kind of trust the process, that if we provide them a safe environment, their population will go as high as it can,” Andrews said. Observing and trusting the process is the overlapping part of the Venn diagram between conservation and cattle ranching.&nbsp;</p>
  763.  
  764.  
  765.  
  766. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I was raised that you always did the best that you could, and with the thought that you should always improve the land and not just take from it,” Andrews said.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  767.  
  768.  
  769.  
  770. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Burnidge puts it more bluntly. “They&#8217;re motivated to conserve their ranch, you know, just like I&#8217;m motivated to paint my house, right?” He acknowledged that the care for the land only carries conservation measures so far.&nbsp;</p>
  771.  
  772.  
  773.  
  774. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“That doesn&#8217;t mean they&#8217;re thinking first and foremost about how to improve habitat for a given species. I think privately, most ranchers say they think of themselves as conservationists, often, and they try to do the right thing.”&nbsp;</p>
  775.  
  776.  
  777.  
  778. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Of course, there’s always a trade-off between ecology and industry. The agreement with the Fox is part of how Andrew’s cattle operation stays affordable.&nbsp;</p>
  779.  
  780.  
  781.  
  782. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Conservationists like to say:’ If it&#8217;s good for the bird, meaning the wild bird, it&#8217;s good for the herd.’ If we think that more grass is generally better for everything, then that&#8217;s true. But I think the conservation person who says that discounts the potential costs of doing something that would be better for the bird and therefore better for the herd,” Burnidge said.</p>
  783.  
  784.  
  785.  
  786. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>There’s Always More Pieces of the Puzzle</strong></h3>
  787.  
  788.  
  789.  
  790. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That balance, between economically viable and ecologically sound, can be uncomfortable.</p>
  791.  
  792.  
  793.  
  794. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yuma County is also home to some of the largest feedlots in the country. On my way into town to pick up supplies, I pass hundreds of cattle packed into small areas, what&#8217;s known as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs.</p>
  795.  
  796.  
  797.  
  798. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Initially I’m thankful that the animals at the Fox don’t have to experience those conditions. Back at the ranch, I walked the trails across the canyons and prairie, daydreaming about the day that beef is a premium product, raised exclusively by preservationists who love beetles and prairie chickens.&nbsp;</p>
  799.  
  800.  
  801.  
  802. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It turns out I didn’t understand that feedlots are part of what makes places like the Fox work. Calves are born and raised on grass until they’re six to 12 months old. At that point, they’re loaded up and taken to a feedlot, where they spend six months being fed grain and growing to the size and fat content expected by American beef consumers.&nbsp;</p>
  803.  
  804.  
  805.  
  806. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Feedlots are not a pleasant place to have a picnic, right?” Burnidge said. “I&#8217;ve just gotten to a point where I don&#8217;t think of them as the worst offender.” Though he points out that there are plenty of CAFOs that pollute the water or don’t prioritize animal safety, they are a tradeoff that helps make their conservation efforts possible.</p>
  807.  
  808.  
  809.  
  810. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">If we abolished the feedlot system overnight, Burnidge argues, there would be huge consequences for ranchers like Andrews.&nbsp; “Americans, for good or for ill, are now trained to the taste of corn fed beef, and there would be huge human disruptions in the consumer segment if we did that,” Burnidge warned.</p>
  811.  
  812.  
  813.  
  814. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">He also argues that it would be bad for conservation, because without cattle being economically viable, more grassland would go under the plow and be turned into monoculture commodity farming.&nbsp;</p>
  815.  
  816.  
  817.  
  818. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“That is worse for water quality. It&#8217;s worse for air quality. It&#8217;s worse for greenhouse gases, and it&#8217;s certainly worse for wildlife, native plants,” Burnidge said.&nbsp;</p>
  819.  
  820.  
  821.  
  822. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">When data gets involved, things get even more complicated. According to Burnidge, beef that’s produced through the feedlot system has a lower greenhouse gas footprint per unit of production than grass-fed beef. That’s because the cattle grow faster in a feedlot, reaching marketable size in less time than their grass-fed counterparts.&nbsp;</p>
  823.  
  824.  
  825.  
  826. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Dr. Sara Place, an expert in livestock systems sustainability at Colorado State University, agrees with him, though admits that it can be complicated to quantify as results depend on context.</p>
  827.  
  828.  
  829.  
  830. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“For most analyses, yes, feedlot or grain-finished beef tends to have a lower greenhouse gas footprint per pound of beef than grass-finished,” Place told Daily Yonder in an email interview.&nbsp;</p>
  831.  
  832.  
  833.  
  834. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Part of this is because grain-fed beef are ready for slaughter sooner than those that are grass-finished. But Place noted that feeding grain also lowers the methane amounts that are naturally emitted from ruminants like cattle.&nbsp;</p>
  835.  
  836.  
  837.  
  838. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The faster growth rate and decreased methane emissions combine to typically mean fewer emissions produced per steer, and more beef produced per animal,” according to Place, who pointed me towards <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X18305675">a study</a> that looks directly at greenhouse gas impact in the ways cattle are raised.&nbsp;</p>
  839.  
  840.  
  841.  
  842. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">She noted that things rapidly become too complex to effectively quantify when you start looking at the value of keeping land from going under the plow versus the greenhouse gas and other emissions caused by raising meat cattle.&nbsp;</p>
  843.  
  844.  
  845. <div class="wp-block-image">
  846. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-241825" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=972%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=570%2C760&amp;ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=900%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C800&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C400&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C200&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1600&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C2667&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C533&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C941&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-scaled.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Cactus-1-972x1296.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The prairie isn’t just flat grassland. It includes a huge variety of plant and animal life, including prickly pear cactus which you might normally associate with the desert. (Illustration by Nhatt Nichols)<br></figcaption></figure>
  847. </div>
  848.  
  849.  
  850. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“That said, there’s reports from <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/great-plains/plowprint-report/">WWF</a> and peer-reviewed <a href="https://academic.oup.com/tas/article/5/3/txab054/6263790?guestAccessKey=">publications</a> that argue this case – keeping grass in grass and root side down is the most important thing to consider,” Place wrote.&nbsp;</p>
  851.  
  852.  
  853.  
  854. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And when I’m standing out in the fields of the Fox, I feel like she’s right; this is the most important thing to consider, both ecologically and, for lack of a better term, spiritually. When I’m looking at a feedlot, it feels more like what happens when you’re trying to quantify something that feels deeply unquantifiable: what existing means to another creature.&nbsp;</p>
  855.  
  856.  
  857.  
  858. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Like my time with the Forest Service, I was essentially a traveler through someone else’s life’s work. As a teenager, I left my goshawk job with an understanding that was formed only by the experience and wisdom of ecologists who had no economic skin in the game.&nbsp;</p>
  859.  
  860.  
  861.  
  862. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This time, I headed home with a deep sense of gratitude that other people were working towards a future that contains a sustainable prairie ecosystem and an economically viable way of life.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  863.  
  864.  
  865.  
  866. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Burnidge put it perfectly. “The cow is how you harvest the grass and turn it into something of value economically, spiritually and nutritionally. There&#8217;s an ethical component to this as well, about how we produce protein for people that helps sustain ecological systems in rural communities as well.”</p>
  867.  
  868.  
  869.  
  870. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  871. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/balanced-stewardship-of-the-land-to-save-the-prairie/2026/08/12/">Balanced Stewardship of the Land to Save the Prairie</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  872. ]]></content:encoded>
  874. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/balanced-stewardship-of-the-land-to-save-the-prairie/2026/08/12/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  875. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  878. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">241818</post-id> </item>
  879. <item>
  880. <title>Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden Celebrates the Divine in the Human</title>
  881. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/howard-finsters-paradise-garden-celebrates-the-divine-in-the-human/2026/08/11/</link>
  882. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/howard-finsters-paradise-garden-celebrates-the-divine-in-the-human/2026/08/11/#respond</comments>
  884. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bridget Goodman]]></dc:creator>
  885. <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  886. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  887. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242063</guid>
  888.  
  889. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  890. <p>Howard Finster, the Southern Baptist preacher and repairman who became known as “the grandfather of Southern folk art,” was 59 years old when God told him to create 5,000 pieces of sacred art.&#160; Finster — through the power of instant coffee mixed with Coca-Cola — created over 46,000 pieces.&#160; “You don&#8217;t have to be 16 [&#8230;]</p>
  891. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/howard-finsters-paradise-garden-celebrates-the-divine-in-the-human/2026/08/11/">Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden Celebrates the Divine in the Human</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  892. ]]></description>
  893. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7459-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  894. <p class="has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph">Howard Finster, the Southern Baptist preacher and repairman who became known as “the grandfather of Southern folk art,” was 59 years old when God told him to create 5,000 pieces of sacred art.&nbsp;</p>
  895.  
  896.  
  897.  
  898. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Finster — through the power of instant coffee mixed with Coca-Cola — created over 46,000 pieces.&nbsp;</p>
  899.  
  900.  
  901.  
  902. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“You don&#8217;t have to be 16 years old and have this idea and go to art school — you can be 59 years old,” said Davia Weatherill, Paradise Garden executive director. “I think it&#8217;s a wonderful lesson for senior citizens out there that it&#8217;s never too late, right? You always have time, and if you want to leave a mark on the world, you can.”</p>
  903.  
  904.  
  905.  
  906. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Finster built Paradise Garden, a 4-acre art environment in what once was a duck pond in Chattooga County, Georgia.</p>
  907.  
  908.  
  909.  
  910. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Sometimes people forget that art can be created outside of major cities,” Weatherill said. “That&#8217;s a really important lesson when you&#8217;re thinking about Howard Finster and Paradise Garden — where it&#8217;s located.”</p>
  911.  
  912.  
  913.  
  914. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Following Finster’s death in 2001, the county purchased the garden in 2012. The garden is now leased to and managed by the Paradise Garden Foundation, a non-profit of three staff.</p>
  915.  
  916.  
  917.  
  918. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“When Howard created this, he wanted to be a sort of Noah&#8217;s Ark for humanity,” said Mary Shewan, Paradise Garden operations manager and curatorial archivist. “He didn&#8217;t view himself as a Noah, but he wanted a safe space for everyone. I think, in a similar way, that&#8217;s the Southern ‘y&#8217;all-come-back-now’ culture.”</p>
  919.  
  920.  
  921.  
  922. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The garden celebrates human inventions with collections of man-made items — shoes, typewriters, bicycle parts, sharpies — displayed throughout the grounds.</p>
  923.  
  924.  
  925.  
  926. <div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow alignwide" data-effect="slide" style="--aspect-ratio:calc(1296 / 864)"><div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_container swiper"><ul class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_swiper-wrapper swiper-wrapper"><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242066" data-id="242066" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7528-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">Finster built a covered ramp, connecting the church to the mosaic garden. During Finster&#8217;s life, the ramp functioned as a gallery, displaying Finster&#8217;s art alongside other artists&#8217; works. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242067" data-id="242067" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7515-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">The solarium, attached the World&#8217;s Folk Art Church, functioned as a studio for Finster. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242068" data-id="242068" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7490-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">The bicycle tower, built by Finster out of old bicycle parts, was featured in R.E.M.&#8217;s “Radio Free Europe” music video. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242069" data-id="242069" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7414-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">Mary Shewan, Paradise Garden operations manager and curatorial archivist, points to a piece in the covered ramp connecting the upper and lower parts of the garden. During Finster&#8217;s life, the ramp functioned as a gallery space. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242070" data-id="242070" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7349-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">The upper level of the World&#8217;s Folk Art Church looks out onto the garden. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242071" data-id="242071" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7385-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">Trinkets hang in the solarium, which was used as a studio by Finster. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li></ul><a class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white" role="button"></a><a class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white" role="button"></a><a aria-label="Pause Slideshow" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause" role="button"></a><div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_pagination swiper-pagination swiper-pagination-white"></div></div></div>
  927.  
  928.  
  929.  
  930. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Howard was not a man of means,” Weatherill said. “He was the ultimate recycler, everything that you see in the garden was something that either people brought to him or he went to the dump to get.”</p>
  931.  
  932.  
  933.  
  934. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">At Paradise Garden, Finster built the World’s Folk Art Church, a mosaic garden, various workshops and an enclosed ramp, which functioned as a gallery space during Finster’s life.</p>
  935.  
  936.  
  937.  
  938. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Finster purchased the World’s Folk Art Church, which was a once one-story Southern Baptist church, through the help of an NEA grant. Finster raised the roof and turned it into a five-story chapel.</p>
  939.  
  940.  
  941.  
  942. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The church, the garden’s main example of vernacular architecture, a self-taught art architecture shaped by the materials and land where the structure is located, was restored and reopened again to the public this year through the same NEA grant.</p>
  943.  
  944.  
  945.  
  946. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“He felt like humanity was taking for granted what other humans did for each other,” Shewan said.</p>
  947.  
  948.  
  949.  
  950. <figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242073" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7512-1-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The five-story World&#8217;s Folk Art Church reopenned to the public this year. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure>
  951.  
  952.  
  953.  
  954. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>An Archive of Rural Northwest Georgia</strong></h3>
  955.  
  956.  
  957.  
  958. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“So much of what&#8217;s in the mosaic garden are pieces from other people in Somerville: they donated it, so it is also an archive of Sommerville,” Shewan said.</p>
  959.  
  960.  
  961.  
  962. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Chattooga County is now 35% Evangelical Protestant, <a href="https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/census/congregational-membership?y=2020&amp;y2=0&amp;t=0&amp;c=13055">according to the 2020 U.S. Religion Census</a>. During Finster’s life, most Chattooga County residents were Evangelical Protestants, the Christian tradition that Southern Baptists belong to.</p>
  963.  
  964.  
  965.  
  966. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It is the most beautiful presentation of rural Northwest Georgia there is, and I think it is the most realistic,” Shewan said. “It is impossible to escape religion while you are here. There&#8217;s religious iconography and text everywhere, and it is all Southern Baptist.”</p>
  967.  
  968.  
  969.  
  970. <div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow alignwide" data-effect="slide" style="--aspect-ratio:calc(1296 / 864)"><div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_container swiper"><ul class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_swiper-wrapper swiper-wrapper"><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242074" data-id="242074" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7665-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">During Finster&#8217;s life, he left the casket open for people to leave notes to God. He said that when he died, he&#8217;d bring their messages to God. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242075" data-id="242075" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7652-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">Biblical messages are written on boards throughout the meditation temple, another structure on the property built by Finster. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242076" data-id="242076" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7564-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">During Finster&#8217;s life, he left the casket open for people to leave notes to God. He said that when he died, he&#8217;d bring their messages to God. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li><li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"><figure><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-242077" data-id="242077" data-aspect-ratio="1296 / 864" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7688-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption">Biblical messages are displayed throughout the garden. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure></li></ul><a class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white" role="button"></a><a class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white" role="button"></a><a aria-label="Pause Slideshow" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause" role="button"></a><div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_pagination swiper-pagination swiper-pagination-white"></div></div></div>
  971.  
  972.  
  973.  
  974. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Paradise Garden Foundation aims to preserve the environment for future generations without changing the effect.</p>
  975.  
  976.  
  977.  
  978. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It&#8217;s an authentic piece of rural American creativity and history, and so we never want to remove Howard&#8217;s hand from the garden,” Weatherill said.</p>
  979.  
  980.  
  981.  
  982. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Weatherill is designing a guided tour of the garden, narrated by a CD of Howard’s voice, alongside visitor’s stories of their time at the garden.</p>
  983.  
  984.  
  985.  
  986. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The really cool thing about Chattooga County is that all of their grandparents knew Howard,” Shewan said. “They do not view it as this four-acre art environment. They know it as the place the guy who built their granddaddy&#8217;s bikes worked at and made.”</p>
  987.  
  988.  
  989.  
  990. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>An Economic Spark for Northwest Georgia</strong></h3>
  991.  
  992.  
  993.  
  994. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Paradise Garden doesn’t just preserve Finster’s legacy, but also brings economic activity to the county.</p>
  995.  
  996.  
  997.  
  998. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We try to spark the economic engines because that&#8217;s equally important to us: that we&#8217;re located in a thriving community, and that our community members are doing well,” Weatherill said.</p>
  999.  
  1000.  
  1001.  
  1002. <figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242078" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7466-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Mary Shewan, Paradise Garden operations manager and curatorial archivist, stands in the Finster&#8217;s TV repair shop. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure>
  1003.  
  1004.  
  1005.  
  1006. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The <a href="https://www.arc.gov/classifying-economic-distress-in-appalachian-counties/">Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) 2027 report</a> designates Chattooga County as the only economically distressed Appalachian county in Georgia.&nbsp;</p>
  1007.  
  1008.  
  1009.  
  1010. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Chattooga County ranks in the bottom 10% of counties nationally, based on the <a href="https://www.arc.gov/distressed-designation-and-county-economic-status-classification-system/">Appalachian Regional Commission’s county economic status classification system</a>, which compares county-level three-year average unemployment rates, per capita market income and poverty rates, with national averages to rank U.S. counties.</p>
  1011.  
  1012.  
  1013.  
  1014. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Chattooga County residents have free admission to the garden.&nbsp;</p>
  1015.  
  1016.  
  1017.  
  1018. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We love Chattooga, but it&#8217;s not like this whole community comes every single day, and we don&#8217;t need that,” Shewan said. “Because this is their home. They don&#8217;t need the art environment, it&#8217;s their home.”</p>
  1019.  
  1020.  
  1021.  
  1022. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Weatherill said that as the county’s main arts organization, she feels a responsibility to serve the community.</p>
  1023.  
  1024.  
  1025.  
  1026. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This year, Weatherill brought Paradise Garden into the Leroy Massey Elementary, leading a class in making sculptures out of found materials, in the style of Finster.</p>
  1027.  
  1028.  
  1029.  
  1030. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Art Environments: Keeping a Rural Spirit Alive</strong></h3>
  1031.  
  1032.  
  1033. <div class="wp-block-image">
  1034. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="1170" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242080" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=864%2C1296&amp;ssl=1 864w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=507%2C760&amp;ssl=1 507w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1365%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1365w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C3000&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C600&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C1059&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?w=1707&amp;ssl=1 1707w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-scaled.jpg?w=1560&amp;ssl=1 1560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7337-1-864x1296.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The windows on the upper level of the World&#8217;s Folk Art Church, each designed by Finster, have now been returned to the garden. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure>
  1035. </div>
  1036.  
  1037.  
  1038. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The artwork and the landscape are inseparable,” Weatherill said. “So every mosaic, every mural, sculpture pathway in every building that Howard created, it&#8217;s always facing threats from the weather, time deterioration, and so preservation is not optional, it&#8217;s our responsibility.”</p>
  1039.  
  1040.  
  1041.  
  1042. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Starting in the 90s, Finster, thinking the garden would fall into disrepair, encouraged friends to take pieces from the garden to save them from the garden returning to swamp.&nbsp;</p>
  1043.  
  1044.  
  1045.  
  1046. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">With the reopening of the World’s Folk Art Church, some items — like the original windows designed by Finster and a mosaic cross built by him — have returned to the garden.&nbsp;</p>
  1047.  
  1048.  
  1049.  
  1050. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“When art environments were created, the land couldn&#8217;t exist, or the art couldn&#8217;t exist without the land, but at this point in time, land can no longer exist without the art,” Shewan said. “They&#8217;ve become one.”</p>
  1051.  
  1052.  
  1053.  
  1054. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Shewan said that art environments are largely a rural invention, highlighting rural culture.&nbsp;</p>
  1055.  
  1056.  
  1057.  
  1058. <figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242081" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_7623-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">In the garage, Finster painted portraits with tractor enamel on a Cadillac. He painted portraits of his grandchildren, of the man who sold him the car, Shakespeare and a self-portrait. (Photo by Bridget Goodman / Daily Yonder)</figcaption></figure>
  1059.  
  1060.  
  1061.  
  1062. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I&#8217;m not going to sit here and say rural America is always this great utopia, but there&#8217;s so much culture there and so much art,” Shewan said. “I think for a very long time it wasn&#8217;t taken seriously, and I think art environments have really started to show people that folk art is probably one of the most human arts we have.”</p>
  1063.  
  1064.  
  1065.  
  1066. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many of the pieces at Paradise Garden — like tractor enamel paintings on cars — can be challenging to preserve because there’s limited research preserving those materials.</p>
  1067.  
  1068.  
  1069.  
  1070. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“These art environments are so fragile — and Paradise Garden included,” Weatherill said. “But once they&#8217;re gone, they&#8217;re gone forever, and I feel like it&#8217;s our responsibility to ensure that future generations can experience Paradise Garden as a living space, and not just read about it in a book.”</p>
  1071.  
  1072.  
  1073.  
  1074. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1075. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/howard-finsters-paradise-garden-celebrates-the-divine-in-the-human/2026/08/11/">Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden Celebrates the Divine in the Human</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1076. ]]></content:encoded>
  1078. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/howard-finsters-paradise-garden-celebrates-the-divine-in-the-human/2026/08/11/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1079. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1082. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242063</post-id> </item>
  1083. <item>
  1084. <title>The Farm Bill Fight That Will Shape Rural Broadband</title>
  1085. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/the-farm-bill-fight-that-will-shape-rural-broadband/2026/08/11/</link>
  1086. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/the-farm-bill-fight-that-will-shape-rural-broadband/2026/08/11/#respond</comments>
  1088. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Drew Clark / Broadband Breakfast]]></dc:creator>
  1089. <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1090. <category><![CDATA[Broadband]]></category>
  1091. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242228</guid>
  1092.  
  1093. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1094. <p>Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas, held a markup hearing on his version of the Farm Bill on Thursday, August 6. It didn’t go very well. In the long-delayed milestone meeting – which could ultimately reshape Rural Americans connections to the Internet – Republicans were unable to move their bill forward. [&#8230;]</p>
  1095. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/the-farm-bill-fight-that-will-shape-rural-broadband/2026/08/11/">The Farm Bill Fight That Will Shape Rural Broadband</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1096. ]]></description>
  1097. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP25197625567779-boozman.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1098. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman<strong> </strong>John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas, held a markup hearing on his version of the Farm Bill on Thursday, August 6. It didn’t go very well.</p>
  1099.  
  1100.  
  1101.  
  1102. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the long-delayed milestone meeting – which could ultimately reshape Rural Americans connections to the Internet – Republicans were unable to move their bill forward. Democrats held together, and the absence of two GOP senators, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, meant the measure failed on a 10-11 vote.</p>
  1103.  
  1104.  
  1105.  
  1106. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most people think of the Farm Bill primarily because of its connections to crop insurance, commodity price supports, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). But the legislation, which Congress reauthorizes roughly every five years, governs an enormous swath of American agricultural and rural policy, including conservation programs, farm credit, rural water and wastewater infrastructure, forestry, and energy.&nbsp;</p>
  1107.  
  1108.  
  1109.  
  1110. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The current fight between the House and Senate over SNAP funding levels has been the loudest obstacle to passage, and proved to be the case on Thursday. But tucked inside the Farm Bill&#8217;s rural development title is a provision that governs the future of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect broadband program.</p>
  1111.  
  1112.  
  1113.  
  1114. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">What&#8217;s at Stake in the Farm Bill for Broadband</h2>
  1115.  
  1116.  
  1117.  
  1118. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">ReConnect has provided more than $4.4 billion in loans and grants for rural broadband deployment since 2018, reaching some of America&#8217;s most remote and expensive-to-serve communities.<a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/house-passes-farm-bill/"> The House Farm Bill, passed in April by a narrow 224-200 margin, would make ReConnect permanent</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  1119.  
  1120.  
  1121.  
  1122. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But the House version sets minimum project speeds at just 50 Megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 25 Mbps for uploads. And it restricts eligibility to areas lacking 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads for service. Critics say that – as with previous broadband programs such as the Connect America Fund deploying broadband at 10 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps for uploads, such low thresholds would doom Rural America to a lower tier of service.</p>
  1123.  
  1124.  
  1125.  
  1126. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/senate-farm-bill-would-codify-reconnect-program/">The proposed Senate version takes a more ambitious approach</a>. In addition to making ReConnect permanent, it would use higher required speeds and broader eligibility. At a previous hearing on the topic before the Senate Agriculture Committee, Jesse Shekleton, director of Broadband Operations at Jo-Carroll Energy <a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/farm-bill-should-include-higher-broadband-speed-requirements/">pushed for the higher speed standard</a>. &#8220;Demands for bandwidth on farms will continue to grow,&#8221; he said</p>
  1127.  
  1128.  
  1129.  
  1130. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Farm Bill also matters for broadband beyond ReConnect. Both the House and Senate versions would codify technical assistance for rural broadband planning and include provisions preventing ReConnect from overlapping with the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant program of the U.S. Commerce Department.</p>
  1131.  
  1132.  
  1133.  
  1134. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Under Threat From Both Sides</h2>
  1135.  
  1136.  
  1137.  
  1138. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Even as Congress debates how to strengthen ReConnect, the program faces pressure from an unexpected direction: The USDA itself proposed canceling $40 million in unused ReConnect funds in its fiscal year 2027 budget request.<a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/reconnect-funding-restored-in-fy2027-usda-bill/"> House appropriators broke with that request and restored the funding in June</a>, a rare instance of Congress overruling an agency on its own program budget.&nbsp;</p>
  1139.  
  1140.  
  1141.  
  1142. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But with BEAD money now flowing,<a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/calls-grow-to-eliminate-usda-broadband-program-watchdog-group-says/"> calls to eliminate USDA broadband programs as duplicative have grown louder</a>.</p>
  1143.  
  1144.  
  1145.  
  1146. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Broadband Now ‘Table Stakes’ for Rural Economic Development </h2>
  1147.  
  1148.  
  1149.  
  1150. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Broadband and rural economic development was the subject of <a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/rural-broadband-pays-off-only-when-communities-decide-panelists-say/">Wednesday’s Broadband Breakfast Live Online discussion</a>. In it, panelists said that broadband has become the price of admission for a rural community rather than a growth strategy on its own.</p>
  1151.  
  1152.  
  1153.  
  1154. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Well-connected rural counties post 18% higher per capita income and roughly 210% higher business growth than underserved peers, according to a Center for Rural Innovation study cited by Bartlett Cleland, executive director of the Innovation Economy Alliance.&nbsp;</p>
  1155.  
  1156.  
  1157.  
  1158. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Also contributing to the discussion was Amy Huffman, policy director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, who cited her 2011 master&#8217;s thesis on the question of whether rural residents would get online if networks were built. Her answer – then and now – is maybe.&nbsp;</p>
  1159.  
  1160.  
  1161.  
  1162. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Also weighing in on the benefits for rural communities was Jonathan Chambers, co-CEO of Conexon, which works with co-ops to build fiber networks, and has helped transform connectivity in many rural communities. Watch <a href="http://broadbandbreakfast.com/daily-yonder">the discussion on Broadband Breakfast</a>.</p>
  1163.  
  1164.  
  1165.  
  1166. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">On the Ground, BEAD Is Getting Complicated</h2>
  1167.  
  1168.  
  1169.  
  1170. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">On another front, the $42.5 billion BEAD program is now becoming operational in states across the country, with providers moving into permitting and early construction. <a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/minnesotas-first-bead-contract-lands/">Minnesota signed its first construction contract</a> under the $42.5 billion federal program on July 30.&nbsp;</p>
  1171.  
  1172.  
  1173.  
  1174. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">California cleared federal review July 17, leaving only Illinois as the last state waiting on sign-off from both the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.</p>
  1175.  
  1176.  
  1177.  
  1178. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But being approved is not the same as being built. Minnesota&#8217;s projects will reach 74,739 locations with $378.9 million in federal money and nearly $190 million in matching funds. The state must place its remaining initial projects under contract by Oct. 8. Getting the first one signed took more than 18 rounds of revisions with federal reviewers.</p>
  1179.  
  1180.  
  1181.  
  1182. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">And often, the fights are over poles. Electric cooperatives, which own much of the existing pole infrastructure in rural America and are well-positioned to build broadband alongside it, are<a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/electric-co-ops-finding-bead-rules-onerous-especially-on-poles/"> finding BEAD&#8217;s pole attachment rules onerous</a>. Two co-ops said they turned down tentative BEAD awards entirely because compliance costs made the projects unworkable.<a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/ntia-defends-bead-pole-rules/">&nbsp;</a></p>
  1183.  
  1184.  
  1185.  
  1186. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/ntia-defends-bead-pole-rules/">NTIA, however, has defended this pole-attachment policy</a> as necessary for deployment.</p>
  1187.  
  1188.  
  1189.  
  1190. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Starlink Changes the Math – Again</h2>
  1191.  
  1192.  
  1193.  
  1194. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">An accounting of rural broadband in mid-2026 has to grapple with Starlink, a key part of<strong> </strong>Elon Musk’s<strong> </strong>now-public company, SpaceX. Low-Earth orbit satellite internet has improved dramatically in speed and reliability. So much so that Starlink’s performance is showing up in cable company Q2 earnings calls.</p>
  1195.  
  1196.  
  1197.  
  1198. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Comcast, Charter, and Shentel have all faced questions from Wall Street analysts about rural customer losses to satellite — a signal that Starlink is now a genuine competitive threat in markets those companies assumed were captive.</p>
  1199.  
  1200.  
  1201.  
  1202. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This feeds the argument of some that federal programs are racing to build fiber infrastructure that commercial satellite has already rendered unnecessary. But that argument doesn’t account for exactly how <a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/federal-broadband-policy-is-increasingly-being-recast-around-satellite/">capacity-constrained Starlink is</a> in dense-use scenarios. It also doesn&#8217;t account for questionable reliability standards for Starlink – as good as it is – versus symmetrical fiber networks.</p>
  1203.  
  1204.  
  1205.  
  1206. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/>
  1207.  
  1208.  
  1209.  
  1210. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>This article was produced in collaboration with <a href="https://broadbandbreakfast.com/">Broadband Breakfast</a>, a <a href="http://broadbandbreakfast.com/about">news and events community</a> focused on broadband infrastructure, investment, and impact.</em></p>
  1211.  
  1212.  
  1213.  
  1214. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>
  1215. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/the-farm-bill-fight-that-will-shape-rural-broadband/2026/08/11/">The Farm Bill Fight That Will Shape Rural Broadband</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1216. ]]></content:encoded>
  1218. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/the-farm-bill-fight-that-will-shape-rural-broadband/2026/08/11/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  1219. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1222. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242228</post-id> </item>
  1223. <item>
  1224. <title>Commentary: Will the Real USDA Reorganization Plan Please Stand Up?</title>
  1225. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-will-the-real-usda-reorganization-plan-please-stand-up/2026/08/10/</link>
  1226. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-will-the-real-usda-reorganization-plan-please-stand-up/2026/08/10/#respond</comments>
  1228. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Joe Belden]]></dc:creator>
  1229. <pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1230. <category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
  1231. <category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
  1232. <category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category>
  1233. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242147</guid>
  1234.  
  1235. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1236. <p>Last year, 2025, was the 75th anniversary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) affordable rural housing programs. If a spring 2025 plan to reorganize the entire Department is implemented, those and many other USDA programs would be sharply reduced or eliminated.&#160;&#160; But is that plan – USDA’s Agency Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plan [&#8230;]</p>
  1237. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-will-the-real-usda-reorganization-plan-please-stand-up/2026/08/10/">Commentary: Will the Real USDA Reorganization Plan Please Stand Up?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1238. ]]></description>
  1239. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AP26044795423016-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1240. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Last year, 2025, was the 75<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) affordable rural housing programs. If a spring 2025 plan to reorganize the entire Department is implemented, those and many other USDA programs would be sharply reduced or eliminated.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  1241.  
  1242.  
  1243.  
  1244. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But is that plan – USDA’s Agency Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plan (ARRP), dated March 2025, still operative? Two recent court filings in the same case provide different versions of reorganization.&nbsp;</p>
  1245.  
  1246.  
  1247.  
  1248. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A dramatist might have written, “ARRP or not to ARRP? That is the question.” The Housing Assistance Council, in its July 16 newsletter, pointed out that USDA’s proposed ARRP from March of 2025 was only made fully public in July 2026.&nbsp; The ARRP was made part of the <a href="https://ruralhome.org/hac-news-july-16-2026/">public record</a> in a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.448664/gov.uscourts.cand.448664.440.3.pdf">lawsuit</a> challenging the Trump administration’s cuts and reorganizations at a number of federal agencies.&nbsp;</p>
  1249.  
  1250.  
  1251.  
  1252. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But then in their <a href="https://ruralhome.org/hac-news-july-30-2026/">July 30 HAC News</a>, HAC offers an update &#8212; that USDA now says the ARRP “does not reflect USDA’s current plans.” This is from a top USDA official in a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.448664/gov.uscourts.cand.448664.457.1.pdf">second, more recent filing</a> in the same case.&nbsp;</p>
  1253.  
  1254.  
  1255.  
  1256. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The 2025 ARRP plan for USDA Rural Development (RD), if it comes up again, is especially alarming.&nbsp;</p>
  1257.  
  1258.  
  1259.  
  1260. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here is why. It would:</p>
  1261.  
  1262.  
  1263.  
  1264. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  1265. <li>Consolidate RD subagencies on housing, infrastructure, and business into a single agency. </li>
  1266. </ul>
  1267.  
  1268.  
  1269.  
  1270. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  1271. <li>Eliminate the RD State Offices and “[a]s needed, State Office staff will be relocated to one of the five [proposed new] USDA Service Centers” in North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, and Utah or Wyoming.   </li>
  1272. </ul>
  1273.  
  1274.  
  1275.  
  1276. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  1277. <li>Transform RD’s 76-year-old Section 502 “Single-Family Housing program from a direct origination loan program to a guaranteed loan program. This can result in a decrease of 852 employees.” </li>
  1278. </ul>
  1279.  
  1280.  
  1281.  
  1282. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The plan further states that “USDA is also exploring transferring Rural Development loan programs to the Small Business Administration and/or the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”</p>
  1283.  
  1284.  
  1285.  
  1286. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">On closing the state offices, in a June 25, 2026, online public briefing and in the latest court filing cited by HAC on July 30, USDA officials said there will be no such closings. It is unclear whether those statements on no closings or the 2025 written plan are true.&nbsp;</p>
  1287.  
  1288.  
  1289.  
  1290. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The written plan’s last two aims – changing direct loans to guaranteed and moving programs to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) or Small Business Administration (SBA) – would mostly kill off much of the USDA rural housing function.</p>
  1291.  
  1292.  
  1293.  
  1294. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the 502 direct mortgage program, USDA is actually the bank, making and servicing the loan. The federal government is repaid with interest. Since 1950, that program has helped over two million low- and moderate-income rural families become homeowners.&nbsp; Most of them would not have achieved that major part of the American dream without the Section 502 program.</p>
  1295.  
  1296.  
  1297.  
  1298. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The parallel 502 guaranteed loan program has been around since 1977. In it, loans are made by a private lender and backed by the federal government. These guaranteed loans have historically served higher-income borrowers.</p>
  1299.  
  1300.  
  1301.  
  1302. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Moving all the Rural Development programs for housing and other functions to HUD or SBA could be a first step in essentially killing them. HUD in particular is not equipped to serve rural areas.</p>
  1303.  
  1304.  
  1305.  
  1306. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It is also unclear in the ARRP plan what would happen to other USDA housing programs – for example, for farmworker housing and very low-income home repair.&nbsp; Would the ARRP’s moves be a first step to ending all USDA rural housing programs?</p>
  1307.  
  1308.  
  1309.  
  1310. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Total Rural Development staff under the 2025 ARRP plan would be reduced by 47%.&nbsp; USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) staff would be cut by 46%.&nbsp; FNS administers the SNAP (formerly food stamps) and other nutrition programs and is USDA’s largest budget area.&nbsp; These two agencies for housing and nutrition are the USDA programs that primarily serve low-income people. The RD and FNS reduction percentages are the largest proposed staff cuts in the plan among 18 USDA sub-agencies. Only two others of the 18 have proposed staff cuts of 40% or more.</p>
  1311.  
  1312.  
  1313.  
  1314. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Overall, the ARRP calls for the elimination or consolidation of at least 41 USDA programs and the elimination of more than 23,000 staff positions.</p>
  1315.  
  1316.  
  1317.  
  1318. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1319. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-will-the-real-usda-reorganization-plan-please-stand-up/2026/08/10/">Commentary: Will the Real USDA Reorganization Plan Please Stand Up?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1320. ]]></content:encoded>
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  1323. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  1326. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242147</post-id> </item>
  1327. <item>
  1328. <title>&#8216;This Is the Model&#8217;: A $40 Million Program for Workforce Training in Virginia</title>
  1329. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/this-is-the-model-a-40-million-program-for-workforce-training-in-virginia/2026/08/10/</link>
  1330. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/this-is-the-model-a-40-million-program-for-workforce-training-in-virginia/2026/08/10/#respond</comments>
  1332. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Emily Lytle / Open Campus]]></dc:creator>
  1333. <pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1334. <category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
  1335. <category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
  1336. <category><![CDATA[Mile Markers]]></category>
  1337. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=241963</guid>
  1338.  
  1339. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?w=1648&amp;ssl=1 1648w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1340. <p>Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in&#160;Mile Markers, a twice monthly newsletter from Open Campus about the role of colleges in rural America. You can&#160;join the mailing list at the bottom of this article&#160;to receive future editions in your inbox. For many rural learners, they need a few essential things to access [&#8230;]</p>
  1341. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/this-is-the-model-a-40-million-program-for-workforce-training-in-virginia/2026/08/10/">&#8216;This Is the Model&#8217;: A $40 Million Program for Workforce Training in Virginia</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1342. ]]></description>
  1343. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?w=1648&amp;ssl=1 1648w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=760%2C570&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1296%2C972&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7-e1785363319282.png?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1344. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in&nbsp;<strong>Mile Markers</strong>, a twice monthly newsletter from Open Campus about the role of colleges in rural America. You can&nbsp;</em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-universities-experiment-with-innovation-hubs/2024/06/06/#signup"><em>join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</em></a><em>&nbsp;to receive future editions in your inbox.</em></p>
  1345.  
  1346.  
  1347.  
  1348. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1349.  
  1350.  
  1351.  
  1352. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For many rural learners, they need a few essential things to access job training: funding to pay for the program, reliable transportation, proximity to the college and an assurance that this will be worth their time and money. Specifically, will this credential actually lead to a higher-paying role?</p>
  1353.  
  1354.  
  1355.  
  1356. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Keith Harkins, vice president of academic and workforce programs at Southside Virginia Community College, said Virginia’s FastForward program is checking those boxes.</p>
  1357.  
  1358.  
  1359.  
  1360. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“It’s a massive economic development game changer for our rural communities,” Harkins said.</p>
  1361.  
  1362.  
  1363.  
  1364. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">FastForward, which is the Virginia Community College System’s name for the statewide program born from<a href="https://link.mail.beehiiv.com/v1/c/sw1eFb%2FHHROf4ceSNvIAA9NGWb20OHLEADfjDidNo3jJouAh2Za%2FUrkMQDpA%0AVAax8auBJbZC%2Bq7P%2F%2Ff1PDxFeyTlE7CpEaAieIJ6iNLfkGbJ0ADWbWvmNFzN%0AVMqCxHC4HGwIFFf1g8nEy0L4xG%2B%2FBjZPpowaEDfsyBSw%2Fb2%2BKVnx9c5bYTmC%0A%2BW1iB%2B3m0bquiJfaTXEJueVOzYTZHJPmpg%3D%3D%0A/a5de76c7a8404d9e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u> a bill passed in 2016</u></a>, helps residents access short-term training for <a href="https://link.mail.beehiiv.com/v1/c/q%2BM2rA%2FpgVs4cACwOlNO6O5un3BQM6f6YQRzt075%2B8RUbjx5%2FEQcGYx0fbn7%0As6woa4G5fYnmoU6frWZAx0uRTKbqqQ8kRaQf6VHSl8YvJo4qCKFa%2FpTa6J9t%0AXxfc9ptwnTngdLaUNa57rHBfYHX2eFzpUfnpuhKpRTBGD%2BDHDSv%2FVeN0MEno%0AMASLCgrwVQYFK0vpNPHYhomQbNYoqcwxJA%3D%3D%0A/0c790821c0946e3c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>high-demand jobs in the state</u></a>. The student pays for one third of the cost of the program — usually a training somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks that works toward an industry-recognized credential — and then the state pays the rest.</p>
  1365.  
  1366.  
  1367.  
  1368. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The state releases the next portion of that grant when the student completes the training, and the final amount when the student earns the certificate or license.</p>
  1369.  
  1370.  
  1371.  
  1372. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="454" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=780%2C454&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-241965" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=1296%2C755&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=760%2C443&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=768%2C447&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=1536%2C894&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=1200%2C699&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=1024%2C596&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=780%2C454&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=400%2C233&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?resize=706%2C411&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-6-1296x755.png?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Community colleges across Virginia offer these short-term training programs for earning industry-recognized credentials. This screenshot shows the service areas of those colleges.</figcaption></figure>
  1373.  
  1374.  
  1375.  
  1376. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Until FastForward came about, Harkins said there was no real financial support for short-term programs. Community colleges like Southside had to stretch nurse aide programs, for example, to fit into a semester. Once they converted it to a non-credit program, Harkins said they saw five times as many graduates.</p>
  1377.  
  1378.  
  1379.  
  1380. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Randy Stamper, associate vice chancellor for career education and workforce programs with Virginia’s Community Colleges, said that this model has been especially helpful for rural students. Nearly 40% of all FastForward students are enrolled at one of Virginia’s 14 rural colleges, according to Stamper.</p>
  1381.  
  1382.  
  1383.  
  1384. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some community colleges like Brightpoint and Reynolds, which serve rural students but are located near Richmond, see even more opportunities to connect these students with FastForward. Elizabeth Creamer, who is the vice president of workforce development for the division serving both those colleges, said they have a mobile lab, but they need to find ways to get rural students to the campus where they can access things that can’t fit on a truck — like heavy equipment simulators or pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment.</p>
  1385.  
  1386.  
  1387.  
  1388. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">FastForward also reports an average $14,869 increase in wages after completing one of these programs that are often more affordable for students. Still, Creamer said it’s often the full-time benefits that come with these jobs, including sick leave, that makes the biggest difference for FastForward graduates.</p>
  1389.  
  1390.  
  1391.  
  1392. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="462" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?resize=780%2C462&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-241964" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?w=834&amp;ssl=1 834w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?resize=760%2C450&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?resize=768%2C455&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?resize=780%2C462&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?resize=400%2C237&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?resize=706%2C418&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-5.png?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">This chart from Virginia’s Community Colleges’&nbsp;<a href="https://link.mail.beehiiv.com/v1/c/xhiqVk1lEkmB3SZ13A1Ltj4au7jijm4cM3TSxvINL4NQXaT7b%2FZwmZVBSmCp%0AYTRkgYZoD%2Fj5ox1C58keDMSp8s2O0GThOtCGIRdcfMYevZeJJe9RNgbzDJkU%0AYMjJoCRkDybZ4vv4dvfV6cF8o3qSfXDx317J18w2iNhRx2gQ39iFpEImghJu%0A3YAb3M9OxVZG2spLdL8JRbBwsD4UXa2bpA%3D%3D%0A/52eb209624ae2f97" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong><u>2026 fact sheet on FastForward&nbsp;</u></strong></a>shows the average increase in wages by industry. Courtesy of Virginia’s Community Colleges.</figcaption></figure>
  1393.  
  1394.  
  1395.  
  1396. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Students can use other scholarships to pay for their portion of the program, and community colleges like Southside have built industry relationships that often step in to cover that first third, especially for students pursuing high-demand jobs like powerline work.</p>
  1397.  
  1398.  
  1399.  
  1400. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Every single one of the electric cooperatives, just about, in Virginia has said, ‘If you get a student from our area, let us know. We’ll pay the first third,’” Harkins said.</p>
  1401.  
  1402.  
  1403. <div class="wp-block-image">
  1404. <figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" height="969" width="780" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/image-7.png?resize=780%2C969&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-241966"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Powerline training is one of the largest FastForward programs that Southside Virginia Community College offers. Courtesy of Southside Virginia Community College.</figcaption></figure>
  1405. </div>
  1406.  
  1407.  
  1408. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">At Brightpoint and Reynolds, Creamer said they have more recently seen increased funding and support for their FastForward programs from businesses. Sometimes that’s in-kind support, such as job coaching and internship opportunities from the local medical center VCU Health.</p>
  1409.  
  1410.  
  1411.  
  1412. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of the biggest challenges Virginia faces with FastForward is tracking when students complete their credential — a requirement for community colleges to receive that final payment. While 94% of students complete their courses, the average credential completion rate is 72%. In some cases, Stamper said students may not be taking the related exam, especially if they get offered a job before completing it. But this gap can also be attributed to the difficulty of tracking and communicating with the third parties that offer the exams.</p>
  1413.  
  1414.  
  1415.  
  1416. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Putting This Into Workforce Pell Context</strong></h3>
  1417.  
  1418.  
  1419.  
  1420. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">FastForward is similar to Workforce Pell in that it is focused on accelerated training to help people earn a valuable credential for a high-demand and high-paying job. One area where it differs, Stamper said, is the length requirement.</p>
  1421.  
  1422.  
  1423.  
  1424. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Eligible Workforce Pell programs must run at least 150 hours and last at least 8 weeks, but FastForward eligible programs are often shorter.</p>
  1425.  
  1426.  
  1427.  
  1428. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Even though many of the FastForward programs would likely meet the Workforce Pell requirements for completion and job placement, Stamper said these length requirements mean Virginia will be slow to adjust their programs to fit Workforce Pell.</p>
  1429.  
  1430.  
  1431.  
  1432. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“If you can enroll in a program, and in four weeks and 80 hours of instruction be successful in earning a commercial driver&#8217;s license,” he said, “we are very reluctant to expand that to 150 hours and 8 or 9 weeks simply to access Workforce Pell because that is a burden on the student that is unnecessary.”</p>
  1433.  
  1434.  
  1435.  
  1436. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">He also mentioned the paperwork burden: Many students applying for a non-credit short-term program do not fill out FAFSA, something that is required for Workforce Pell eligibility.</p>
  1437.  
  1438.  
  1439.  
  1440. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That doesn’t mean Virginia is going to ignore Workforce Pell, completely either, though.</p>
  1441.  
  1442.  
  1443.  
  1444. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Do I see it ever replacing FastForward? No, and I don’t see it as being bigger than FastForward in Virginia,” Creamer said. “But I think it could be an additional tool for some programs that meet all of the criteria.”</p>
  1445.  
  1446.  
  1447.  
  1448. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Commonwealth of Virginia has clearly noted the benefit of FastForward, too, increasing funding from $4 million to $40 million over the past decade. This is increased funding that community college leaders like Harkins want to see continue no matter what happens with Workforce Pell.</p>
  1449.  
  1450.  
  1451.  
  1452. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I think this is the model,” Harkins said.</p>
  1453.  
  1454.  
  1455.  
  1456. <div id="signup" class="wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow">
  1457. <div style="height:1px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div>
  1458.  
  1459.  
  1460.  
  1461. <div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
  1462. <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:40%">
  1463. <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="780" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-84653" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=760%2C760&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=706%2C706&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?resize=100%2C100&amp;ssl=1 100w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mile-markers-higher-ed-newsletter-logo.png?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
  1464. </div>
  1465.  
  1466.  
  1467.  
  1468. <div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:60%">
  1469. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This article first appeared in <strong>Mile Markers</strong>, a twice monthly newsletter from <a href="https://www.opencampusmedia.org/">Open Campus</a> about the role of colleges in rural America.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opencampusmedia.org/category/newsletters/mile-markers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join the mailing list today</a> to have future editions delivered to your inbox.</p>
  1470.  
  1471.  
  1472.  
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  1474. <div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background wp-element-button" href="https://www.opencampusmedia.org/category/newsletters/mile-markers/" style="background-color:#022b4e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get Mile Markers</a></div>
  1475. </div>
  1476. </div>
  1477. </div>
  1478. </div></div>
  1479. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/this-is-the-model-a-40-million-program-for-workforce-training-in-virginia/2026/08/10/">&#8216;This Is the Model&#8217;: A $40 Million Program for Workforce Training in Virginia</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1480. ]]></content:encoded>
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  1486. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">241963</post-id> </item>
  1487. <item>
  1488. <title>In Rural Communities, Fears Amplified by ‘AI slop’ and Social Media Hamper Solar Boom</title>
  1489. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-communities-fears-amplified-by-ai-slop-and-social-media-hamper-solar-boom/2026/08/07/</link>
  1490. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-communities-fears-amplified-by-ai-slop-and-social-media-hamper-solar-boom/2026/08/07/#comments</comments>
  1492. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Delaney Nolan / The Lens]]></dc:creator>
  1493. <pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1494. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
  1495. <category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
  1496. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242174</guid>
  1497.  
  1498. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="631" src="https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-1024x631.avif" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-1024x631.avif 1024w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-760x469.avif 760w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-768x474.avif 768w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-780x481.avif 780w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-400x247.avif 400w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-706x435.avif 706w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938.avif 1080w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-1024x631.avif 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1499. <p>This story was originally published by The Lens, an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans. Into a clear blue sky, the sweet-smelling smoke billows and spreads.  Farmers have been burning and harvesting sugarcane this way for generations, but the practice creates ash fallout and hazardous air pollutants. Every year, farmers plan and coordinate the fires, to [&#8230;]</p>
  1500. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-communities-fears-amplified-by-ai-slop-and-social-media-hamper-solar-boom/2026/08/07/">In Rural Communities, Fears Amplified by ‘AI slop’ and Social Media Hamper Solar Boom</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1501. ]]></description>
  1502. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="631" src="https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-1024x631.avif" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-1024x631.avif 1024w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-760x469.avif 760w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-768x474.avif 768w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-780x481.avif 780w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-400x247.avif 400w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-706x435.avif 706w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938.avif 1080w, https://dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/solar-panels-AI-slop-e1786002462938-1024x631.avif 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1503. <p class="has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph"><em>This story was originally published by<a href="http://thelensnola.org/"> The Lens</a>, an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans.</em></p>
  1504.  
  1505.  
  1506.  
  1507. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Into a clear blue sky, the sweet-smelling smoke billows and spreads.  Farmers have been burning and harvesting sugarcane this way for generations, but the practice creates ash fallout and hazardous air pollutants. Every year, farmers plan and coordinate the fires, to clear out pests like snakes and clear leaves, leaving behind only the stalks where the sugar lies.</p>
  1508.  
  1509.  
  1510.  
  1511. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Nobody in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, thinks twice. Sugarcane smoke is a part of life.</p>
  1512.  
  1513.  
  1514.  
  1515. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But locals are wary of the dangers they suspect lurk within a different, newer industry. This new industry is going to be the ruin of Iberia Parish, they warn, with dangers ranging from toxic smoke and cancer-causing chemicals to homegrown tornados and flying debris, even poisoned farmland and worthless houses.&nbsp;</p>
  1516.  
  1517.  
  1518.  
  1519. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Dangers that are almost entirely imagined, say experts, who now find themselves as the main line of defense against misinformation that could hamstring a vital field. It’s a dynamic being repeated nationwide.</p>
  1520.  
  1521.  
  1522.  
  1523. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is a close-knit community, part of the Acadiana region of Louisiana best known as Cajun Country. But last year, opposition to solar farms became so heated here that speakers at Iberia Parish Council meetings were brought to tears. Hundreds of residents successfully mounted a campaign opposing a proposed utility-scale solar project that would have been sited northeast of town. Opponents voiced fears that solar panels would destroy farms and poison the soil. They wore anti-solar T-shirts and staked yard signs. They snubbed and scolded the project’s supporters.</p>
  1524.  
  1525.  
  1526.  
  1527. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">They feared fires, falling property values and panels that they said would leach chemicals into bayous. “I’ve done my own research. I don’t need anybody to tell me that it can’t cause cancer, or that they don’t crack and things don’t seep out,” said opponent Cathrine DeGroat during a June 2025 council meeting.</p>
  1528.  
  1529.  
  1530.  
  1531. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">After heated debate, the council passed an ordinance requiring utility-scale solar projects to be set back at least half a mile from the nearest residential property line. Solar opponents hailed it as a victory for Iberia Parish.&nbsp;</p>
  1532.  
  1533.  
  1534.  
  1535. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The ordinance appears to have effectively killed the Acadiana Solar project, which could have brought millions in local tax revenue to Iberia Parish, a rural area that could sorely use the public funds. The project’s developers would have leased land from Andree McAnally’s family farm for part of the project, money that would have helped pay college tuition and other expenses in a household budget that has been tighter since the death of her husband from COVID in 2021, McAnally said. She felt the lost opportunity more sharply, she said, since the fight against it was not based on facts.&nbsp;</p>
  1536.  
  1537.  
  1538.  
  1539. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The day of the vote, in July 2025, McAnally told parish council members that she was disappointed in them. “I thought you were going to call in your own experts and figure it out yourself,” she said. “People are fueled by misinformation.”</p>
  1540.  
  1541.  
  1542.  
  1543. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">McAnally herself had once believed that misinformation, she told the council. When her parents first agreed to put a solar farm on her family’s land, she was furious — she believed that her family was sure to get cancer. So she dug deep into research. What she learned changed her mind. “We have three generations right there on the property. And I would not put myself or my children in harm’s way,” she said.</p>
  1544.  
  1545.  
  1546.  
  1547. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Misinformation has become one of the primary hurdles for utility-scale solar projects like the one once planned here.&nbsp; “Sometimes you just have this opposition that develops from misinformation and disinformation that tends to spread like wildfire,” said Matthew Holland, energy policy outreach coordinator at the Blanco Center, who counsels solar advocates to counter misinformation through specific facts about the benefits of the projects. And, as solar projects become more commonplace, some misinformation may lose its grip.&nbsp;</p>
  1548.  
  1549.  
  1550.  
  1551. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For some who live in Iberia Parish, the standoff seems more deep-seated. “I think you’re seeing the animus of people who feel like their opinion is not taken seriously,” said Josh Trosclair, a member of the United Houma Nation and native of the small community of Lydia, just south of New Iberia, who argued on behalf of solar in front of the council. After one meeting, agitated solar opponents followed him to his car, he said.&nbsp;</p>
  1552.  
  1553.  
  1554.  
  1555. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It seems clear that unfounded fears of solar have found fertile ground here.&nbsp;</p>
  1556.  
  1557.  
  1558.  
  1559. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Facebook Groups and AI Bots</strong></h3>
  1560.  
  1561.  
  1562.  
  1563. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In Acadiana, solar opposition appears to have been organized in large part through a 1,200-member social-media group known as “NO Industrial/Utility solar in Iberia Parish” on Facebook. “Panels are toxic, contaminate the soil and water, [and] are a huge fire hazard,” wrote one of the group’s administrators in an April 2024 post.&nbsp;</p>
  1564.  
  1565.  
  1566.  
  1567. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The group appears to have been first created in 2024 by a local real estate agent, Angela Scott. Scott did not respond to multiple attempts to reach her for this story.</p>
  1568.  
  1569.  
  1570.  
  1571. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many posts express concerns that Iberia would no longer be a farming community. “There’s about 500k acres of sugarcane in the state. About 250k of them are leased for potential solar farms in the future,” read a post reshared from a group for St. James Parish — which also saw an anti-solar campaign. “If we lose 250k acres of farmland in this state, the sugar mills will likely close.”</p>
  1572.  
  1573.  
  1574.  
  1575. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">To date, experts project that, at most, Louisiana solar will require about 87,000 acres over the next 10 years, on sites spread out across the state — not just on sugarcane fields. Only about 1% of Louisiana’s total farmland would be impacted by the highest estimates of solar buildout over the next decade, researchers estimate.&nbsp;</p>
  1576.  
  1577.  
  1578.  
  1579. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Posts in the group echo the dangers cited by opponents in council debates, along with a few new alleged hazards, including “increased ambient temperatures” and suggestions that solar panels themselves create unstable weather, particularly tornadoes.</p>
  1580.  
  1581.  
  1582.  
  1583. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many posts in the group are cross-posted from “Stop Solar-Wind-BESS-Carbon Capture Scams,” a larger, 11,000-member Facebook group, which has become a hub for people who oppose solar across the nation. It was created in 2020 by Indiana resident Franklin T. Wike.&nbsp;</p>
  1584.  
  1585.  
  1586.  
  1587. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/stopsolarfarms/permalink/1580884042679691" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>pinned post</u></a>&nbsp;by Wike under the name “David Herman” seeks people willing to be trained to spread anti-solar messages: “We are looking for volunteers that would be interested in learning how to HELP run anti-Solar or anti-Solar and Wind websites. We are willing to train the individuals if needed,” reads the post. “The position will basically involve copying and pasting news links from various Facebook Groups we run, then writing a short introduction to the news articles.”</p>
  1588.  
  1589.  
  1590.  
  1591. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Wike also did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
  1592.  
  1593.  
  1594.  
  1595. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some members of the network of anti-solar groups are sharing nearly identical posts of AI-generated anti-solar content, tailored to different U.S. states.</p>
  1596.  
  1597.  
  1598.  
  1599. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Once Louisiana is gone, there’s no way to get it back,” reads one AI-generated graphic, shared by user Sheila Thomson, the words appearing on a sign with a farm and red barn in the distance. “Solar panels belong on roofs, not on farmland.” In a Facebook group for Texans, a different user posted a similar image tailored to Texas: “Once Texas is gone, there’s no way to get it back,” reads the sign. The same message and graphic appears in other groups tailored to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/639966809001944/posts/946478361684119/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>Iowa</u></a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1036139320980829/posts/1650421852885903/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>Nebraska</u></a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/347631858114879/posts/841895092021884/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>Tennessee</u></a>&nbsp;and elsewhere.</p>
  1600.  
  1601.  
  1602.  
  1603. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The accounts have been linked to a network of “AI slop machine” accounts, per an&nbsp;<a href="https://alethea.com/insights/how-state-actors-and-ai-slop-are-amplifying-data-center-revolt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>analysis</u></a>&nbsp;released earlier this month by the threat intelligence company Alethea. The network&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-data-centers.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>has also targeted data centers</u></a>. Many of the accounts are anonymously run, based in Bangladesh and appear to be rapidly producing a volume of “emotionally resonant, locally targeted content … to manufacture the appearance of organic, grassroots consensus.”</p>
  1604.  
  1605.  
  1606.  
  1607. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Highly Charged Issue Divides Neighbors</strong></h3>
  1608.  
  1609.  
  1610.  
  1611. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Iberia Parish is more familiar with a different aspect of the energy sector. Parish workers fabricate parts for oil and gas infrastructure, like offshore platforms and pipelines. They work for petrochemical companies that, historically, come in, extract resources, and leave behind poverty and pollution — and loss. Trosclair’s uncle, whom he’s named after, was doing oil and gas fieldwork when he was killed by a burst pipe in 1980 at 20 years old.</p>
  1612.  
  1613.  
  1614.  
  1615. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Fossil fuels also don’t provide the jobs they once did: A report this summer from The Data Center, a Louisiana nonprofit, found that oil and gas production and transportation in the New Orleans metro area&nbsp;<a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/files.datacenterresearch/Household_Economic_Resilience_in_Metropolitan_New_Orleans_after_Hurricane_Katrina.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>lost over 6,500 jobs</u></a>&nbsp;between 2004 and 2023, a 47% decrease.&nbsp;</p>
  1616.  
  1617.  
  1618.  
  1619. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Solar, on the other hand, will keep growing, say analysts, because the technology has simply gotten so efficient and affordable that the low cost will keep driving demand despite the hostile federal policy landscape. Scientists say that the world must transition to renewable energy as quickly as possible as global climate change worsens. Energy generated by solar in the U.S. recently&nbsp;<a href="https://abcnews.com/US/solar-generates-energy-coal-us-1st-time-report/story?id=133783328" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>overtook coal</u></a>&nbsp;for the first time. Even&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/02/katie-miller-solar-power-trump/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzgyNTMyODAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzgzOTE1MTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3ODI1MzI4MDAsImp0aSI6ImVhNWRhOThlLTJhODgtNGViMC1hYzgxLWU5ZjVkYzhiMWE5ZiIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9idXNpbmVzcy8yMDI2LzAzLzAyL2thdGllLW1pbGxlci1zb2xhci1wb3dlci10cnVtcC8ifQ.pY8znYUVysCUCh1JFyRV9UPcBuxTPze5yzuwt9cSoPQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>President Trump’s allies</u></a>&nbsp;recently softened their once-hostile tone and began championing solar outright.</p>
  1620.  
  1621.  
  1622.  
  1623. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Perhaps because of their fraught history with oil and gas, locals can be wary of large new developments on agricultural land. They rallied the council last year to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/iberia-parish-briefly-discussed-a-ban-on-carbon-capture-projects-but-realized-it-legally-couldnt/article_13c24893-2b8a-47b0-934f-4f6ff74fe340.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>discuss the risks</u></a>&nbsp;of carbon capture and sequestration and weighed instituting a moratorium. For the past several years, the solar industry has instilled worries, turning longtime friends into enemies.</p>
  1624.  
  1625.  
  1626.  
  1627. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“This is a highly charged, emotional issue, not just for me but for all of my neighbors who are my friends,” McAnally told the Council, her voice shaking. “Or — were my friends.”</p>
  1628.  
  1629.  
  1630.  
  1631. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sugarcane has long been the dominant crop in Iberia Parish, where some farms have been handed down through four or five generations. The hundreds of acres of sun-drenched land also appealed to Recurrent Energy, a division of Canada Solar, which selected about 1,000 acres for their proposed solar project, initially dubbed “Acadiana Solar.” It would have been a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyZkf1l7JPc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>$175 million</u></a>&nbsp;investment.</p>
  1632.  
  1633.  
  1634.  
  1635. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But amid passionate public opposition, Iberia Parish passed its first solar-related ordinance in February 2024, a moratorium on solar farms, described as a temporary measure until permanent regulations could be agreed upon. A year later, in July 2025, the council passed the second ordinance, requiring that solar farms in the parish be sited at least a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/iberia-parish-to-set-restrictions-on-solar-farm-projects-will-it-kill-a-planned-one/article_5b108846-7280-45ed-85d1-b3c15edbfd8a.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>half mile</u></a>&nbsp;from the nearest residential zones and occupied structures.</p>
  1636.  
  1637.  
  1638.  
  1639. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">At the state level, Louisiana legislators passed their first solar restrictions last year, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1882625" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>House Bill 459</u></a>, which requires that solar projects 75 acres or larger be set 300 feet from the nearest residential property line. The law also allows local governments to set larger setbacks.</p>
  1640.  
  1641.  
  1642.  
  1643. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Louisiana’s setback law is “one of the larger distances that you’ll see in the country,” Mark Zappi, executive director of the Energy Institute of Louisiana, told 1012 Industry Report in April. The Iberia Parish ordinance, with a setback that’s more than eight times larger, is among the most restrictive in the state.</p>
  1644.  
  1645.  
  1646.  
  1647. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The full effects of that setback are unclear: Though Recurrent Energy has never officially announced that its project was canceled, there’s been no movement on the project since the ordinance passed, local advocates say.</p>
  1648.  
  1649.  
  1650.  
  1651. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Solar Panels Don’t Leach Toxins</strong></h3>
  1652.  
  1653.  
  1654.  
  1655. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It is clear that, for solar development in Louisiana, one of the most formidable hurdles is misinformation.</p>
  1656.  
  1657.  
  1658.  
  1659. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some inaccuracies are spread among friends and neighbors, by mouth or by social media. Sometimes&nbsp;<em>dis</em>information is spread deliberately by politically-linked groups or digital marketers sharing AI-generated posts.</p>
  1660.  
  1661.  
  1662.  
  1663. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Or, as Terrence Chambers, the recently retired director of UL-Lafayette’s Center of Efficiency and Sustainable Energy,&nbsp;<a href="https://denr.louisiana.gov/assets/TAD/Solar_Regulations/ChambersPublicTestimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>testified</u></a>&nbsp;in front of a Louisiana legislative committee in 2021: “I have recently heard many concerns expressed by members of the public, some of which are based on incorrect information, and I would like to address some of those concerns, so that public policy can be based on accurate information.”&nbsp;</p>
  1664.  
  1665.  
  1666.  
  1667. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In his testimony and in the 17-page written testimony that he supplied the committee, Chambers set the record straight. “The solar cell is completely protected from air and water during normal operation, and as such, rainwater does not wash any toxic materials into the soil,” he said. “Solar racks can easily be designed to wind speeds of 150 mph or higher,” he wrote, noting that data from 50,000 operational solar installations shows that “solar plants stand up well to hurricanes and hail.” Also, because solar panels are mostly made of non-flammable materials like steel, glass and aluminum, they will not catch fire.</p>
  1668.  
  1669.  
  1670.  
  1671. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A&nbsp;<a href="https://blancocenter.louisiana.edu/sites/blancocenter/files/Blanco%20Center%20-%20The%20Impact%20of%20Utility-Scale%20Solar%20Power%20in%20Louisiana.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>December study</u></a>&nbsp;from Chambers and other researchers at UL-Lafayette reached a similar conclusion: “There are no harmful emissions or runoff from solar power plants that would negatively affect the soil.”</p>
  1672.  
  1673.  
  1674.  
  1675. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some opponents’ concerns were valid decades ago, but have now been largely addressed. For instance, residents expressed worries that solar panels would depress property values, become eyesores amid the landscape, or&nbsp; — like the “orphan wells” often left behind by fossil-fuel companies — that the projects won’t be properly decommissioned when the projects end, leaving farmland littered with aging solar panels.</p>
  1676.  
  1677.  
  1678.  
  1679. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Studies have drawn differing conclusions about property values, but another UL-Lafayette paper points to two recent ones, <a href="https://eese.louisiana.edu/sites/eese/files/Solar%20Information%20for%20Louisiana%20Residents.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>by appraisers in North Carolina and Virginia</u></a> who found that solar projects have no effect. Abandoned panels are less of a concern now since <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/la/revised-statutes/la-rev-stat-tit-30-sect-1154/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>Louisiana law</u></a> requires every project to have a decommissioning plan, which must account for closure in case of disaster and be updated every five years, with the costs set aside before construction begins. The way solar projects are designed has improved dramatically as well, said Stephen Barnes, director of the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center at UL-Lafayette. </p>
  1680.  
  1681.  
  1682.  
  1683. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Today’s projects are designed to be less visible than older ones, partly because it’s become standard for projects to include vegetative barriers – tall plants and bushes used to blend solar arrays with surrounding landscape.&nbsp; “The reality is that most people that live in a parish that does have a solar farm don’t think about it ever,” said Barnes. “You could be driving past one and never even know it.”</p>
  1684.  
  1685.  
  1686.  
  1687. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Solar Continues to Grow, and Provide Needed Tax Revenue, Despite Hurdles</strong></h3>
  1688.  
  1689.  
  1690.  
  1691. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Across Louisiana, 19 solar projects are operating. Five began operating after Iberia passed its strict ordinance.&nbsp;</p>
  1692.  
  1693.  
  1694.  
  1695. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Rural parishes that may otherwise see little investment are reaping massive tax benefits by embracing solar projects, researchers at UL-Lafayette say. Even if solar facilities are granted massive tax exemptions, they’ll generate at least 40 times more local property tax than farmland.&nbsp;</p>
  1696.  
  1697.  
  1698.  
  1699. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Near Iberia, in Pointe Coupee Parish, the Oxbow solar project&nbsp; — the largest in the state — is projected to generate&nbsp;<a href="https://lightsourcebp.com/us/project/oxbow-solar/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>$9.7 million</u></a>&nbsp;in local tax revenue within the first three years. Morehouse Parish has already brought in about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/morehouse-parish-solar-farm-brings-roughly-3-million-sales-tax-revenue-new-solar-farm-underway/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>$3 million</u></a>&nbsp;in sales tax revenue thanks to the Oak Ridge Solar Farm that began operating in 2023, about half of which went to the School Board.&nbsp;</p>
  1700.  
  1701.  
  1702.  
  1703. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The UL-Lafayette study predicts solar will bring in about half a billion dollars in state taxes through 2035. And once built, Barnes said, solar projects “tend to sit quietly with very little activity, generating significant, steady, predictable stream of tax revenue,” without requiring the increased public services — like fire protection or better roads&nbsp; — that other large development projects need, said Barnes. Investment in a solar facility can also draw other businesses in, or prompt investment in improving the local electrical grid — what Barnes calls “broader spillover economic benefits.”&nbsp;</p>
  1704.  
  1705.  
  1706.  
  1707. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“There will be continued expansion,” said Monika Gerhart, executive director of Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association. “The question is whether those projects will be over the state lines in Texas or Arkansas or Mississippi, or whether Louisiana is going to be able to avail itself of that revenue.”</p>
  1708.  
  1709.  
  1710.  
  1711. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Despite its opposition, Iberia Parish, too, has begun to see spillover benefits from investments in solar energy.&nbsp;</p>
  1712.  
  1713.  
  1714.  
  1715. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Last year, a company called First Solar opened a $1 billion solar-panel production facility in Iberia Parish. It will manufacture 3.5GW of solar panels annually and is the largest investment in Iberia Parish history. The plant now employs hundreds of locals.</p>
  1716.  
  1717.  
  1718.  
  1719. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1720.  
  1721.  
  1722.  
  1723. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>This story is a product of the&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.agwaterdesk.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em><u>Mississippi River Basin Ag &amp; Water Desk</u></em></a><em>, an independent reporting network based at the&nbsp;</em><a href="https://journalism.missouri.edu/2023/07/mississippi-river-basin-ag-water-desk-expands-coverage-of-local-environment-and-agriculture-news-with-new-grant/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em><u>University of Missouri</u></em></a><em>&nbsp;in partnership with&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.reportforamerica.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em><u>Report for America</u></em></a><em>, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.</em></p>
  1724. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/in-rural-communities-fears-amplified-by-ai-slop-and-social-media-hamper-solar-boom/2026/08/07/">In Rural Communities, Fears Amplified by ‘AI slop’ and Social Media Hamper Solar Boom</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1725. ]]></content:encoded>
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  1728. <slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
  1731. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242174</post-id> </item>
  1732. <item>
  1733. <title>Q&#038;A: A Family History of Indigenous Land Displacement </title>
  1734. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-a-family-history-of-indigenous-land-displacement/2026/08/07/</link>
  1735. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-a-family-history-of-indigenous-land-displacement/2026/08/07/#respond</comments>
  1737. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Betsy Froiland]]></dc:creator>
  1738. <pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1739. <category><![CDATA[Indigenous Affairs]]></category>
  1740. <category><![CDATA[Path Finders]]></category>
  1741. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242192</guid>
  1742.  
  1743. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="762" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?fit=1024%2C762&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?w=1707&amp;ssl=1 1707w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=760%2C565&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1296%2C964&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=768%2C571&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1536%2C1143&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1200%2C893&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1024%2C762&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=780%2C580&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=400%2C298&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=706%2C525&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?fit=1024%2C762&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1744. <p>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&#38;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. [&#8230;]</p>
  1745. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-a-family-history-of-indigenous-land-displacement/2026/08/07/">Q&#038;A: A Family History of Indigenous Land Displacement </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1746. ]]></description>
  1747. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="762" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?fit=1024%2C762&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?w=1707&amp;ssl=1 1707w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=760%2C565&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1296%2C964&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=768%2C571&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1536%2C1143&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1200%2C893&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=1024%2C762&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=780%2C580&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=400%2C298&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?resize=706%2C525&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Swenson-Headshot-scaled-e1786104294252.jpg?fit=1024%2C762&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1748. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in </em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/path-finders/"><em>Path Finders</em></a><em>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can </em><a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-appalachian-potter-josh-copus-has-mud-in-the-blood/2025/06/20/#signup"><em>join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</em></a><em> and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.</em></p>
  1749.  
  1750.  
  1751.  
  1752. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  1753.  
  1754.  
  1755.  
  1756. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Writing a memoir was not in the plan for Jill Swenson. Originally trained in journalism, Swenson figured she would stick to her trade when it came to writing the history of the Kakaygeesicks, a displaced Indigenous family near her late mother’s hometown in rural Warroad, Minnesota. But upon developing a friendship with a member of the family, she learned that erasing herself as a white person from that history – and erasing her family of white homesteaders – would not be telling the whole story. Swenson’s new book <em>The Land of the Everlasting Sky: A Memoir of Loss and Legacy on Lake of the Woods</em> reckons with the complex, tragic, intertwined histories of the picturesque landscape where she grew up.</p>
  1757.  
  1758.  
  1759.  
  1760. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Enjoy our conversation about memoir as a way to tell history, white guilt and Indigenous land displacement, and history’s role in times of political polarization.</p>
  1761.  
  1762.  
  1763.  
  1764. <p class="has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph"><em>This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p>
  1765.  
  1766.  
  1767.  
  1768. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Daily Yonder: Can you tell me a bit about what inspired you to write this memoir?</strong></p>
  1769.  
  1770.  
  1771.  
  1772. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Jill Swenson:</strong> I lived in North Minneapolis for my early childhood, but we always went up north to spend time with my mom&#8217;s side of the family near Warroad, Minnesota. I had the fondest memories up north: picking wild blueberries, seeing a moose, watching the Northern Lights, swimming in Lake of the Woods, going to the trading post.&nbsp;</p>
  1773.  
  1774.  
  1775.  
  1776. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">One day I accompanied my grandmother to the nursing home and met a man called Kakaygeesick, who was a local legend, almost like a rock star for our generation. The day after I met him, I bought this postcard in the trading post with his picture on it. I kept that postcard for 50-some years, and it was hanging on my fridge when my sister called to say, ‘If you want to say goodbye to mom before she dies, you need to get on the road now.’ After her funeral, I discovered that the Kakaygeesick family had been displaced from their home to build the Seven Clans Casino, which opened in September of 2014, months after my mom died.&nbsp;</p>
  1777.  
  1778.  
  1779.  
  1780. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I didn&#8217;t start out writing memoir. I actually thought I was going to be writing more like a journalist, writing the story of how this land was taken from the Kakaygeesick family by Red Lake Reservation. It was [through] coming to know Don Kakaygeesick (the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick, the man I had met in the nursing home decades earlier) and remedying my lack of education about treaties and the history that I began to figure out that white people were a part of this story.</p>
  1781.  
  1782.  
  1783.  
  1784. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: How did you view your personal story as intersecting with Indigenous history?</strong></p>
  1785.  
  1786.  
  1787.  
  1788. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JS:</strong> It was me understanding my role as a white person that I began to feel a little bit more comfortable thinking about myself as part of the story. Because I had established a friendship with the Kakaygeesick family, I trusted myself to be true to their story and to learn about Red Lake Reservation and Red Lake Nation&#8217;s history, which I did not know or understand beforehand.&nbsp;</p>
  1789.  
  1790.  
  1791.  
  1792. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s how I was able to begin to make the connections between reservation land and homesteads, and how that connected to the Kakaygeesicks’ allotment. Then I began to think, ‘now I have to write this as a memoir.’ It meant not just looking at, say, my great-grandparents, but also looking at where they fit into larger structures. Homesteaders were used by white wealthy men who controlled our government at the time to move Indigenous people off the lands on or around the Mississippi River and push them even further west.</p>
  1793.  
  1794.  
  1795.  
  1796. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In learning Don&#8217;s life story, I realized I didn&#8217;t have to deal with obstructions to my life in the same way that Don did. There&#8217;s so much that had been invisible to me that I felt like I could be a surrogate for readers who need to know this history because it&#8217;s theirs too. There are so many Americans who are descendants of homesteaders and white settlers–not just in Minnesota, but across the country. I thought that telling my story might be a better way to get people interested in this history.&nbsp;</p>
  1797.  
  1798.  
  1799.  
  1800. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: In the book, you delve critically into your families’ and your own orientations towards race when you were growing up. What did you want your audiences to take from those reflections?</strong></p>
  1801.  
  1802.  
  1803.  
  1804. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JS:</strong> There were so many instances where I see things in a totally different light now that I&#8217;m older. I think many people experience this when they look back at things from their childhood. For example, looking through a boy scout handbook from the 60s and 70s and realizing that it’s a guidebook on the romanticization of cowboys and Indians in our culture. Now, we&#8217;re embarrassed about it. We like to put that history behind us. I&#8217;m suggesting that we get over the embarrassment and shame we might have about our ancestors and really dig into it.&nbsp;</p>
  1805.  
  1806.  
  1807.  
  1808. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The pursuit of anti-racism never ends. I think many folks who think of themselves as liberals like myself don&#8217;t think they need to do any of that critical self-reflection, and they too often stand in judgment of others about their political behavior. I find that one of the reasons we end up in these very partisan, very divided times is that we can&#8217;t accept that we make mistakes. Owning our mistakes is part of the process of growing up, maturing, doing better. But saying you were wrong is very hard for most.</p>
  1809.  
  1810.  
  1811.  
  1812. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: Much of your memoir is framed from the perspective of your younger self, including many moments where you didn&#8217;t quite understand what you were feeling. Why did you choose to write from the perspective of your younger self and include those confused thoughts along the way?</strong></p>
  1813.  
  1814.  
  1815.  
  1816. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JS: </strong>It was an editorial choice. Memoir requires critical self-reflection. Without that reflection, it&#8217;s just a chronicle. The narrator has to be changed over the course of the book. At the same time, I knew that with what I was revealing, I would not necessarily be a likable character. I wanted readers to find me to be a surrogate for themselves in this journey, and I knew they didn&#8217;t want to dislike themselves.&nbsp;</p>
  1817.  
  1818.  
  1819.  
  1820. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But with the child narrator, I could see my younger self and be empathetic with her. I was a kid. I didn&#8217;t know any better then. When you know better, you do better. But you&#8217;ll notice each time I think I&#8217;m doing better and I&#8217;m learning something, I also run into it again.</p>
  1821.  
  1822.  
  1823.  
  1824. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: The book has a lot of really beautiful descriptions of the rural landscape in northern Minnesota. What impact did the rurality of the setting have on you growing up, and what role does it play in the memoir?</strong></p>
  1825.  
  1826.  
  1827.  
  1828. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JS:</strong> I felt a connection to the land and to a place where I could swim every day. There is something about the sky there. People talk about Montana having a big sky. Well, a lot of people who live in Montana came from northern Minnesota. The lake itself is like an ocean, except with no waves. It&#8217;s flat, still, calm, but yet you can look out over it and not see the other side. And you can look from one direction to the other, left to right, and the lake just continues. It&#8217;s an enormous body of water.&nbsp;</p>
  1829.  
  1830.  
  1831.  
  1832. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s also something about the wind – it has just a little bit of salt to it. It was Lake Agassiz, a pre-glacial lake, so there&#8217;s a lot of loamy soil there, a lot of fir trees, a lot of pine, larch, and tamarack. The magpies, the wildflowers, the lady slippers in bloom. Rurality has always appealed to me, from an early age. It&#8217;s peaceful.&nbsp;</p>
  1833.  
  1834.  
  1835.  
  1836. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>DY: How do you situate your memoir in the larger story of the land near the Lake of the Woods?</strong></p>
  1837.  
  1838.  
  1839.  
  1840. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>JS: </strong>I think a lot of people, when they&#8217;re interested in family history, are only interested in their own tree, and maybe what rich or famous people might appear in their tree. Nobody seems to be interested in the forest.&nbsp;</p>
  1841.  
  1842.  
  1843.  
  1844. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">But everybody is related to one another. And yet a lot of people up here remain very divided around race issues. Beyond the Red Lake Reservation, there is a large off-reservation community of Red Lake Indians in Warroad. And about 17% of the local population in Warroad is Laotian, since many Laotian refugees came to the area in the 90s and became farmers. My motivation in writing is that we need to know the history behind these communities because it&#8217;s our ignorance that becomes more dangerous as we&#8217;re trying to move forward in an increasingly polarized community. Those partisan ties have nothing to do with the history.</p>
  1845.  
  1846.  
  1847.  
  1848. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The local newspaper in Warroad used to do a lot with local history, but it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/us/warroad-pioneer-news-desert.html">shut down in 2019</a>. Now that there&#8217;s no newspaper, other locals are stepping up to fill that void. The <a href="https://www.warroadmuseum.com/">Warroad Heritage Center</a> puts out a history newsletter. The restaurants have weekly history trivia nights. They have a two-week history camp. All of a sudden history&#8217;s the only bipartisan issue people can agree on, and they&#8217;re beginning to embrace this stuff and really start to reckon with it in new ways. Much of that has happened in the last two years. Don and I have worked together to ask some important questions and become involved in the community to raise consciousness around these issues.&nbsp;</p>
  1849.  
  1850.  
  1851.  
  1852. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">In July, Don [Kakaygeesick] and I had community conversations in public libraries and the county museums in Warroad, Roseau and Baudette, the three big cities along Lake of the Woods. People who know this history really want to come together because it&#8217;s never been written down, they want to have a book about the place they live in, and they want to add to that story. And I&#8217;m just all ears.</p>
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  1869. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This interview first appeared in <strong>Path Finders</strong>, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&amp;A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. </p>
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  1907. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-a-family-history-of-indigenous-land-displacement/2026/08/07/">Q&#038;A: A Family History of Indigenous Land Displacement </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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  1914. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242192</post-id> </item>
  1915. <item>
  1916. <title>Yonder Radio: Toxic Wastewater, Prairie Ecosystems, and Basket Weaving</title>
  1917. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-episode-121/2026/08/07/</link>
  1918. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-episode-121/2026/08/07/#respond</comments>
  1920. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff]]></dc:creator>
  1921. <pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  1922. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  1923. <category><![CDATA[Yonder Radio]]></category>
  1924. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242104</guid>
  1925.  
  1926. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/YR-Cover-Photo.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  1927. <p>Tune in to Yonder Radio for conversations about toxic oil wastewater in Oklahoma, weaving in the Midwest, and prairies ecosystems.</p>
  1928. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-episode-121/2026/08/07/">Yonder Radio: Toxic Wastewater, Prairie Ecosystems, and Basket Weaving</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  1929. ]]></description>
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  1933. </div></figure>
  1934.  
  1935.  
  1936.  
  1937. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Every week, Yonder Radio brings rural conversations with national reach to listeners around the country.</p>
  1938.  
  1939.  
  1940.  
  1941. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This week we bring you a story from KBIA reporter Jana Rose Schleis about <a href="https://www.kbia.org/kbia-news/2026-05-06/cwip-stirs-republican-energy-funding-debate">energy policy in Missouri</a> and a conversation with <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/profiles/alexis-bonogofsky/">Alexis Bonogofsky</a> with the World Wildlife Fund about sustainable ranching in prairie ecosystems.</p>
  1942.  
  1943.  
  1944.  
  1945. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.jocelyncattersonart.com/">Jocelyn Catterson</a> takes us down to the San Luis Valley in Colorado with her interdisciplinary work interpreting drought and water issues through art.&nbsp;</p>
  1946.  
  1947.  
  1948.  
  1949. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Then, we&#8217;ll take a trip to Oklahoma with Nick Bowlin of the Frontier and Katie Campbell of ProPublica who bring us the story behind their new documentary, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/toxic-ground-how-oil-field-pollution-is-threatening-oklahoma">Toxic Ground: How Oil Field Pollution Is Threatening Oklahoma</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  1950.  
  1951.  
  1952.  
  1953. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Finally, we head to the midwest with Arts Midwest reporter Frankie Felegy who shares a <a href="https://artsmidwest.org/stories/willow-basket-weaver-viki-graber/">story about basket weaving</a>.&nbsp;<br><br>Our featured musician this week is country artist <a href="https://www.rynebrashear.com/">Ryne Brashear</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  1954.  
  1955.  
  1956.  
  1957. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tune in for all that, and more, on <a href="https://rss.com/podcasts/yonder-radio/3016152/" data-type="link" data-id="https://rss.com/podcasts/yonder-radio/3016152/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this week’s episode of Yonder Radio</a>.</p>
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  2014. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>If you want to broadcast or publish Yonder Radio, sign up here to be the first to know when the show goes live. If you have questions, you can also reach our team at <a href="mailto:info@yonderradio.com">info@yonderradio.com</a>. </strong></p>
  2015. </div></div>
  2016.  
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  2019. <h2 class="wp-block-heading">More Information About Yonder Radio</h2>
  2020.  
  2021.  
  2022.  
  2023. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>What?</strong></p>
  2024.  
  2025.  
  2026.  
  2027. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio</strong>&nbsp;is a new, free, hour-long show that is fresh every week and designed to help fill programming gaps. We’ll feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home.</p>
  2028.  
  2029.  
  2030.  
  2031. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Each week will start with a news round-up: think of this as the top headlines read through a rural lens. For instance, how does a government shutdown affect federal workers living in rural communities? Or, what do changes in Medicare policy mean for small town hospitals? We’ll also talk with reporters for in-depth but conversational segments going beyond the headlines, exploring their coverage on topics shaping rural communities. We’ll highlight how these stories unfold across different regions, offering local nuance with a broader perspective.</p>
  2032.  
  2033.  
  2034.  
  2035. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is not just news. It’s also a show focused on rural lives and livelihoods. That means weekly human-interest stories, hearing from hunters, farmers, gardeners, and shopkeepers; conversations with artists supporting and reimagining traditions; performances by regional musicians; and vibrant analysis of rural representation in pop culture. Add in a round of engaging trivia, and you’ve got a show that’s as rich and varied as the places it comes from.</p>
  2036.  
  2037.  
  2038.  
  2039. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Why?</strong></p>
  2040.  
  2041.  
  2042.  
  2043. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Public media just took a $1.1 billion hit, thanks to recent Congressional cuts, and as we’ve all seen, it’s rural broadcasters that bear the brunt. And even before these cuts, the rural communities we all cover have felt the consequences of a media landscape transformed by conglomerates, consolidation, and the declining resources available to local outlets.&nbsp;</p>
  2044.  
  2045.  
  2046.  
  2047. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is designed to fill programming gaps for those stations struggling to find quality content. It will be formatted to fit stations’ needs with internal breaks built in.&nbsp;The show&nbsp;gives stations an accessible, flexible, high-quality hour of content every week.</p>
  2048.  
  2049.  
  2050.  
  2051. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Who?</strong></p>
  2052.  
  2053.  
  2054.  
  2055. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is produced by the Center for Rural Strategies, publisher of the Daily Yonder. Centering rural stories with nuance, context, and care has made the Daily Yonder the nation’s preeminent source for rural news for nearly two decades. Rural Strategies’ additional programs, including Rural Assembly, Rural Faith Initiative, and Living Traditions, will provide enriching voices and stories to this collaborative radio show.&nbsp;<strong>Yonder Radio&nbsp;</strong>is hosted by Jared Ewy, a veteran radio personality and regular contributor to the Daily Yonder.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  2056.  
  2057.  
  2058.  
  2059. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>
  2060. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/yonder-radio-episode-121/2026/08/07/">Yonder Radio: Toxic Wastewater, Prairie Ecosystems, and Basket Weaving</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2061. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2064. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  2067. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242104</post-id> </item>
  2068. <item>
  2069. <title>45 Degrees North: The Vent Talk</title>
  2070. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-the-vent-talk/2026/08/06/</link>
  2071. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-the-vent-talk/2026/08/06/#respond</comments>
  2073. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Donna Kallner]]></dc:creator>
  2074. <pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  2075. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
  2076. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  2077. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=240626</guid>
  2078.  
  2079. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C427&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1151&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1125&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2080. <p>You know this rural neighbor – the elderly widow who lives alone at the dead end of a road bypassed by the information superhighway. She doesn&#8217;t see Facebook, so doesn&#8217;t see public service reminders to keep furnace exhaust vents clear during a blizzard. And the specific scenario of blocked vents hasn&#8217;t come up in conversations [&#8230;]</p>
  2081. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-the-vent-talk/2026/08/06/">45 Degrees North: The Vent Talk</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2082. ]]></description>
  2083. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C427&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1151&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1125&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_20260513_124818875_HDR-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2084. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know this rural neighbor – the elderly widow who lives alone at the dead end of a road bypassed by the information superhighway. She doesn&#8217;t see Facebook, so doesn&#8217;t see public service reminders to keep furnace exhaust vents clear during a blizzard. And the specific scenario of blocked vents hasn&#8217;t come up in conversations with family members trying to get her to move.</p>
  2085.  
  2086.  
  2087.  
  2088. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whether she doesn&#8217;t know or can&#8217;t physically manage to keep vents clear doesn&#8217;t really matter. What matters is that when snow accumulates or something blocks a furnace vent, the furnace kicks off. That&#8217;s what modern furnaces do when they detect a dangerous accumulation of the byproducts of combustion. Problem solved – except now there&#8217;s no heat.</p>
  2089.  
  2090.  
  2091.  
  2092. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re holding your breath in fear that this scenario resulted in a tragic death in my neighborhood, you can stop. Thank goodness for the miracle of a working landline phone, and for rural fire department volunteers. The point here is to say that understanding how a house’s vents work is important so you can keep them clear or, better still, prevent blockages. That applies to people of all ages. But we really need to have <em>The Vent Talk</em> with rural elders trying to age in place. And this is the time of year when loved ones might be best able to help with prevention projects&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  2093.  
  2094.  
  2095.  
  2096. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Take a breath.</strong> In the next minute, you will probably take between 12 and 20 breaths. Thanks to your autonomic nervous system, most of the time we are hardly even aware that we&#8217;re taking in oxygen and eliminating carbon dioxide. You may hold your breath while passing a liquid manure tanker on a rural road. But our bodies soon override the impulse to <em>not</em> breathe – no matter how stinky or smoky or dusty or pollen-laden country air can be.</p>
  2097.  
  2098.  
  2099.  
  2100. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Our homes have similarish systems for bringing in fresh air and eliminating… Let&#8217;s call it stale air. These systems are not unique to rural homes, and dysfunction is not just a winter concern. However…</p>
  2101.  
  2102.  
  2103.  
  2104. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The pizza parable.</strong> Help is just closer in urban and suburban settings, and you won&#8217;t convince me otherwise: I once arrived in St. Paul after a harrowing drive in blizzard conditions and my host ordered pizza delivery. Sixteen inches of snow – and yet pizza <em>came to her door</em>. Out here, that&#8217;s not going to happen. It&#8217;s not that neighbors won&#8217;t help. It&#8217;s that when a small population is faced with a big challenge, it takes longer to cover the distance. And it doesn&#8217;t have to be snow that keeps help from coming. It might be roads blocked by trees, washouts, landslides, downed power lines. It might even be that most of the neighbors are also old, with health and mobility challenges of their own. Those are the realities of living in the country.&nbsp;</p>
  2105.  
  2106.  
  2107.  
  2108. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">So we kind of have to understand how things work and take prudent measures to keep them working as much as possible – with contingency plans for when those measures fail.</p>
  2109.  
  2110.  
  2111.  
  2112. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Meet your vents.</strong> Vents connected to furnaces, water heaters, boilers and other household appliances need a clear path by which they can expel gasses like carbon monoxide (CO) from your living space. CO is odorless and colorless, so our bodies don&#8217;t immediately detect it as a source of potential danger. But CO can cause health impacts that are serious, cumulative, and sometimes fatal.</p>
  2113.  
  2114.  
  2115.  
  2116. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">So it&#8217;s important to become familiar with where vents are located and what they&#8217;re connected to. It&#8217;s equally important to be tuned in to how a heating system or appliance sounds and behaves under normal operation, and alert for unusual sounds, decreased efficiency, unexpected shut-downs, and other signs that things are not as they should be.&nbsp;</p>
  2117.  
  2118.  
  2119.  
  2120. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Map those vents.</strong> This may sound silly, but probably isn&#8217;t. Spend some time in old farmhouses and you&#8217;ll see lots of scenarios that don&#8217;t match expectations. And plenty that do. Here&#8217;s one: Well-meaning adult children live hours away from stubborn elderly parents who now find heating with wood more challenging. So the family has an HVAC installer put in a furnace. The installer might explain the system to the homeowner. But the digital thermostat takes up most of the available mental bandwidth from someone used to adjusting the damper on a wood stove. Vents? Aren&#8217;t they supposed to just work on their own?</p>
  2121.  
  2122.  
  2123.  
  2124. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I recently mapped the vents on our house to put in our “next of kin” files. There&#8217;s no reason our loved ones would know we used to use a gas water heater to supply heat to the hydronic baseboard registers. Those vents on the back of the house were disconnected when we replaced the tank with an on-demand water heater, which vents on the front of the house. Also on the front are intake and exhaust vents for an air to air heat exchange unit and the range hood. The bathroom exhaust fan vents to the roof then down and out at the eave. And there&#8217;s an exhaust vent for a dryer, if we had one instead of using a clothesline. If health or mobility concerns force us to buy a dryer someday, the vent is there.&nbsp;</p>
  2125.  
  2126.  
  2127.  
  2128. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Identity concerns.</strong> Concerns certainly include things like vents that might be blocked by blowing and drifting snow. But that&#8217;s not all. For example, someone who wouldn&#8217;t leave a car idling inside an attached garage might inadvertently leave one running near an HVAC intake vent if they don&#8217;t realize it&#8217;s there. If that&#8217;s where it makes the most sense to park while getting a mobility-challenged elder in and out of a vehicle, turn the engine off.</p>
  2129.  
  2130.  
  2131.  
  2132. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Wind can have unexpected impacts on airflow. Our fire department responded to one carbon monoxide call where the placement of a standby generator seemed appropriate. But while it was running the wind carried exhaust up to a gable vent, through the attic and into the house. This is why working CO monitors are an absolute must (more on this below).</p>
  2133.  
  2134.  
  2135.  
  2136. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Mitigate potential problems.</strong> On the whole, it&#8217;s easier to prevent a problem before it becomes one. This starts with regular inspections and maintenance. Like pulling weeds near vents (will bindweed <em>never</em> die?). The louver grill on the air exchanger intake vent is cracked this spring, so I will replace it and the grill on the exhaust vent and the screens on both.</p>
  2137.  
  2138.  
  2139.  
  2140. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;m also looking for vent guard ideas for the PVC intake and exhaust vents for our water heater. Strategic landscaping isn&#8217;t an option: Plants placed where they might diminish drifting but not block airflow would, I think, be killed under the snow avalanche that comes off our metal roof. We plan to build a set of <a href="https://youtu.be/HsourF8SuBE?si=_vZrcJ6qdEJHWCpV">hinged A-frame shields</a> to put in place when we expect heavy snow and drifting. That should buy us some time. But in a few years, we might need something that&#8217;s more permanent.</p>
  2141.  
  2142.  
  2143.  
  2144. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Contingency plan.</strong> Most of the time, those water heater vents operate just as they should. In March, though, we had one of those late-winter blizzards that dumps a lot of snow in a short period and blows it around in patterns we don&#8217;t often see. The weather forecast was concerning, so Bill jerryrigged a shield for the vents.&nbsp;</p>
  2145.  
  2146.  
  2147.  
  2148. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">It held through the first wave of the storm but eventually blew down. By some miracle, we had <em>not </em>lost power and our heat system was still operating. But the wind was still fierce, and we were afraid the vents would not stay clear. So before we went to bed that night, we shut off the water heater/heat system so if it became blocked it wouldn&#8217;t pose a danger. In the morning it was just under 60 degrees in the house. We lit a fire in the wood stove that is our backup heat source (extended power outages are common here). That took off the chill until we could get outside to clear vents again.&nbsp;</p>
  2149.  
  2150.  
  2151.  
  2152. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Looking out for each other.</strong> A friend who lives alone is good about checking in with us and letting us check on her. During the first lull in that March blizzard, she texted that she was going outside to check her vents then texted when she was safely back inside. That slog inspired her to consider other options. And by taking out screens, she could hang out her windows to check vents and clear them, if needed, with a broom. Without going outside.</p>
  2153.  
  2154.  
  2155.  
  2156. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">When our loved ones think we should move to town, I think we&#8217;re going to be a handful!</p>
  2157.  
  2158.  
  2159.  
  2160. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  2161.  
  2162.  
  2163.  
  2164. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Donna Kallner writes from Langlade County in rural northern Wisconsin. She reminds us all to have </em><a href="https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/home-fire-safety/carbon-monoxide"><em>CO monitors</em></a><em> installed near bedrooms and on every floor of a home, to test them monthly, replace batteries regularly, and replace units every five to seven years. </em></p>
  2165.  
  2166.  
  2167.  
  2168. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Carbon monoxide poisoning can present as flu-like symptoms (without fever), headache, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, confusion and fatigue. If you experience symptoms that could be from CO poisoning, immediately get everyone out of the house and into fresh air. Then call 911. Your fire department has the equipment and training to check the CO level.</em></p>
  2169. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-the-vent-talk/2026/08/06/">45 Degrees North: The Vent Talk</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2170. ]]></content:encoded>
  2172. <wfw:commentRss>https://dailyyonder.com/45-degrees-north-the-vent-talk/2026/08/06/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  2173. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  2176. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">240626</post-id> </item>
  2177. <item>
  2178. <title>Audiences Embark on Their Own Epic Journeys To See “The Odyssey” in Theaters</title>
  2179. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/the-odyssey/2026/08/06/</link>
  2180. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/the-odyssey/2026/08/06/#respond</comments>
  2182. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Susannah Broun]]></dc:creator>
  2183. <pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
  2184. <category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
  2185. <category><![CDATA[The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy]]></category>
  2186. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=241990</guid>
  2187.  
  2188. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BZjMxYmQ2MWMtYjY0MS00MTJjLTg1NTYtZDgxZjE5OWExMDU2XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2189. <p>This summer’s most talked-about movie is a thrilling cinematic spectacle. It also shines a light on the unequal geography of moviegoing in rural America.</p>
  2190. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/the-odyssey/2026/08/06/">Audiences Embark on Their Own Epic Journeys To See “The Odyssey” in Theaters</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2191. ]]></description>
  2192. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BZjMxYmQ2MWMtYjY0MS00MTJjLTg1NTYtZDgxZjE5OWExMDU2XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2193. <p class="wp-block-paragraph" style="font-size:14px"><em>Editor’s Note: A version of this story also appeared in&nbsp;The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can&nbsp;<a href="https://#signup">join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</a>&nbsp;to receive future editions in your inbox</em>.</p>
  2194.  
  2195.  
  2196.  
  2197. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The biggest movie of the year is an epic retelling of arguably the most influential story of all time, directed by one of Hollywood&#8217;s most celebrated filmmakers, and featuring one of the most star-studded casts ever assembled. So perhaps it is fitting that for “The Odyssey,” audiences embarked on odysseys of their own just to see it.</p>
  2198.  
  2199.  
  2200.  
  2201. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  2202. <iframe loading="lazy" title="The Odyssey | Official New Trailer" width="780" height="439" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f_bKjZeJBBI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  2203. </div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Promotional trailer for &#8220;The Odyssey&#8221; (2026). (Credit: Universal Pictures via YouTube)</figcaption></figure>
  2204.  
  2205.  
  2206.  
  2207. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">On top of hearing first-hand accounts of my friends’ marathon road trips, my TikTok feed has been filled with users telling tales of their journeys to see “The Odyssey” (2026), Christopher Nolan’s nearly three-hour long adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8taPMCQ/">One influencer&#8217;s video</a> begins with a timestamp of 7:30 am, and a voiceover saying “Come with me to drive an hour and a half to see The Odyssey in IMAX!” She then explains that the long journey is because she lives “in the middle of nowhere.” <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ta5c2f/">Another</a> driving montage set to the film’s score was captioned “Drove 3 hours to sit for 3 hours… and I’d do it again!” Winning the record for longest distance traveled (at least on my social media feed) was a couple who <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ta56nW/">documented</a> their 4-hour drive to Dallas to see the film. (Although a commenter has them beat by writing that they were driving the 8 hours from South Texas to do the same.)&nbsp;</p>
  2208.  
  2209.  
  2210.  
  2211. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Notably, everyone in these TikToks traveled these distances to see “The Odyssey” specifically in the IMAX format. The long voyage isn’t only about finding the biggest screen. The specialty cameras and theaters involved in the IMAX spectacle create greater image clarity, expanded visual scope, and an immersive sound experience.</p>
  2212.  
  2213.  
  2214.  
  2215. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The Odyssey” is the first feature-length narrative film to be shot entirely on IMAX 70 mm cameras. This means that the action-packed story, shaped around gargantuan mythical creatures, colossal battles, and sweeping landscapes, was filmed to be viewed at an astoundingly immersive level. While there are several hundred IMAX theaters in the country, there are only <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/07/23/only-25-us-theaters-odyssey-imax-70mm">26 theaters</a> in all of the United States that can show “The Odyssey” in its “intended” format, IMAX 70mm. I’ll leave the more technical explanation of why the 70mm format is so desired to the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-odyssey-was-made-for-imax-70mm-good-luck-watching-it-that-way/">experts</a>, but the most basic reasoning is that since “The Odyssey” was shot on IMAX 70mm cameras, it&#8217;s the only format that fully captures the film’s massive scale and visual detail. Hence, the movie theater pilgrimages sweeping the nation.</p>
  2216.  
  2217.  
  2218.  
  2219. <figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex">
  2220. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="242033" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242033" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/unnamed-file-4-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
  2221.  
  2222.  
  2223.  
  2224. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" data-id="242032" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242032" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/use-3-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
  2225. <figcaption class="blocks-gallery-caption wp-element-caption">Director Christopher Nolan on location with the speciality IMAX 70mm cameras. (Credit: Universal Pictures via IMDb)</figcaption></figure>
  2226.  
  2227.  
  2228.  
  2229. <div class="wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained">
  2230. <div class="wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-d05cb3ef wp-block-group-is-layout-flex">
  2231. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">&#8220;The Odyssey” does contain some interesting rural elements. From the sheep-herding Cyclops Polyphemus to the sorceress Circe’s isolated home, much of the story revolves around its fascination with the mystery of life beyond the cities. However, the off-screen cultural moment of this film – the record-breaking <a href="https://ew.com/the-odyssey-sails-to-yet-another-box-office-victory-with-639-million-globally-12027147">box-office numbers</a>, <a href="https://www.imax.com/pr/christopher-nolans-odyssey-continues-its-journey-imax-record">massive IMAX demand</a>, and the many tales of lengthy travel – add another rural dimension to the Odyssey.</p>
  2232. </div>
  2233. </div></div>
  2234.  
  2235.  
  2236.  
  2237. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Cinema Deserts in Rural America</strong></p>
  2238.  
  2239.  
  2240.  
  2241. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">For millions of Americans, seeing the latest blockbuster in theaters has always involved an odyssey. And for many, that journey has only gotten longer in recent years.&nbsp;</p>
  2242.  
  2243.  
  2244.  
  2245. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The movie theater industry has struggled to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid rise of streaming. Every once in a while, a cultural phenomenon like Barbenheimer (the 2023 same-day release of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”) or surprise hits like “Obsession” (2026) spark declarations that moviegoing is back and better than ever. But despite these flashes of optimism, movie theaters continue to close. In 2025, North America had <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/movie-theaters-comeback-screens-shut-down-box-office-slump-1236347993/">5,691 fewer screens</a> compared with pre-COVID times.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  2246.  
  2247.  
  2248.  
  2249. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">When rural theaters close, they often leave entire communities without a cinema. In April 2026, Dillon, Montana&#8217;s <a href="https://www.kbzk.com/news/local-news/big-sky-cinema-closes-its-curtains-in-dillon-ending-decades-of-movies-memories-and-community-gatherings">Big Sky Cinema closed</a>, with the property changing ownership to a Missoula-based company that operates Taco Bell. The theater had served the community since 1973, and its closure left residents with no movie theater within roughly 50 miles. A month earlier, <a href="https://www.wbko.com/2026/03/03/cinema-33-eviction-leaves-hartford-without-its-only-movie-theater/">Cinema 33</a>, the only theater in Ohio County, Kentucky, also shut its doors, forcing residents to drive about 30 minutes to the nearest theater.</p>
  2250.  
  2251.  
  2252.  
  2253. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">An example from last year is even more striking. One of the biggest movies of 2025 was Ryan Coogler’s vampire film “<a href="https://dailyyonder.com/sinners-revels-in-the-history-and-culture-of-the-rural-south-clarksdale-mississippi-blues-music/2025/05/15/">Sinners</a>.” The Oscar-winning film is set in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and celebrates the history, music, and culture of this Mississippi Delta town. But there is no movie theater in Clarksdale. To see their own town depicted on screen, residents had to drive more than an hour each way. Currently, the community is working on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/once-segregated-theater-becomes-a-creative-community-hub-for-all/2025/06/13/">revitalizing the abandoned theater</a> to address this cultural gap.&nbsp;</p>
  2254.  
  2255.  
  2256.  
  2257. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As audiences are documenting their expeditions to see Christopher Nolan&#8217;s epic, it&#8217;s worth highlighting how many rural Americans have been making similar journeys for years, not to see the most exclusive, premium format, but simply because the nearest theater keeps getting farther away.&nbsp;</p>
  2258.  
  2259.  
  2260.  
  2261. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Worth the journey?&nbsp;</strong></p>
  2262.  
  2263.  
  2264.  
  2265. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whether you’re choosing to travel the extra miles for “The Odyssey” in IMAX (or maybe even the elusive IMAX 70MM) or simply have to leave your town to find a theater at all, I hope to help guide your decision on whether any journey, near or far, is worth the trip.</p>
  2266.  
  2267.  
  2268.  
  2269. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="350" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?resize=780%2C350&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-242029" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C581&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C341&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C345&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C689&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C919&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C538&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C459&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C897&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C350&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C179&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C317&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/MV5BNGQ4MDU1ZWMtM2JlOS00ZmI5LTllZmEtODVkYmU3ZDNiMzUzXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-1296x581.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his crew of soldiers on their long journey home back to Ithaca. (Credit: Universal Pictures via IMDb)</figcaption></figure>
  2270.  
  2271.  
  2272.  
  2273. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Composed over 2,500 years ago, Homer’s “The Odyssey” has had a cultural impact on countless media projects. The hero’s journey toward home, interrupted with trials and tribulations from a seemingly endless slew of unsavory forces, is a structure that storytellers have adapted for centuries. Some of my favorite adaptations of the epic include “O’ Brother Where Art Though” (a Coen Brother’s feature from 2000 set in 1930s Mississippi), “After Hours” (a 1985 paranoid, Kafkaesque, Martin Scorsese film about a man trying to get home one night in Manhattan), and, of course, “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” (the 2004 classic that sends SpongeBob and Patrick on a heroic underwater quest). </p>
  2274.  
  2275.  
  2276.  
  2277. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Christopher Nolan’s 2026 version of “The Odyssey” is a more straightforward remake of the original tale; there is no replacing Ithaca for <a href="https://nickelodeon.fandom.com/wiki/Bikini_Bottom">Bikini Bottom</a> or Polyphemus the Cyclops for <a href="https://youtu.be/IcP8I1HZeIs?si=McRbFsQGGDv_EsJZ">a bible salesman</a>.</p>
  2278.  
  2279.  
  2280.  
  2281. <div class="wp-block-columns are-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
  2282. <div class="wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:50%">
  2283. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The film follows Odysseus (Matt Damon) on his 20-year-long journey back to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland) after the Trojan War. Along the way, he is advised by the goddess Athena (Zendaya) and faces numerous obstacles in the form of monsters, humans, and gods.&nbsp;</p>
  2284. </div>
  2285.  
  2286.  
  2287.  
  2288. <div class="wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow" style="flex-basis:50%">
  2289. <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?resize=780%2C520&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-241992" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MV5BMzM0Nzc5OTgtN2YxMC00MzM0LTkwNDYtZGQ2ODFlMjhmZTM4XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_-1296x864.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Odysseus (Matt Damon) and the goddess Athena (Zendaya) in &#8220;The Odyssey&#8221; (2026). (Credit: Universal Pictures via IMDb)</figcaption></figure>
  2290. </div>
  2291. </div>
  2292.  
  2293.  
  2294.  
  2295. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Audiences are thrown into this journey at a dizzying speed. The first act of the film hits viewers with an onslaught of action sequences and exposition, explaining the conclusion of the Trojan War and the tense situation back in Ithaca. The film also rapidly introduces a sprawling cast of characters, portrayed by a staggeringly star-studded cast who fight to shine (with varied success) in their limited amounts of screen time. This brisk pacing is overall helpful: the film never drags, despite its nearly three-hour runtime. It weaves effortlessly in and out of both time and place on Odysseus’s long journey home. The film’s stunning imagery (it was shot almost entirely <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/destinations/the-odyssey-filming-locations/">on location</a> across six countries from Iceland to Greece) and mind-boggling set pieces (which were achieved largely <a href="https://nofilmschool.com/the-odyssey-practical-effects">without the use of CGI</a>), keeps every sequence captivating. Some of the best parts of my theater-going experience were knowing that, yes, that Cyclops really was a 60-foot mechanical puppet, and yes, they <a href="https://people.com/matt-damon-breaks-down-shooting-inside-the-odyssey-iconic-trojan-horse-exclusive-12019789">actually put</a> over 20 actors, the camera, and the crew inside a very cramped Trojan horse. At times the dialogue is a bit corny and overwritten, but the film’s magnitude and overall storytelling techniques make up for these faults.&nbsp;</p>
  2296.  
  2297.  
  2298.  
  2299. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Nolan is not new to the themes he lays out in “The Odyssey.&#8221; In fact, most of Nolan’s filmography tells stories of complicated men who are driven by an overwhelming sense of purpose to do what they feel is necessary or noble. Perhaps one of the most compelling comparisons to “The Odyssey&#8221; is to Nolan’s last film, &#8220;Oppenheimer&#8221; (2023). Nolan’s version of Odysseus is racked with guilt and, similarly to J. Robert Oppenheimer&#8217;s role as “<a href="https://youtu.be/EtDmWCaOklU?si=kpy3OMNKXp1sVXmV">death, the destroyer of worlds</a>,” defies the natural order – in this case, the gods. For millennia, Odysseus has been remembered as one of the greatest heroes in the Western canon. But in Nolan’s film, that heroism is less important than the psychological weight of his actions.&nbsp;</p>
  2300.  
  2301.  
  2302.  
  2303. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">With subject material this well-known, there are, inevitably, mountains of discourse on Nolan’s interpretation of the epic. Whether or not you approve of his treatment of the themes and characters in this retelling, for me, it is this blending of modern anxieties with an ancient story – told powerfully through monumental filmmaking – that makes “The Odyssey” worth the journey to go see it in the theater.</p>
  2304.  
  2305.  
  2306.  
  2307. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">As millions of movie fans head on their own odysseys (though hopefully with fewer man-eating monsters standing in their way), I hope this film is a reminder of the unique joy of seeing an epic story on the big screen. But I also hope it reveals that the ability to do so isn&#8217;t equally accessible. With any luck, this cultural phenomenon leads not only to more IMAX 70mm theaters, but, even more importantly, to the revival of movie theaters across the country. Everyone deserves to see Odysseus&#8217;s legendary on-screen journey without having to brave one of their own just to get to the theater.</p>
  2308.  
  2309.  
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  2321.  
  2322.  
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  2324. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This article first appeared in&nbsp;<strong>The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy</strong>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/contact-us/subscribe-daily-yonder/#good-bad-elegy">Join the mailing list</a> today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.</p>
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  2363. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/the-odyssey/2026/08/06/">Audiences Embark on Their Own Epic Journeys To See “The Odyssey” in Theaters</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2364. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2370. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">241990</post-id> </item>
  2371. <item>
  2372. <title>El-Sayed Narrowly Led Rural Michigan in Democratic Senate Primary</title>
  2373. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/el-sayed-narrowly-led-rural-michigan-in-democratic-senate-primary/2026/08/05/</link>
  2374. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/el-sayed-narrowly-led-rural-michigan-in-democratic-senate-primary/2026/08/05/#respond</comments>
  2376. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Madeline de Figueiredo]]></dc:creator>
  2377. <pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:16:57 +0000</pubDate>
  2378. <category><![CDATA[Rural Voters & Elections]]></category>
  2379. <category><![CDATA[Data]]></category>
  2380. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=242167</guid>
  2381.  
  2382. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2383. <p>Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly carried rural Michigan over Representative Haley Stevens in the August 4, 2026, Democratic primary, according to county-level election results.  Ahead of Election Day, projections suggested Stevens would hold a significant advantage in rural parts of the state. However, when votes were counted, El-Sayed led Stevens by approximately 0.55 [&#8230;]</p>
  2384. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/el-sayed-narrowly-led-rural-michigan-in-democratic-senate-primary/2026/08/05/">El-Sayed Narrowly Led Rural Michigan in Democratic Senate Primary</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2385. ]]></description>
  2386. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26217644596555-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2387. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed narrowly carried rural Michigan over Representative Haley Stevens in the August 4, 2026, Democratic primary, according to county-level election results. </p>
  2388.  
  2389.  
  2390.  
  2391. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ahead of Election Day, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/08/04/us/elections/results-michigan-us-senate-primary.html">projections suggested</a> Stevens would hold a significant advantage in rural parts of the state. However, when votes were counted, El-Sayed led Stevens by approximately 0.55 percentage points across rural Michigan. The rural vote provided a critical boost for El-Sayed&#8217;s statewide performance, helping him secure a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-primary-senate-elsayed-stevens-60c79349b60ffbf24a34d60b76e130ed">win</a> in the Democratic primary.</p>
  2392.  
  2393.  
  2394.  
  2395. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Across rural counties in Michigan, more than <a href="https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/michigan-primary-results-us-senate/">212,000 voters</a> cast ballots in the Democratic primary. El-Sayed received approximately 100,950 votes, or 47.55% of the rural vote. Stevens received roughly 99,770 of rural votes, accounting for 47.00%, while State Senator Mallory McMorrow received about 11,580 rural votes, or 5.45%.</p>
  2396.  
  2397.  
  2398.  
  2399. <iframe title="El-Sayed Led Rural Counties in Michigan" aria-label="Choropleth map" id="datawrapper-chart-rnpqU" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rnpqU/5/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="818" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();</script>
  2400.  
  2401.  
  2402.  
  2403. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">El-Sayed&#8217;s strongest rural performances came in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, where he posted substantial margins in several nonmetropolitan counties. He led Stevens by more than 20 percentage points in rural counties including Grand Traverse, Houghton, and Marquette, helping offset Stevens&#8217; performance elsewhere in the state.</p>
  2404.  
  2405.  
  2406.  
  2407. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Although El-Sayed narrowly won the overall rural vote, Stevens carried more rural counties than El-Sayed. She won 37 nonmetropolitan counties, compared with 20 for El-Sayed. Many of those county-level races were highly competitive. In Gogebic County in the Upper Peninsula, for example, Stevens prevailed by just 14 votes. <br><br>Statewide turnout was substantially higher than in Michigan&#8217;s last competitive Democratic U.S. Senate primary. Unofficial election results indicate that roughly <a href="https://bridgemi.com/michigan-government/how-abdul-el-sayed-won-michigan-big-turnout-liberal-towns-walkup-votes/">2.5 million Michiganders</a> voted across all contests in the 2026 primary, including more than <a href="https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/michigan-primary-results-us-senate/">1.5 million ballots</a> cast in the Democratic Senate primary. A notable increase from the state&#8217;s 2024 Democratic Senate primary, which drew around <a href="https://bridgemi.com/michigan-government/how-abdul-el-sayed-won-michigan-big-turnout-liberal-towns-walkup-votes/">933,000 voters</a>, with total participation across both parties’ presidential primaries that year around 2 million voters.</p>
  2408.  
  2409.  
  2410.  
  2411. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Rural voters represented approximately 14% of the turnout in this year’s Democratic primary.&nbsp;</p>
  2412.  
  2413.  
  2414.  
  2415. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Definitions of &#8220;rural&#8221; vary across organizations and researchers, which can result in differences in reported vote totals and margins. This analysis uses the Office of Management and Budget&#8217;s (OMB) 2013 nonmetropolitan county classification to define rural counties.</p>
  2416. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/el-sayed-narrowly-led-rural-michigan-in-democratic-senate-primary/2026/08/05/">El-Sayed Narrowly Led Rural Michigan in Democratic Senate Primary</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2417. ]]></content:encoded>
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  2423. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">242167</post-id> </item>
  2424. <item>
  2425. <title>The Grocery Cart Divide: How Rural and Urban America Sort Themselves</title>
  2426. <link>https://dailyyonder.com/the-grocery-cart-divide-how-rural-and-urban-america-sort-themselves/2026/08/05/</link>
  2427. <comments>https://dailyyonder.com/the-grocery-cart-divide-how-rural-and-urban-america-sort-themselves/2026/08/05/#respond</comments>
  2429. <dc:creator><![CDATA[David Schultz]]></dc:creator>
  2430. <pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  2431. <category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
  2432. <category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
  2433. <category><![CDATA[Data]]></category>
  2434. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=241488</guid>
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  2436. <description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2437. <p>We hear constantly that rural and urban America have grown apart. The 2024 presidential map made the point in the usual way, a sea of red countryside around dense blue cities, with roughly 90% of counties shifting toward Donald Trump. That divide is real, and it is well documented. What gets less attention is how [&#8230;]</p>
  2438. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/the-grocery-cart-divide-how-rural-and-urban-america-sort-themselves/2026/08/05/">The Grocery Cart Divide: How Rural and Urban America Sort Themselves</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
  2439. ]]></description>
  2440. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=760%2C428&amp;ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1296%2C729&amp;ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1200%2C675&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=400%2C225&amp;ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?resize=706%2C397&amp;ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Untitled-July-20-2026-at-15.54.15.png?fit=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w" sizes="(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw / 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw / 12)), 100vw" /></figure>
  2441. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">We hear constantly that rural and urban America have grown apart. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election">2024 presidential map</a> made the point in the usual way, a sea of red countryside around dense blue cities, with roughly 90% of counties shifting toward Donald Trump. That divide is real, and it is well documented. What gets less attention is how far down into daily life it reaches. Over the past several months I went looking for it not in voting records but in grocery searches, brand footprints, and the small choices people make without thinking of them as political at all.</p>
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  2445. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">I tested 21 consumer preferences, retail patterns, and demographic measures against county and state level returns from 2024, combining relative search interest from <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/">Google Trends</a> with the election results. Nineteen of the 21 were statistically significant. Taken together they describe a rural-urban split that is not just about who governs, but about how people live, eat, and shop. That distinction matters for anyone who cares about rural communities, because it shapes how campaigns court them and which businesses decide to invest in them.</p>
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  2448.  
  2449. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The food signals were the strongest. The single best predictor in the whole study was a state&#8217;s relative search interest in tofu versus pork rinds, which by itself explained 72% of the variation, or the difference, in the vote. Searches for gravy versus pesto came next, then Velveeta versus brie, each explaining roughly two thirds.</p>
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  2452.  
  2453. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">&nbsp;The pattern was consistent and, frankly, not surprising to anyone who has lived in a small town: shelf stable and homemade foods such as Velveeta, SPAM, Miracle Whip, biscuits and gravy, and no-bean chili tracked rural, Republican leaning places. Refrigerated and imported foods such as brie, pesto, prosciutto, and avocado toast tracked dense, Democratic leaning ones. For the sake of this analysis, rural is defined as counties outside of the Office and Management and Budget’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas.</p>
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  2456.  
  2457. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Other markers followed the same rural-urban line. Searches for Wranglers ran rural while Levis ran urban, a split that alone explained close to half the variance. Interest in NASCAR tracked rural Republican margins about as cleanly as <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/public-broadcasting/">public radio</a> listenership tracked urban Democratic ones. Sweet tea mapped the rural South so precisely that the twelve states searching for it most all voted the same way. Homeschooling searches tilted rural. None of these is a stereotype imposed from outside. They are the visible texture of a regional culture, the same way a county fair or a hunting season is.</p>
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  2461. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The retail map drew the clearest line of all. Counties with a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-15/the-lululemon-economy">Whole Foods</a> voted Democratic at about 58%, compared with roughly 30% in counties without one, and barely 2%of the counties Trump carried had a store at all. Lululemon, the same. Meanwhile <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2017/05/22/dollar-general-hits-a-gold-mine-in-rural-america/">Dollar General</a>, which has spread across rural and small town America by the thousands, was the near mirror image, with the vast majority of its counties going Republican. Chick-fil-A, Cracker Barrel, and Waffle House leaned the same direction. Where a chain chooses to build is, in effect, a bet on a kind of community, and those bets sort almost perfectly along the rural-urban seam.</p>
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  2465. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Underneath all of it sits one variable: education. The <a href="https://eig.org/economic-geography-2024/">Economic Innovation Group</a> has shown how tightly a county&#8217;s share of college graduates now tracks its politics, and my data agrees. The college degree share was the strongest demographic predictor, explaining about 31% of the variance and underlying nearly every food and retail pattern. National chains follow the graduates into metro areas, and the graduates lean Democratic. Rural counties, which retain a larger share of residents whose skills and livelihoods never required a four year degree, are left on the other side of that line, often with fewer of the retail options urban readers take for granted.</p>
  2466.  
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  2468.  
  2469. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">One finding cuts against a common assumption, and rural readers will recognize why it matters. Poverty rate predicted almost nothing, because rural white poverty and urban minority poverty roughly cancel each other out. Hardship is not the dividing line between red and blue America. Plenty of struggling places vote each way. The dividing line is cultural and educational, a matter of identity and way of life rather than simple economics, which is exactly why it has proven so stubborn.</p>
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  2473. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">This has real consequences as the 2026 midterms approach. The same consumer data I analyzed is the raw material campaigns now used for <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2012/10/19/the-rise-of-microtargeting/">microtargeting</a>, building voter profiles from commercial and behavioral records to tailor messages household by household. Rural voters should understand that their search histories, store loyalty cards, and brand preferences are increasingly read as political signals by people who have never set foot in their county. The <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/reports/data-brokers-call-transparency-accountability-report-federal-trade-commission-may-2014">data broker</a> industry that feeds this machine operates with little oversight, a privacy concern that ought to unsettle people regardless of how they vote.</p>
  2474.  
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  2476.  
  2477. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">There is a quieter consequence for rural economic development, and it deserves more honesty than it usually gets. If consumer preference and community identity are this entangled, then the businesses willing to invest in a place are not making a politically neutral calculation. A specialty grocer or boutique retailer is betting on an urban, college educated customer base, which is one reason those storefronts so rarely appear in rural downtowns. The chains that do invest in rural America, the dollar stores and farm suppliers and quick service restaurants, are betting on the customers who are actually there.</p>
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  2480.  
  2481. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">That cuts two ways for rural leaders weighing how to grow their local economies. One path is to recruit businesses suited to the community that exists, playing to the real strengths and tastes of the place rather than chasing an urban template that will not take root. The other is to recognize that new businesses can themselves nudge a community&#8217;s culture over time, for better or worse, since a way of life and the storefronts that serve it tend to shift together. Neither path is obviously right. But rural officials should at least know that a recruitment pitch mismatched to the county&#8217;s character is a long shot no matter how generous the incentives.</p>
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  2485. <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The point of all this is not that brie searches decide elections, or that rural tastes are something to be corrected. It is that the rural-urban divide we keep describing in political terms runs deeper than politics. It lives in the grocery aisle, the clothing rack, and the search bar, and it reflects communities and identities built up over generations. For those who want to understand rural America, or to serve it, the lesson is to take that culture seriously on its own terms rather than treating it as a problem to be solved. The shopping cart, it turns out, has been telling us where we stand all along.</p>
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  2493. <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>David Schultz is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of more than 50 books on American politics and law.</em></p>
  2494. <p>The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/the-grocery-cart-divide-how-rural-and-urban-america-sort-themselves/2026/08/05/">The Grocery Cart Divide: How Rural and Urban America Sort Themselves</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.</p>
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