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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Chavis]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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One of the biggest problems facing America today is its inability to fully reckon with its past and the horrific events that have occurred within our borders. As I mentioned in my last op-ed article, this tendency permeates our political discourse and prevents us from engaging honestly on where we have been and how it […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-learning-to-reckon-with-history/2025/07/04/">Commentary: Learning to Reckon with History</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
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One of the biggest problems facing America today is its inability to fully reckon with its past and the horrific events that have occurred within our borders. As I mentioned in my last <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-if-democracy-collapeses-in-america-it-wont-be-the-first-time/2025/04/22/">op-ed article</a>, this tendency permeates our political discourse and prevents us from engaging honestly on where we have been and how it may influence our future. 
<a href="https://time.com/7287295/burning-of-nottoway-plantation/">The recent fire at the Nottoway Plantation in Louisiana</a> has brought this issue to the forefront. The plantation, which was built by enslaved people in the 1850s, had been a popular hotel and wedding destination. 
This is not new. The spread of the “Lost Cause” mythology around the Civil War is the most prominent example of how we have attempted to whitewash our history. Anyone who has spent time in the South has heard of the “War of Northern Aggression” and that the Civil War was about “states’ rights.” In 1939, Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh starred in Gone with the Wind, a film that portrayed slaveholders as sympathetic protagonists and romanticized life on a Southern plantation.
In a cruel bit of irony, Hattie McDaniel, who became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for her role in the film, was unable to attend the film’s premiere in Atlanta due to Georgia’s Jim Crow laws. 
“Gone with the Wind” went on to become one of the most celebrated movies in American cinema. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it as the fourth best film ever made (it fell to sixth in 2007). When adjusted for inflation, it is still the highest-grossing film of all time. It is perhaps the most prominent example of how mainstream society has ignored the horrors of slavery and failed to hold its perpetrators accountable in the historical record. 
Today, there are still those actively working to suppress these stories. In 2022, my wife and I visited James Madison’s Montpelier in Virginia. As we left, we were approached by a Fox News reporter and camera crew. I agreed to speak about the tour we had taken.
The reporter appeared particularly concerned with the tour’s mentions of slavery, despite the well-documented fact that enslaved people lived and died on Madison’s estate. Talking about their lives is not “political correctness,” it is a necessary part of honoring their humanity and understanding the foundations of American history. Yet when Fox News aired my comments, they were placed within a segment alleging that “wokeness” is “destroying” American education.
Rural people and communities still live with the scars of these injustices. If you look at a map of poverty rates in this country, those scars are illuminated. As noted by the <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2021/august/rural-poverty-has-distinct-regional-and-racial-patterns">United States Department of Agriculture</a> in 2021, Black and Indigenous Americans are more likely to reside in a high or persistent poverty county than any other group. They are also more likely to face adverse health outcomes and have lower life expectancy.
Plantation weddings are an outgrowth of the same denial that has driven Gone with the Wind’s popularity for almost 90 years. Most notably, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were married in October 2012 at Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. In 2020, Reynolds apologized for this decision. But his decision to get married there is emblematic of the broader systemic denial of the horrors of its past. 
And this phenomenon is not just limited to the South. It can also be observed in California, where people also get married at the Spanish Missions where Indigenous Californians were held, forced to work, and forcibly converted to the Catholic faith. In 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom referred to the treatment of Indigenous Californians as genocide and apologized for the actions of his predecessors. 
These structures have an important role in society, as places of education and remembrance. They are reminders of the depravity that has existed within our borders. They are memorials to those who lived and died within their walls. Repurposing these sites is an opportunity to tell a fuller story, one grounded in truth, not myth.
We do not have the luxury of ignoring the past because it impacts our present and future. The American tendency to ignore or deny the brutality within our borders is an active barrier to addressing the historical harms that have been created. 
If we cannot face our past with honesty, we will never shape a future grounded in justice.
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/>
Christopher Chavis grew up in rural Robeson County, North Carolina, and is a frequent writer and speaker on baseball history and rural access-to-justice issues. He is a citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-learning-to-reckon-with-history/2025/07/04/">Commentary: Learning to Reckon with History</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<title>Q&A: Mountain & Prairie Host Ed Roberson</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-mountain-prairie-host-ed-roberson/2025/07/04/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-mountain-prairie-host-ed-roberson/2025/07/04/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ilana Newman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Arts & Culture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Path Finders]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231230</guid>
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Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-mountain-prairie-host-ed-roberson/2025/07/04/">Q&A: Mountain & Prairie Host Ed Roberson</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
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Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/path-finders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Path Finders</a>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-appalachian-potter-josh-copus-has-mud-in-the-blood/2025/06/20/#signup">join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</a> and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
Ed Roberson is a podcast host and storyteller who tells stories about the American West. His podcast, <a href="https://mountainandprairie.com/podcast/">Mountain & Prairie</a>, interviews changemakers from around the West about topics like land, water, and conservation. 
I first met Ed during a river trip, last summer, on the Rogue River in Oregon. We spent the week floating and chatting about how storytelling and media can make a difference in the world, and about how to tell nuanced stories. The stories told on that trip still inspire me daily, and Ed’s humor and humility bring a lot to every conversation he participates in.
In this interview we talk about how Ed started his podcast, and some of the biggest issues the West is currently facing, based on what he’s gathered from his own conversations. 
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
Ilana Newman, The Daily Yonder: You came to the world of land conservation and Western storytelling from an interesting background, starting in finance and real estate development. How would you describe your origin story? What led you to the work you’re doing today?
Ed Roberson: Today, almost all of my work is somehow connected to themes of conservation, land stewardship, and sustainability, but for the first ten years of my career, I was on the far other end of the spectrum. I spent many years working as a commercial and ranch real estate broker, and actually went to graduate school with the intention of becoming a developer. But halfway through my MBA program, I had a serious health scare that shook me up and made me reevaluate my priorities and how I wanted to spend my professional life.
From there, I started to apply my professional and educational experiences to land conservation – first working with conservation groups on a number of open-space acquisitions and eventually moving full-time into the non-profit conservation world, where I was the Conservation Director at a regional land trust. I found that I enjoyed (and was much better at) the conservation work, and many of my skills in real estate, business, and sales were transferable into the conservation space.
In 2016, while still in the real estate business, I started my podcast, Mountain & Prairie, as a nights-and-weekends creative project. For many years, nobody other than my wife and mother listened, but it slowly found an audience and eventually grew into a full-time job. By 2022, the podcast was making enough money that I could go all-in on it, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. While I do miss the on-the-ground conservation work, I think the podcast is having a very positive and widespread impact across the West.
DY: Your podcast, Mountain & Prairie, comprises conversations with changemakers around the Western United States, but you’re originally from North Carolina. How do you see conversations around land differently in the Southeast vs. the West?
ER: The most obvious difference is public land – 14.6% of North Carolina’s land is public, versus 43% of Colorado’s. In the West, it’s impossible to have any meaningful conversation about land use, natural resources, or conservation without considering how public lands fit into the equation. So much conservation work out here requires collaboration between private landowners, governmental agencies, Tribal nations, and non-profit organizations – it’s an entirely different beast than East Coast conservation.
Another obvious difference is water quantity – there’s simply not enough water in the West to support today’s growth. (Whereas where I grew up, there’s often too much water!) Water is the constraining factor of everything in the West, from agriculture to economic development to public health to outdoor recreation… and on and on. Much of my nonprofit conservation work revolved around creating tools that allow water to be more efficiently shared between agriculture and municipalities in the Arkansas River Basin, and many of my podcast episodes examine the challenges of over-appropriated water in the Colorado River Basin. It’s an endlessly fascinating topic.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231233" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?w=1000&ssl=1 1000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ed-Roberson-Old-Salt-Festival.jpeg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"> Ed Roberson interviewing novelist David James Duncan at the 2023 Old Salt Festival. (Photo by Anthony Pavkovich)</figcaption></figure>
DY: In a complicated media landscape, how is Mountain & Prairie a tool for making change and bringing people together? How do you choose who to feature, and what types of stories you want to tell?
ER: When I started the podcast, I lived in Boulder, Colorado, and was doing real estate work with ranchers, so I was straddling the world of progressive environmentalism and conservative land stewardship. One day I’d be out working with a fifth-generation rancher who most likely voted straight Republican, and the next day, I’d be chatting with my hardcore Democrat neighbor who I’d describe as a militant environmentalist. I realized that when I ignored the labels and political affiliations, these two people seemed to agree on 85% of the same things when it came to land, natural resources, and conservation.
So most of my interviews focus on the people – who they are, how they grew up, why they have devoted their lives to their particular type of work. Once listeners can understand these folks’ life stories, they can connect with them as individuals, see that they are good people, and better understand their motivations. Then, even if the listener may disagree with the specifics of the guest’s stance or approach, they can respect them as a person and perhaps learn something new.
As for how I pick guests, there is no rhyme or reason other than what I’m interested in at the moment. I love learning from a wide variety of voices, and I love to have my assumptions and beliefs challenged – the more diversity of opinion, the better. In the last few weeks, I’ve talked to leaders from the Blackfeet Nation, Montana’s first Jiu-Jitsu instructor, a Navy SEAL-turned-cannabis entrepreneur, a National Geographic photographer, and a world-renowned rock climber. It’s all over the place.
DY: You’ve spent a lot of time recreating outdoors in rural areas around the Western U.S., and many of the conversations you have with podcast guests revolve around this intersection of land and recreation, and conservation. What do you see as the most important issues rural Western communities are facing that might rely on recreation or be surrounded by public lands?
ER: Given that so much of my career is focused on real estate, I can’t help but be concerned about the influx of highly paid digital nomads into rural recreational hubs throughout the West. So many once-low-key Western towns have become completely unaffordable for the locals who do the work that makes the towns so desirable in the first place. I don’t blame knowledge workers from the coasts for wanting to move to places like Missoula or Bozeman or Salida – when I moved West back in 2005, I was one of them. But when property values and the cost of living explode to the point where service workers or tradespeople can’t afford to live there anymore, we’ve got a serious problem on many, many levels. I wish I had an easy or effective solution to offer, but I don’t. However, I know there are many smart people out there working to solve this challenge.
DY: Who has been your favorite person to talk to on the podcast so far, and why?
ER: It would be impossible to pick just one. No exaggeration, I’ve absolutely loved 99% of the episodes I’ve recorded, and I’ve learned so much from every single interview. Again, I only interview people whom I’m extremely excited to speak with, and every person brings a unique perspective and life story to the conversation. I will admit that I especially enjoy chatting with authors of all types – historians, novelists, adventure writers, journalists, biographers, and more. I am a voracious reader, so when I get to talk to authors like Douglas Brinkley, Hampton Sides, Betsy Gaines Quammen, or Chris La Tray, it’s like a basketball fan getting to shoot hoops with Jordan or Lebron.
DY: Where would you recommend new listeners to start with Mountain & Prairie?
ER: I had the great pleasure of interviewing the actor, author, woodworker, and humorist Nick Offerman, who is best known for his character Ron Swanson, on the TV show Parks and Recreation. But what many people may not know is that he is a fierce advocate for regenerative agriculture and recently wrote a bestselling book about conservation and his love for the wide-open spaces of the West. He’s also a superfan of Aldo Leopold and Wendell Berry, and has narrated a few of Berry’s audiobooks. That <a href="https://mountainandprairie.com/nick-offerman/">episode</a> is equal parts hilarious and insightful, and it’s a good representation of the types of things I enjoy discussing on the podcast.
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This interview first appeared in Path Finders, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox. 
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The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-mountain-prairie-host-ed-roberson/2025/07/04/">Q&A: Mountain & Prairie Host Ed Roberson</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<title>Commentary: The Tragedy of the Commons – From Overgrazing Pastures to Exhausting Our Reservoirs of Hope and Trust</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-the-tragedy-of-the-commons-from-overgrazing-pastures-to-exhausting-our-reservoirs-of-hope-and-trust/2025/07/03/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Branscome]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231246</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="926" height="626" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?fit=926%2C626&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?w=926&ssl=1 926w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=760%2C514&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=768%2C519&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=780%2C527&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=400%2C270&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=706%2C477&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?fit=926%2C626&ssl=1&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>
Back in the days, before child labor laws were introduced and before it became conventional wisdom that no young person could develop proper character without playing two dozen sports, mastering three instruments, and maintaining a 4.0 GPA, I had the straightforward job of driving milk cows to our alfalfa field in the Virginia Blue Ridge […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-the-tragedy-of-the-commons-from-overgrazing-pastures-to-exhausting-our-reservoirs-of-hope-and-trust/2025/07/03/">Commentary: The Tragedy of the Commons – From Overgrazing Pastures to Exhausting Our Reservoirs of Hope and Trust</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="926" height="626" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?fit=926%2C626&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?w=926&ssl=1 926w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=760%2C514&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=768%2C519&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=780%2C527&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=400%2C270&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?resize=706%2C477&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Farmers_and_townspeople_in_center_of_town_on_Court_Day_1a34378v.jpg?fit=926%2C626&ssl=1&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>
Back in the days, before child labor laws were introduced and before it became conventional wisdom that no young person could develop proper character without playing two dozen sports, mastering three instruments, and maintaining a 4.0 GPA, I had the straightforward job of driving milk cows to our alfalfa field in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains for some limited high-protein grazing.   
What I learned was that cattle had an awesome tendency to overgraze this luscious stuff, become dangerously bloated with gas unless they were carefully acclimated to consumption over time, and that the best efforts of myself and my trusty shepherd dog seldom succeeded in getting the Guernsey rogues out of the field before they made progress in sickening themselves.  
The last few weeks a group of us veteran journalists and policy wonks who have spent a lot of time on the enduring issues of mine safety, poverty, and flooding and many other issues in Appalachia, were discussing how it can be that the Trump administration is reversing gains made over the last few decades and still that areas like Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia—the whole of the 13-state region of 26-million people with some exceptions—have voted overwhelmingly for this administration and continue to support its stripmining of progress.
One of the journalists recalled that one of our heroes—the crusading editor of The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Kentucky, Tom Gish—had always insisted that if people had the right information, they would make rational decisions in their own best interests.  We agreed that optimism needs to be tempered in these times.  But how to explain the reasons for this behavior such as how much of Appalachia went from heavily Democratic to MAGA supporting in just a few decades?  As a matter of fact, the question can be asked of much of rural America.  It takes some digging.
The great inspiration Thomas Jefferson drew from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s writings on the “social contract” before penning one of mankind’s most eloquent documents in July of 1776 was based on his belief that people would make rational, indeed democratic, decisions if they had the right information.  
Rousseau was a repeat entrant in the prestigious Dijon Prize contests and actually won the coveted award a second time in 1754 for his “Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men.” I’ve long forgotten if the Dijon Prize connects to the mustard dynasty, but I do remember that Rousseau was afflicted with one of those Pauline “thorns in the flesh” and reportedly wet his pants when the Academy of Dijon bestowed the award on him. 
The important point isn’t the incontinence, but the immortal insight Rousseau wrote in one of those Dijon essays: “The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said ‘This is mine,’ and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: ‘Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody’.”
It follows that once there are many fences, people must enter into social contracts to regulate important things like who’s the main rooster and whether milk-producing Guernseys or steak-producing Angus get first dibs in the alfalfa fields. Jefferson reasoned that Americans had never contracted to make King George III the main rooster—he could take his monarchy and stuff it. 
That’s the philosophy that secured us “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 
Enlightened self-interest is the root from which Rousseau’s philosophical forest flourishes. The English, being less romantic and worse cooks than the French, spotted an anomaly in all this. Back when every English village had a commons where everyone could graze their sheep, they noticed some farmers tended to increase their herds. It was obviously in that farmer’s self-interest to do so, there being no direct cost to him. 
Eventually, however, the lush commons became something like adobe hills. The English recognized this destructive pattern, but it took until 1968 for ecologist Garrett Hardin to give it a name and framework in his influential essay in Science magazine entitled “The Tragedy of the Commons.”  
Hardin used the example of herders sharing a common pasture, where each herder’s rational decision to add one more animal to graze would eventually lead to overgrazing and the pasture’s destruction. His central argument was that individuals acting independently and rationally according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the whole group’s long-term best interests by depleting or spoiling the shared resource. 
Hardin was particularly concerned with population growth and resource depletion, arguing that “freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.” While his solutions were sometimes controversial, his core insight about the conflict between individual rationality and collective welfare has become fundamental to understanding everything from environmental policy to economic regulation. What our milk cows taught me on that mountain farm, Hardin elevated into a principle that explains much of what ails modern society.
This concept of overgrazing can also involve more than resources and alfalfa fields.  It also applies to ideas and principles.  The explanation for why Appalachian mountaineers vote as they do presently has to do with our society having grazed trust and hope down to stubble after decades of promised help. The region remains with some of the poorest counties in the nation and afflictions like black lung disease strike coal miners at record-high rates and ever younger ages.  The same phenomenon applies nationally as paycheck-to-paycheck workers who despair they will never be able to afford a home of their own as economic inequality strangles hope.
Consider the 2008 financial crisis, when banks issued mortgages to anyone with a pulse, knowing they could package and sell the risk to others. Each institution acted in its apparent self-interest, but collectively they grazed the financial commons down to bare ground, leaving taxpayers to restore the pasture. We see this tragedy playing out across rural America today, where groundwater aquifers that took millennia to fill are being pumped dry in decades.  
Each farmer drilling deeper wells acts rationally—their crops need water; their families need income. But collectively, we’re mining an irreplaceable commons that our grandchildren will inherit as hardpan. The Ogallala Aquifer, once thought inexhaustible, now drops several feet per year in some areas, turning what was once America’s breadbasket into tomorrow’s dust bowl. 
The consolidation of American agriculture reflects this same pattern. Corporate farms can afford to bid up land prices and operate on razor-thin margins that family operations can’t match. Each acquisition makes economic sense for the corporation, but collectively, we’re losing the social fabric of rural communities— the school boards, volunteer fire departments, and local businesses that family farmers traditionally supported.  
Rural broadband illustrates the commons problem perfectly. Telecom companies avoid the expense of serving sparsely populated areas because it’s not profitable for any single company. Meanwhile, rural communities fall further behind in the digital economy, creating a commons of connectivity that remains tragically under-developed while urban areas enjoy multiple high-speed options.  
We see it in today’s immigration debates, where sanctuary cities and border states clash over resources and responsibilities. Local communities act in their perceived self-interest—some offering protection, others demanding enforcement—while the national commons of immigration policy remains tragically overgrazed by competing political interests. 
We witness it in social media platforms where individual users and corporate algorithms optimize for engagement and profit, collectively creating an information commons so degraded by misinformation and polarization that democratic discourse itself suffers. 
Climate change represents perhaps the ultimate tragedy of the commons, where individual nations and corporations pursue economic self-interest while the atmospheric commons becomes increasingly uninhabitable for everyone. Even our recent market volatility—from meme stock frenzies to cryptocurrency bubbles—reflects the same pattern. Institutional investors chase quick profits while collectively destabilizing the financial commons that supports retirement accounts and economic stability.
The tragedy extends to our political system, where gerrymandering, dark money, and extreme partisanship serve short-term political interests of political parties while degrading the democratic commons that serves us all. Each side grazes their portion of the political pasture down to the roots, leaving scorched earth for future generations. This is how we end up with healthcare systems that over-consume resources, financial institutions that privatize profits while socializing losses, federal agencies that prioritize fiefdoms over public service, and immigration policies that satisfy no one while serving everyone poorly.
It’s all overgrazing, it’s all a tragedy of the commons, and we can’t agree on exactly whom to blame for signing this social contract—or how to renegotiate it before the pasture becomes permanently barren. The challenge isn’t identifying the problem—Rousseau and the English figured that out centuries ago. The challenge is mustering the collective wisdom to manage our shared resources before they’re grazed beyond recovery.  
Because unlike my family cattle, we can’t simply move to a fresh field when this one is exhausted. On July 4th, we will be celebrating the remarkable creation of this republic.  It’s time for those in Appalachia and the whole nation really to ask ourselves in all our overgrazing of resources and ideas and principles if we have exhausted the commons.  Trust and hope are our most precious resources, and we are tragically exhausting a once bountiful supply.
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/>
Jim Branscome is a retired managing director of Standard & Poor’s and a former journalist whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Business Week, and Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, Kentucky.
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-the-tragedy-of-the-commons-from-overgrazing-pastures-to-exhausting-our-reservoirs-of-hope-and-trust/2025/07/03/">Commentary: The Tragedy of the Commons – From Overgrazing Pastures to Exhausting Our Reservoirs of Hope and Trust</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<title>Agriculture Education Program Provides New Opportunities for Formerly Incarcerated</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/agriculture-education-program-provides-new-opportunities-for-formerly-incarcerated/2025/07/03/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nick Fouriezos / Open Campus]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Education]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Social Justice]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Mile Markers]]></category>
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Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in Mile Markers, a twice monthly newsletter from Open Campus about the role of colleges in rural America. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox. John Pressell been incarcerated for half his life, with intermittent stints that […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/agriculture-education-program-provides-new-opportunities-for-formerly-incarcerated/2025/07/03/">Agriculture Education Program Provides New Opportunities for Formerly Incarcerated</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in Mile Markers, a twice monthly newsletter from Open Campus about the role of colleges in rural America. You can <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-universities-experiment-with-innovation-hubs/2024/06/06/#signup">join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</a> to receive future editions in your inbox.
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John Pressell been incarcerated for half his life, with intermittent stints that began when he dropped out of high school in 11th grade.
“I used to always look at education like, “Oh, I don’t need it,” the 44-year-old says. As a teen, John felt like he was making plenty of money on the streets while living what he describes as “a criminal life.”
Two years ago, everything changed. After being released following a decade in state prison, John connected with Reform Merced, a California nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated individuals rebuild their lives.
They placed him at their recently opened organic farm, where he now tends bell peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and seasonal crops.
“I enjoy working out around the field, I enjoy driving the tractor and I enjoy planting food,” John says. “It’s something that can actually stay with me in the future. Something to be proud of, where I can see people go to a grocery store, and think, ‘look, I grew that.’”
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">An Unexpected Student</h2>
Merced College is one of six community colleges that have received $42 million in state and federal grants to create free competency-based programs for agricultural technologies across California’s Central Valley.
“When we first thought about this program, it was designed traditionally for the more traditional farm laborer and upscaling them for the workforce,” says Cody Jacobson, Merced’s director of ag innovation.
However, John represents somebody program leaders didn’t initially anticipate.
He’s one of a dozen or so formerly incarcerated students from Restore Merced who’ve enrolled in the AgTEC program, which allows students to work at their own pace through 14 skill areas, from digital literacy to equipment operation.
The partnership emerged when Restore Merced’s director reached out to explore educational opportunities for their workers, and it’s flourished since.
“It turns out that what they’re doing with Restore Merced is a great fit for what we’re doing. And these individuals who are trying to get their lives back on track, they’re eager to learn.”
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Starting from Zero</h2>
For John, the program began with a fundamental challenge: he had little experience using computers.
He wasn’t alone.
“In that first cohort of 14 students, probably 10 or 12 of them had never even touched a computer before,” recalls instructor Karl Montague. “We were having to tell them how to turn the computer on. We were having to tell them, this is what we call a mouse.”
That reality forced Merced to rethink its approach. While the program provided funding for computers, the instructors quickly realized that digital literacy was the foundational skill for the mostly online-based, self-paced course.
After all, if students couldn’t handle the basics of using a computer, how could they hope to learn through the program’s digital platform?
Instead of group orientations, support coordinator Nang Thao now onboards students individually, personally making sure they fully understand how to access their online modules.
“It was like herding cats because every single person had no idea what they were doing,” Jacobson said. “So that’s when we said time out, our onboarding process is going to change tremendously, and be much more 1-on-1 based.”
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Beyond the Original Vision</h2>
It’s a far cry from how instructors envisioned the program. The curriculum was initially bold, futuristic, ambitious.
The marketing promised a new kind of farm worker, capable of operating drones, sensors, and tech-heavy tractors.
“A lot of our faculty thought that industry wanted workers to fill specific needs. That they needed a student who could diagnose the ins and outs of a specific type of electric controller, for example,” Jacobson says.
But when Jacobson and his team reached out to employers, the request was very different.
“Instead, it was like: “We just need to make sure that if something is broken, the employees can turn the equipment off safely. That they know how to communicate with a foreman, how to formulate an email, and operate basic technology.”
In addition to teaching students how to navigate the online course platform, the digital literacy component covers those basics.
And while the course is self-paced, Thao is checking their online progress on a biweekly basis, and personally texts students reminders to keep them on track.
“I would forget, but she was always texting me, and it helped,” John says.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Flexibility by Design</h2>
The program’s competency-based structure allows John to balance coursework with his full-time farm job with Restore Merced, as well as his family responsibilities (he has four children and a granddaughter in the Merced area).
“Sometimes when I get off of work, I’m tired where I don’t even want to like open up the computer,” John admits. “But I have to… Some days are harder than others, but I’m going to keep with it.”
Of the 60 students in the program’s first year at Merced, less than half are active or retired farm workers. Thao thinks that part of the challenge is convincing them they have time to complete the program while still working.
“A lot of our students, they do work, right? So for them, it’s about explaining that they can put in early hours on, say, a Saturday morning, before they go out to their work day,” Thao says.
She reminds them of the flexibility of the online program, and it’s self-paced nature. Open office hours and assessments with the instructor are available between 2 to 6 pm Monday through Thursday, which allows active farm workers to come after their morning shifts.
“We remain flexible with them,” says instructor Karl Montague, who is willing to make times work to fit his students’ schedules.
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Looking Forward</h2>
At Restore Merced, John has already proven himself as a dedicated worker, earning a full-time job and overtime pay. The certificate he’s working toward at Merced College, typically completed within six months to two years, could open even more new doors.
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“I hope to have people recognize this accomplishment and my competencies, to where they move me up, so that I can be the one working as a supervisor, checking on equipment, that sort of thing.”
Montague is seeing John’s progress match his ambition. “He’s learning skills that he can now apply back to that farm. We love having students that want to learn, want to better themselves.”
“I never thought I would see myself doing this,” John reflects. “But I like doing it. I love doing it, actually.”
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">More Rural Higher Ed News</h2>
Rural health care education gets a boost in Tennessee. Grants of up to $2 million have been awarded to 20 higher ed institutions across the state, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission <a href="https://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2025/05/27/tennessee-higher-education-commission-dickson-awarded-2m-grant-to-expand-rural-health-care-programs/?utm_source=mile-markers.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=a-second-chance-through-farming" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced this week</a>.
Rural hospital reopening. A $150 million state investment <a href="https://www.opencampus.org/2025/05/26/multimillion-dollar-nc-care-initiative-to-help-reopen-hospital-in-martin-county/?utm_source=mile-markers.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=a-second-chance-through-farming" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">will go towards</a> reopening a rural hospital in North Carolina’s Martin County, reports Brianna Atkinson, our higher-ed reporter at partner WUNC. The University of North Carolina system had previously approved funds to go toward the hospital’s reopening, in the hopes of addressing a health care desert.
Rural transfers see mixed progress. For <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/05/12/rurality-matters-evaluating-transfer-outcomes-opinion?utm_source=mile-markers.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=a-second-chance-through-farming" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Inside Higher Ed</a>, Gerardo de los Santos argues that lawmakers should recognize rurality as a key lens for evaluating transfer outcomes.
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The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/agriculture-education-program-provides-new-opportunities-for-formerly-incarcerated/2025/07/03/">Agriculture Education Program Provides New Opportunities for Formerly Incarcerated</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<title>Proposed Federal Cuts Put Rural Behavioral Health Resources on the Line </title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/proposed-federal-cuts-put-rural-behavioral-health-resources-on-the-line/2025/07/02/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/proposed-federal-cuts-put-rural-behavioral-health-resources-on-the-line/2025/07/02/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Madeline de Figueiredo]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?w=1440&ssl=1 1440w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=760%2C570&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=1296%2C972&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?resize=706%2C530&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/RAD_image.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&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>
Ten years ago, Nancy Winmill’s son survived an opioid overdose. In her search for support, she found almost nothing available in her Burley, Idaho community.  “I had no idea what to do or where to go. I had no help. I had no resources,” Winmill said. That experience pushed her to create what was missing: […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/proposed-federal-cuts-put-rural-behavioral-health-resources-on-the-line/2025/07/02/">Proposed Federal Cuts Put Rural Behavioral Health Resources on the Line </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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Ten years ago, Nancy Winmill’s son survived an opioid overdose. In her search for support, she found almost nothing available in her Burley, Idaho community. 
“I had no idea what to do or where to go. I had no help. I had no resources,” Winmill said.
That experience pushed her to create what was missing: support groups, counseling, and eventually <a href="https://www.simply-hope.com/what-we-do">Simply Hope Family Outreach</a>—a nonprofit for families struggling with addiction, codependency, divorce, grief, and suicide for rural southern Idaho. The organization has rapidly expanded due, in part, to funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) under the Building Communities of Recovery Grant (<a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/grant-announcements/ti-24-003">BCOR</a>).
“For rural communities like ours in Cassia and Minidoka counties, where access to behavioral health and recovery services is already limited, this grant has been nothing short of transformational,” Winmill said. 
But now, the grant that helped build this community lifeline is on the chopping block. 
The proposed FY2026 Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2026/index.html#bib">budget</a> would cut nearly $1 billion and dozens of programs from SAMHSA following a <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restructuring-doge.html">March announcement</a> that SAMHSA would be one of five agencies folded into a new, centralized Administration for a Healthy America. BCOR is one of the grants eliminated in the current budget proposal.
“In a region where stigma still silences many, this grant has empowered us to bring these issues into the light, and offer pathways to healing and hope,” Winmill said. “Eliminating this funding would not only stall progress, but potentially reverse hard-earned gains in recovery support for our rural neighbors.”
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Rural Mental Health Stakes</h3>
“We’re not being extremist when we say that there is a mental health crisis in rural America,” said Don Hannaford, vice president of public policy at <a href="https://www.ruralminds.org/">Rural Minds</a>, a nonprofit advocating for rural mental health equity. 
Rural areas face a serious mental health care gap, with similar rates of mental illness as urban areas but <a href="https://www.ruralhealth.us/getmedia/cf3c3922-25cb-49a0-bb04-0bad81d634f9/NRHA-Mental-health-in-rural-areas-policy-brief-2022.pdf">nearly double</a> the suicide rate, fewer primary care providers, and slower workforce growth. <a href="https://www.nami.org/advocate/confronting-mental-health-challenges-in-rural-america/">Sixty-five percent of rural counties</a> lack a psychiatrist, 81% lack a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and 47% lack a psychologist.
Rural communities also face a <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/private/pdf/263216/ChallengesIssueBrief.pdf">45% higher</a> opioid overdose rate than urban areas, yet only 14% of behavioral health facilities are rural, and fewer than half treat substance use disorders.
“The unmet need for treatment in many rural communities continues to outpace the treatment workforce and other resources available to rural communities,” said Katherine McGuire, American Psychological Association’s (APA) chief advocacy officer.
Michael Rosmann, a clinical psychologist and farmer in Iowa, said that while there has been meaningful growth in the behavioral health resources for farming communities, such as the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network program (FRSAN), current federal cuts are jeopardizing this progress. 
“We’re facing a pretty critical shortage of supply to meet the demand for assistance in the rural and agricultural communities,” Rosmann said. “Funds are becoming increasingly more difficult to access both at many state levels and the federal level because of cuts to SAMHSA and other funding cutbacks by DHHS.”
Jonah Cunningham, executive director of the <a href="https://www.narmh.org/">National Association for Rural Mental Health</a> (NARMH), a professional organization advancing rural behavioral health, said that SAMHSA grants have historically been a critical backbone to serving rural communities, offering opportunities to expand crisis services and connect more people to care. 
But the ongoing cuts and proposed restructuring put these foundational resources at risk. 
“The recent cuts to SAMHSA are an unnecessary disruption to the nation’s capacity to respond to the ongoing mental health and addiction crises, particularly in rural communities,” McGuire said.  
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Defunding Programs of Regional and National Significance</h3>
The proposed budget from DHHS defunds the vast majority of SAMHSA’s Programs of Regional and National Significance (PRNS). 
PRNS are discretionary grants and initiatives that fund a wide range of mental health, substance abuse treatment, and prevention efforts, with most aimed at expanding services and some focused on training and technical assistance.
Cunningham said these programs are specifically designed to meet certain community needs. 
“Behavioral health comes in all shapes and sizes,” Cunningham said. “These grant programs are ways to build upon proven, evidence-based practices, expand them, and then also to respond to pressing issues.” 
The BCOR grant is one of the dozens within PRNS up for elimination. 
While Simply Hope in Burley, Idaho, initially focused on teens, the SAMHSA BCOR grant allowed them to expand to include programming for adults, such as recovery coaching, sound therapy, walking groups, sober activity groups, case management, and more. 
The grant Simply Hope received was a three-year grant that distributed just under $300,000 each year. After spending the first year investing in program development, Project Director Sheri Allred is unsure what the future holds for Simply Hope’s adult programming. 
“We were supposed to receive just under $300,000 for a second and third year,” Allred said. “And that’s when we realized that we haven’t gotten the approval for the continuation grant.”
“You spend the first year building the program,” Allred said. “You’re in the third quarter or fourth quarter of the program, and you’ve got all these projects going on, and then to have it stopped, we just have to go back to the drawing board and decide how we’re going to fill that void if (the cut) does happen.” 
Winmill said they recently used grant funds to hire a new counselor scheduled to start in July. 
“I made a promise,” Winmill said.  “She left her job and she’s coming over starting July first. It’s concerning to me that they don’t realize that there’s people with families. It’s stressful.”
Another BCOR grant recipient in Minnesota, <a href="https://recoveryallianceduluth.org/">Recovery Alliance Duluth</a> (RAD), is facing similar uncertainty. Now in the first year of a three-year grant contract, RAD has received no word from SAMHSA about future funding and is eyeing the next phases of its grant-supported programming with a mix of hope and fear.
RAD has used its BCOR grant to expand and strengthen recovery support services across St. Louis and Carlton counties. The funding has enabled RAD to hire peer recovery support staff for five <a href="https://www.mncourts.gov/help-topics/treatment-courts.aspx">treatment courts</a>—three of them in rural areas—and to grow its outreach through community events and wellness programming. BCOR funds have also supported the development of a recovery alumni network and allowed RAD to offer free trauma-informed yoga and other wellness classes to people in recovery.
Jenny Swanson, executive director of RAD, said that if the BCOR grant gets eliminated, they will likely have to cut peer recovery support staff, end some of their wellness programming, reduce their community events, and not launch the alumni network. 
“What’s at stake is not having peer staffing in those treatment courts,” Swanson said. “It’s not having that peer being that voice of recovery-oriented, person-centered care, or being that one-on-one support when they need it“
“We would definitely have to stop the whole wellness program immediately,” Swanson added. “There’s no way we can pay for those instructors and those passes without this grant and we also would have to not do the alumni program.”
Swanson noted that while the grant is currently funding active programs in St. Louis and Carlton counties, it was also intended to support expanded services to two other rural counties, Lake and Cook, in the coming years. Now, not only is RAD at risk of losing critical services in its existing communities, but its planned expansion into Lake and Cook counties is also in question. 
<a href="https://www.wicap.org/">The Western Idaho Community Action Partnership</a> (WICAP), an organization serving low-income families in Western Idaho, previously secured $800,000 in Project LAUNCH grants from SAMHSA to advance early childhood mental health in rural communities. Designed to support children from birth to age eight, Project LAUNCH aimed to boost long-term outcomes by equipping caregivers, expanding early intervention efforts, and integrating mental health services into everyday settings like homes and schools.
Connie Kreps, WICAP’s executive director, said the funding was used to develop and implement pilot programming for parents, children, and teachers in rural Idaho. 
“It benefited all who took part in it,” Kreps said. “Rural Idahoan children and parents were assisted in detection, prevention, and early intervention of mental health related options with parental choice and support that was fluid across the school and home environment.”
However, with the potential elimination of SAMHSA, future opportunities to build on this work may be in jeopardy.
“Sadly the elimination of SAMHSA will no longer afford us the opportunity to apply for such competitive grants from SAMHSA that positively impact and teach parents essential skills,” Kreps said. 
Hannaford emphasized that even small changes to funding for rural resources can have outsized impacts on the communities they serve.
“For the rural communities that are already pinched, losing a federal grant of any significance frequently has the result of either eliminating programs or in some cases, eliminating the organization,” Hannaford said.  
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">An Uncertain Future</h3>
Without visibility of what’s to come, many have been left scrambling to preserve and replace resources. 
“It’s impossible to predict what is next,” Rosmann said. “There are shifts in policy practically every day and sometimes within a day there might be complete shifts.” 
Clinicians, administrators, treatment facilities, community organizations, and families are already seeing resources dissolve before their eyes. 
“I use the SAMHSA webpage all the time to get best practices, [guidance on] how to set up a certain program, what rural service looks like for certain recovery and treatment related items,” Swanson said. “I’ve seen them already disappearing.”
With the current budget proposal and the federal government’s shifting priorities, many remain skeptical, questioning the value of pausing, overhauling, and defunding programs that are already delivering results.
<div class="wp-block-image">
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Winmill said that the decreasing number of overdose deaths indicates that these programs are working and now is not the time to scale them back or defund them entirely. 
“If it’s all working, why are they going to reduce the programs? Why are they cutting it now? It’s not over,” Winmill said. “We still have a drug problem. We still have opioids and fentanyl use that is out there that people are dying from hourly.” 
“Although the administration assured the public that the agency’s core functions will continue, it is difficult to see how that is possible given the 10% reduction in SAMHSA’s capacity earlier this year and other proposals to further reduce capacity by 50%,” McGuire said. 
“Raw dollars are raw dollars. It doesn’t look very conceivable to me that rural areas are not going to lose support that they desperately need when there is a budget cut,” Hannaford said. 
Swanson also pointed out that the stated priorities of the new Administration for a Healthy America appear misaligned with the core programs and investments that SAMHSA has long championed.
“It worries me that in that news release about the new mega (AHA) department that would have all five (agencies) in it, they listed their priorities, and they didn’t even list substance use,” Swanson said. 
For Simply Hope, time is of the essence and any pause in funding and programming could be harmful. 
“Even if they revise or revamp their programs, that’s still going to take time. And that time is critical when you’re dealing with these populations,” Allred said. “It’s just too critical to even take the time to revamp a program.” 
But even amid the uncertainty and threat of funding cuts, no one is backing down, or slowing their momentum.
“We would take a real hit (with these cuts), but we would figure it out, because we will always fight for the programs,” Allred said.
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The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/proposed-federal-cuts-put-rural-behavioral-health-resources-on-the-line/2025/07/02/">Proposed Federal Cuts Put Rural Behavioral Health Resources on the Line </a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">231218</post-id> </item>
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<title>Dust Storms Return to the Midwest</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/dust-storms-return-to-the-midwest/2025/07/02/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/dust-storms-return-to-the-midwest/2025/07/02/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Claire Carlson]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 09:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Keep It Rural]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231211</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1011" height="745" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?fit=1011%2C745&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?w=1011&ssl=1 1011w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=760%2C560&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=768%2C566&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=780%2C575&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=400%2C295&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=706%2C520&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?fit=1011%2C745&ssl=1&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>
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Keep It Rural, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? Join the mailing list for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week. In mid-May of 2025, an enormous cloud filled the horizon outside of Bloomington, Illinois, menacing in both […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/dust-storms-return-to-the-midwest/2025/07/02/">Dust Storms Return to the Midwest</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1011" height="745" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?fit=1011%2C745&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?w=1011&ssl=1 1011w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=760%2C560&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=768%2C566&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=780%2C575&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=400%2C295&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?resize=706%2C520&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/dust-storm-IL.jpg?fit=1011%2C745&ssl=1&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>
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/keep-it-rural/">Keep It Rural</a>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/contact-us/subscribe-daily-yonder/">Join the mailing list</a> for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week. 
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In mid-May of 2025, an enormous cloud filled the horizon outside of Bloomington, Illinois, menacing in both scope and color. Its rusty tint was akin to the orange skies of wildfire season in the American West, but this was not fire, it was dust. 
The dust storm – sometimes called a “haboob” – was driven by strong winds that picked up loose soil from nearby farmland and sent it flying across northern Illinois, northern Indiana, and into Chicago. 
It was one of a growing number of dust storms affecting places less accustomed to such storms. The storms are more common in dry places with high winds, like the Southwest, but increased drought conditions and unhealthy soils have broadened their reach. 
This isn’t the first time the U.S. has experienced dust: the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s was a period of extreme dust storms throughout the Great Plains and poverty for many Americans. John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath paints a grim picture of life in such conditions: “Houses were shut tight and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes,” he wrote.
Breathing this dusty air can cause major respiratory problems like valley fever, a fungal infection that can lead to pneumonia and in some instances, death. An <a href="https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/the-dust-bowl/">estimated</a> 7,000 people died during the Dust Bowl from dust-induced pneumonia, and millions more suffered from the poor economic conditions such storms brought to the Plains states. America’s unemployment rate peaked at 25% during this difficult decade. 
But from these challenges came several “New Deal” programs that Americans still benefit from. 
One was the Soil Erosion Service that recognized industrial agriculture’s heavy footprint on the land and tried to address it. Constant tilling had stripped large swaths of farmland of its topsoil, which is what keeps soil intact and prevents it from blowing away. The Soil Erosion Service provided education to landowners on how to minimize topsoil loss, and utilized labor programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps (a New Deal program made to combat the Great Depression’s unemployment rates) to implement demonstration projects for healthier soil practices.
Overall, the service was successful, decreasing the number of dust storms and paving the way for what’s now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
NRCS is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (UDSA) and provides grants to farmers looking to implement more environmentally-friendly practices on their land, like ones that reduce soil erosion. The agency has provided almost 100 years of service to American farmers and the public, which benefits from cleaner air, land, and water. 
An influx of money from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act to NRCS grant programs helped get more farmers approved for sustainability projects, according to a <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/report-a-pause-to-land-conservation-programs-funding-from-usda-could-kill-their-momentum/2025/06/30/">report</a> from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. But a freeze on grant-spending as part of a larger cost-cutting endeavor by the Trump administration has threatened the momentum of NRCS grants.
Americans stand to lose a lot from these cuts. The Great Depression was one of America’s lowest moments, a decade where poor soil health almost decimated a whole section of the country. Dust storms were a near constant reminder of the hardships of this era, as they threatened people’s health and wellbeing, not just their pocketbooks. 
The creation of the Soil Erosion Service, and later NRCS, was how the government chose to invest in its people, recognizing how human health is inextricably tied to the land. Most Americans have never experienced a dust storm thanks to these investments, until now. 
History has a way of repeating itself, particularly for those who forget how progress is made. The recent rise in dust storms is a warning of what could come to the U.S., if we choose to listen.
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The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/dust-storms-return-to-the-midwest/2025/07/02/">Dust Storms Return to the Midwest</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">231211</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Report: LGBTQ+ Rural Teens Find More Support Online Than in Their Communities</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/report-lgbtq-rural-teens-find-more-support-online-than-in-their-communities/2025/07/01/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/report-lgbtq-rural-teens-find-more-support-online-than-in-their-communities/2025/07/01/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Liz Carey]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231056</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=760%2C428&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=706%2C397&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&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>
New research has found that rural LGBTQ+ teens experience significant challenges in their communities and turn to the internet for support. The research from Hopelab and the Born This Way Foundation looked at what more than 1,200 LGBTQ+ teens faced and compared the experiences of those in rural communities with those of teens in suburban […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/report-lgbtq-rural-teens-find-more-support-online-than-in-their-communities/2025/07/01/">Report: LGBTQ+ Rural Teens Find More Support Online Than in Their Communities</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=760%2C428&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?resize=706%2C397&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP23090651086896.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&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>
New research has found that rural LGBTQ+ teens experience significant challenges in their communities and turn to the internet for support.
The <a href="https://hopelab.org/stories/without-it-i-wouldnt-be-here">research</a> from Hopelab and the <a href="https://bornthisway.foundation/">Born This Way Foundation</a> looked at what more than 1,200 LGBTQ+ teens faced and compared the experiences of those in rural communities with those of teens in suburban and urban communities. The research found that rural teens are more likely to give and receive support through their online communities and friends than via their in-person relationships.
“The rural young people we’re seeing were reporting having a lot less support in their homes, in their communities, and their schools,” Mike Parent, a principal researcher at Hopelab, said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “They weren’t doing too well in terms of feeling supported in the places they were living, though they were feeling supported online.”
However, the research found that rural LGBTQ+ teens had the same sense of pride in who they were as suburban and urban teens.
“The parallel, interesting finding was that we didn’t see differences in their internal sense of pride, which you might kind of expect if they feel all less supported,” he said. “What was surprising, in a very good way, was that indication of resilience or being able to feel a strong sense of their internal selves despite this kind of harsh environment they might be in.”
Researchers recruited young people between the ages of 15 and 24 who identified as LGBTQ+ through targeted ads on social media. After surveying the respondents during August and September of last year, the researchers also followed up some of the surveys with interviews, Parent said.
According to the study, rural teens were more likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to find support online. Of the rural respondents, 56% of rural young people reported receiving support from others online several times a month compared to 51% of urban and suburban respondents, and 76% reported giving support online, compared to 70% of urban and suburban respondents.
Conversely, only 28% of rural respondents reported feeling supported by their schools, compared to 49% of urban and suburban respondents, the study found, and 13% of rural respondents felt supported by their communities, compared to 35% of urban and suburban respondents.
Rural LGBTQ+ young people are significantly more likely to suffer mental health issues because of the lack of support where they live, researchers said. Rural LGBTQ+ young people were more likely to meet the threshold for depression (57% compared to 45%), and more likely to report less flourishing than their suburban/urban counterparts (43% to 52%). 
The study found that those LGBTQ+ young people who received support from those they lived with, regardless of where they live, are more likely to report flourishing (50% compared to 35%) and less likely to meet the threshold for depression (52% compared to 63%).
One respondent said the impact of lack of support impacted every aspect of their lives.
“Not being able to be who you truly are around the people that you love most or the communities that you’re in is going to make somebody depressed or give them mental issues,” they said in survey interviews, according to Hopelab. “Because if you can’t be who you are around the people that you love most and people who surround you, you’re not gonna be able to feel the best about your well-being.”
Respondents said connecting with those online communities saved their lives.
“Throughout my entire life, I have been bullied relentlessly. However, when I’m online, I find that it is easier to make friends… I met my best friend through role play [games],” one teen told researchers. “Without it, I wouldn’t be here today. So, in the long run, it’s the friendships I’ve made online that have kept me alive all these years.”
Having support in rural areas, especially, can provide rural LGBTQ+ teens with a feeling of belonging, researchers said.
 “Our findings highlight the urgent need for safe, affirming in-person spaces and the importance of including young people in shaping the solutions,” Claudia-Santi F. Fernandes, vice president of research and evaluation at Born This Way Foundation, said in a statement. “If we want to improve outcomes, especially for LGBTQ+ young people in rural communities, their voices–and scientific evidence–must guide the work.”
Parent said the survey respondents stressed the importance of having safe spaces for LGBTQ+ young people to gather in their own communities.
“I think most of the participants recognize that you can’t do a lot to change your family if they’re not supportive,” he said. “What they were saying was that finding ways for schools to be supportive and for communities to be supportive in terms of physical spaces (that allowed them) to express themselves safely (and) having places where they can gather and feel safe, uh, were really important to them.”
Hopelab seeks to address mental health in young people through evidence-based innovation, according to its organizers. The Born This Way Foundation was co-founded by Lady Gaga and her mother, West Virginia native Cynthia Bisset Germanotta. 
The organization is focused on ending bullying and building up communities, while using research, programming, grants, and partnerships to engage young people and connect them to mental health resources, according to the foundation’s website.
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<title>Trump Team Ends LGBTQ+ Youth Hotline Option. New Report Suggests It May Hurt Rural Youth Most.</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/trump-team-ends-lgbtq-youth-hotline-option-new-report-suggests-it-may-hurt-rural-youth-most/2025/07/01/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Don Sapatkin / MindSite News]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231076</guid>
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This story was originally published by MindSite News. Continuing its efforts to end any special treatment for minority populations, the Trump administration will stop providing targeted services for LGBTQ+ youth on the nationwide 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline on July 17. Although anyone in crisis can call or text 988 and be connected to a […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/trump-team-ends-lgbtq-youth-hotline-option-new-report-suggests-it-may-hurt-rural-youth-most/2025/07/01/">Trump Team Ends LGBTQ+ Youth Hotline Option. New Report Suggests It May Hurt Rural Youth Most.</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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This story was originally published by <a href="https://mindsitenews.org/2025/06/24/trump-team-ending-hotline-option-aimed-at-lgbtq-youth/">MindSite News</a>.
Continuing its efforts to end any special treatment for minority populations, the Trump administration will stop providing targeted services for LGBTQ+ youth on the nationwide 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline on July 17. Although anyone in crisis can call or text 988 and be connected to a trained counselor, the line now connects high risk groups like veterans (Option 1) and <a href="https://988lifeline.org/help-yourself/lgbtqi/">LGBTQ+ youth</a> (Option 3) to specially-trained counselors, who often have similar life experiences to the callers they serve.
The loss of the service “is a major hit to the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people, especially adolescents and young adults” and may be particularly harmful to young people in rural areas, said Mike Parent, a principal researcher at Hopelab. “Rural young people may be impacted even more drastically, since their local communities typically have substantially fewer mental health service providers who can provide LGBTQ+ affirming care,” he told MindSite News. 
LGBTQ+ youth in rural communities receive less support from their schools, communities and households than their suburban and urban peers, according to a <a href="https://hopelab.org/stories/exploring-pride-rural-lgbtq">report</a> released this morning by Hopelab and the Born This Way Foundation.
The elimination of 988’s option 3 “is devastating, to say the least,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, one of several nonprofits that administers the service. The higher risk of suicide for LGBTQ+ youth has been well documented by surveys, Benjamin Miller, a psychologist and adjunct professor at Stanford School of Medicine, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/06/18/nx-s1-5438405/lgbtq-988-lifeline-samhsa-hhs">told NPR</a>. He noted that the LGBTQ+ service has received nearly 1.3 million calls, texts and online chats since it launched with 988 three years ago, with about 100,000 contacts in January and February alone.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which oversees 988 and is itself being disbanded, said it “will no longer silo LGB+ youth services” but that everyone who contacts the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline “will continue to receive access to skilled, caring, culturally competent crisis counselors” who can help with suicidal, substance misuse, or mental health crises.
The Hopelab/Born This Way report revealed some alarming data: that most LGBTQ+ young people in rural areas – 57% – meet the threshold for depression, compared to 45% of their urban and suburban peers. But it also found that at least 85% of LGBTQ+ youth in all regions “feel good about being a part of the LGBTQ+ community.” The report found that digital, online communities provide essential opportunities to express identity, access resources, and connect with others, and that was even more the case for rural youth who have fewer sources of community support.
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/>
Don Sapatkin is an independent journalist who reports on science and health care.
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<title>Report: A Pause to Land Conservation Programs Funding from USDA Could Kill Their Momentum</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/report-a-pause-to-land-conservation-programs-funding-from-usda-could-kill-their-momentum/2025/06/30/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/report-a-pause-to-land-conservation-programs-funding-from-usda-could-kill-their-momentum/2025/06/30/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Claire Carlson]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=230956</guid>
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Enrollment rates for two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs spiked after the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) allocated billions of dollars to them, but agriculture experts warn that a pause on conservation funding could stall the momentum that was building for more sustainable farming practices.  A recent study from the Institute for Agriculture and […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/report-a-pause-to-land-conservation-programs-funding-from-usda-could-kill-their-momentum/2025/06/30/">Report: A Pause to Land Conservation Programs Funding from USDA Could Kill Their Momentum</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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Enrollment rates for two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs spiked after the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) allocated billions of dollars to them, but agriculture experts warn that a pause on conservation funding could stall the momentum that was building for more sustainable farming practices. 
A recent <a href="https://www.iatp.org/keep-the-door-open">study</a> from the <a href="https://www.iatp.org/">Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy</a> found that in Fiscal Year 2024, about 44% of applicants to the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and 55% of applicants to the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) were awarded grants. These programs provide money to farmers trying to improve their water and air quality, soil health, local wildlife habitat, and mitigate drought impacts on their land.
The 2024 numbers are a marked increase over previous years, when up to three-quarters of grant applicants were denied funding, according to Michael Happ, author of the report. “These programs have been underfunded and oversubscribed for a while now, especially from changes set from the last two farm bills,” he said. 
That was the case up until the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. 
The Biden-era law dedicated more than $11 billion over four years to the two programs, allowing more farmers to implement conservation projects. “That’s thousands more farmers who are able to access funding that they might need for their operation,” Happ said. 
But a freeze on federal spending by the Trump administration could jeopardize this progress. In late January of 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that froze Inflation Reduction Act funding to EQIP, CSP, and two other grant programs managed by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. 
While some of the money has been released, many farmers who were awarded grants still have not received the funding they were promised, leaving them in challenging financial positions. 
“There’s not been a lot of clarity,” Happ said. “Some of the money has been released, but a lot of it still hasn’t. And there’s a lot of mixed messages coming from USDA, and farmers are getting frustrated and confused, understandably.”
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">“Just Like Any Other Business”</h3>
For many farmers, these grants are often the only way they can afford to implement conservation projects.
That was the case for John Burk, a fourth-generation farmer from Bay City, Michigan. He farms 4,500 acres of corn, soybeans, sugar beets, and wheat. He uses cover crops to protect the soil from erosion and increase the nutrients in the ground. “I know I use way less fertilizer than I did 20 years ago, and our yields have gone up tremendously,” he said. 
Burk has benefited from a number of USDA conservation grants, including ones from EQIP and CSP. “For the farmer to do those [conservation] practices, it costs a lot of money,” he said. “So it’s nice to have those conservation dollars to help us keep doing more conservation on the land.” 
Congress has approximately $9.5 billion left to spend on these programs, based on what the Inflation Reduction Act set aside for EQIP and CSP. If applicants were awarded $7,500 — about the average contract size for EQIP grants during Fiscal Year 2023 — more than 900,000 farmers could benefit from that money that’s yet to be obligated, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy report. 
Even just a few thousand dollars can go a long way on a farm. “We’re not here to try to see how much money we can spend to grow a crop,” Burk said. “It’s just like any other business: We try to minimize our costs and maximize our output, and the one way we do that is through these conservation programs and the money that they give us.”
But if Inflation Reduction Act funds remain frozen, this opportunity could be out of reach to many American farmers. Not only do the farmers lose out from this, but so do their surrounding communities.
In the Midwest, for example, there’s been a sharp <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/06/04/rare-illinois-dust-storm-shows-how-far-climate-shifts-are-reaching/">increase</a> in the number of dust storms recorded. In mid-May of 2025, a <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/noaa-satellites-watch-dust-storm-sweep-across-the-midwest">highly abnormal dust storm</a> traveled across northern Illinois, northern Indiana, and Chicago, a city that rarely sees such events. The dust came from dry, eroded farmland.
These storms are a major risk to public health: a <a href="https://research.noaa.gov/how-deadly-are-dust-storms/">study</a> from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimated there were 232 dust-related deaths between 2007 and 2017. 
USDA conservation programs pay for projects that help mitigate these dust storms. Without the IRA funding, the momentum that’s been building for conservation practices risks disappearing. 
“I can guarantee [conservation] is going to stall on other people’s farms,” Burk said. “It’s just going to end because they can’t afford to do it. They’re not far enough into the system… to see any benefit from it yet.”
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Back to the Dust Bowl?</h3>
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service which oversees these grant programs, has been around since 1935. It was created out of necessity after extreme drought conditions and erosion led to the Dust Bowl — an era of constant and debilitating dust storms — which highlighted the urgent need for soil conservation.
For Happ of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the uncertainty of that time reminds him of some of the issues farmers face today. 
“We’ve kind of forgotten the basics of soil stewardship,” Happ said. “That, plus this erosion of trust [in the federal government], of staffing, of conservation programs… I just want to make sure that we’re not going back in that direction and trying to rip away the progress we’ve had over almost 100 years at this point.”
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">230956</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Rural Communities Lose Out With Shelving of Digital Equity Act</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/rural-communities-lose-out-with-shelving-of-digital-equity-act/2025/06/30/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/rural-communities-lose-out-with-shelving-of-digital-equity-act/2025/06/30/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brian Arola / MinnPost]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Broadband]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[repub]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=230904</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="940" height="626" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?fit=940%2C626&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?w=940&ssl=1 940w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=760%2C506&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=768%2C511&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=780%2C519&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=400%2C266&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=706%2C470&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?fit=940%2C626&ssl=1&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>
This story was originally published by MinnPost. The name might’ve sealed its fate.  Continuing his crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, President Donald Trump announced he was shutting down the Digital Equity Act in May. He took to his Truth Social social media platform to accuse the bipartisan legislation passed in 2021, designed […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-communities-lose-out-with-shelving-of-digital-equity-act/2025/06/30/">Rural Communities Lose Out With Shelving of Digital Equity Act</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="940" height="626" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?fit=940%2C626&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?w=940&ssl=1 940w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=760%2C506&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=768%2C511&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=780%2C519&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=400%2C266&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?resize=706%2C470&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BroadbandConnection940.png?fit=940%2C626&ssl=1&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>
This story was originally published by <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/greater-minnesota/2025/06/rural-communities-lose-out-with-shelving-of-digital-equity-act/">MinnPost</a>.
The name might’ve sealed its fate. 
Continuing his crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, President Donald Trump announced <a href="https://www.digitalinclusion.org/blog/statement-ndia-responds-to-trump-post-calling-for-immediate-end-of-digital-equity-act-funds/">he was shutting down</a> the Digital Equity Act in May. He took to his Truth Social social media platform to accuse the bipartisan legislation passed in 2021, designed to steer grant funding to organizations working to bridge digital divides, of giving out “woke handouts based on race.”
It didn’t matter that the Digital Equity Act was set to pour investments into rural areas, where residents overwhelmingly voted for him; Trump declared it “racist and illegal,” in all caps.
He claimed to save $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars by scrapping the act. Actually, it was funded for $2.75 billion. And while, yes, racial and ethnic minorities were listed as groups to be covered by program funds, they were <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1841/text">listed right alongside</a> veterans, rural residents and aging adults in the law’s text.
Digital Equity Act funding was a relatively small part of a $65 billion allocation stemming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for development of broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion work. The largest chunk of money, $42.45 billion, went to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Equity in the name though it has, BEAD funding, which has been the <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/greater-minnesota/2024/11/why-industry-groups-think-federal-broadband-dollars-could-go-to-waste/">source of frustrations</a> for internet service providers, recently <a href="https://www.ntia.gov/press-release/2025/trump-administration-announces-benefit-bargain-bead-program-removes-regulatory-burdens-lowers-costs">got a makeover</a> instead of a kick to the curb.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What Kinds of ‘Digital Equity’ Projects Lost Out on Funding?</h3>
Before Trump took office, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) selected a bevy of applicants for the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program in early January. The page has since been pulled down but remains viewable using the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250117220539/https://www.ntia.gov/other-publication/2025/digital-equity-competitive-grant-program-applications-recommended-award">Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine</a>. 
Two Minnesota-based organizations made the cut:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system — $7.3 million</li>
</ul>
Consisting of 26 colleges and seven universities, most of the campuses in Greater Minnesota, the system received notice of its grant award from NTIA on Dec. 31, 2024. NTIA’s description of the system’s project in January detailed plans for digital literacy expansion and instruction in college curriculum, training, digital navigation services, device distribution, and vouchers to connect people to internet service.
The higher education system received another notice on May 20 that its award had been terminated, stated Noelle Hawton, chief marketing and communications officer, in an email. No funds were received. 
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Hmong American Partnership — $7.3 million </li>
</ul>
The St. Paul-based Hmong American Partnership (HAP) partnered with California’s Fresno Center to apply for Digital Equity Act grant funding last fall. They proposed using the funds to build permanent digital hubs, spaces where members of the Hmong communities in Minnesota and California could access the internet and receive digital skills training. There would’ve been four hubs in total located at a HAP office in St. Paul, two charter schools in St. Paul and one at the Fresno Center.
<a href="https://hmong.org/leadership/">May yer Thao</a>, president and CEO at HAP, remembers the partners feeling jubilant about their project being selected. They put out a <a href="https://hmong.org/2025/01/hmong-american-partnership-and-hmong-national-development-awarded-prestigious-grant-to-advance-digital-equity-and-empower-communities/">press release</a> on Jan. 7 about the “prestigious award” they expected to receive. They were readying to hire people to staff the hubs.
Then the federal end of communications went silent. Weeks then months passed without word about their grant’s status. “We were all just kind of in limbo,” Thao said.
A brief email arrived from NTIA in May confirming that the $7.3 million in funding was no more. “Everyone was very disappointed to say the least,” Thao said. The program’s demise seems tied to the administration’s anti-DEI push, she added. Her organization specifically outlined plans for closing digital divides within Southeast Asian communities in its application.
A $500,000 grant from the state for the project offered some consolation. To see the work through, HAP will otherwise need to raise funds on its own. “We’re disappointed,” Thao said. “We’re discouraged, but the work will continue.”
For Thao’s organization, digital equity work is about preventing people from being left behind by technology. Not knowing how to use a computer, or not having broadband access, disconnects them from the modern world. Programs and resources available to them at the local, state and federal levels, Thao noted, also become harder to access.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Why the Act’s Termination is Bad for Rural Areas</h3>
Thao, from Minnesota, joined HAP after working at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. In the role she said she saw how big of an issue broadband access is in rural areas, where residents are less likely to have it.
A report prepared by Minnesota’s <a href="https://mn.gov/deed/assets/digital-opportunity-plan_tcm1045-615650.pdf">Office of Broadband Development</a> in 2023, a Digital Equity Act requirement at the time, stated about 67% households in Greater Minnesota have broadband subscriptions, compared to nearly 92% of households in the Twin Cities metro.
Minnesota’s first grant recipients through the program weren’t rural-focused projects, but future rounds could’ve been. Rural projects featured prominently on NTIA’s award recommendation page in January: 
Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services was set to put portions of $10.8 million into distributing telehealth devices and reliable internet to the state’s most rural and underserved counties. 
Louisiana’s Public Health institute had $5 million earmarked in part for portable internet devices for rural farmers and agricultural workers.  
Alabama’s Dannon Project wanted to use its $10.8 million on telemedicine stations for rural and isolated communities and virtual reality workforce training simulations for veterans and rural residents.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">230904</post-id> </item>
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<title>Documenting Kentucky: A Journey through Decades in Photographs</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/documenting-kentucky-a-journey-through-decades-in-photographs/2025/06/27/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/documenting-kentucky-a-journey-through-decades-in-photographs/2025/06/27/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ted Wathen]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Photo essay]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=230710</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="684" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C508&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C866&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C513&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1026&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C802&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1336&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C521&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C472&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1&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>
Imagine looking at a state in forty-year intervals. Documenting Kentucky: Three Photographic Surveys, does just that in a new show at the Frazier History Museum in Louisville Kentucky. Between 1935 and 1943, Roosevelt’s New Deal Resettlement Administration (RA) and Farm Security Administrations (FSA) sent photographers all over the United States, creating what came to be […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/documenting-kentucky-a-journey-through-decades-in-photographs/2025/06/27/">Documenting Kentucky: A Journey through Decades in Photographs</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="684" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C508&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C866&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C513&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1026&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C802&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1336&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C521&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C472&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/7.-Migrant-Worker-Chopping-Tobacco.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1&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>
Imagine looking at a state in forty-year intervals. <a href="https://www.fraziermuseum.org/exhibitions/documenting-kentucky-three-photographic-surveys">Documenting Kentucky: Three Photographic Surveys</a>, does just that in a new show at the <a href="http://www.fraziermuseum.org">Frazier History Museum</a> in Louisville Kentucky.
Between 1935 and 1943, Roosevelt’s New Deal Resettlement Administration (RA) and Farm Security Administrations (FSA) sent photographers all over the United States, creating what came to be the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/fsa-owi-black-and-white-negatives/about-this-collection/">visual record of the Great Depression</a>. 
Photographing in Kentucky were: Russell Lee, Ben Shahn, Carl Mydans, Esther Bubley, John Vachon, and most notably Marion Post Wolcott.
<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="602" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?resize=780%2C602&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230711" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?w=960&ssl=1 960w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?resize=760%2C587&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?resize=768%2C593&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?resize=780%2C602&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?resize=400%2C309&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?resize=706%2C545&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1.-Mule-pulling-bogged-down-car-from-creekbed.-South-Fork-of-the-Kentucky-River-Breathitt-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-2.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"> Mule pulling bogged down car from creekbed. South Fork of the Kentucky River, Breathitt County Kentucky, 1940. Farm Security Administration. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott </figcaption></figure>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="669" height="1296" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=669%2C1296&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230718" style="width:258px;height:auto" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=669%2C1296&ssl=1 669w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=392%2C760&ssl=1 392w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C1488&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=793%2C1536&ssl=1 793w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=529%2C1024&ssl=1 529w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C1511&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C775&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C1368&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3.jpg?w=1057&ssl=1 1057w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/8.-Putting-up-Tobacco.-Woodford-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-James-Robert-Southard0D-3-669x1296.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 669px) 100vw, 669px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Putting up Tobacco. Woodford County Kentucky, 2021. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by James Robert Southard</figcaption></figure></div>
In the era before television and the internet, news came to Americans through newspapers, magazines, and movie newsreels. RA and FSA released their images to these sources. As FSA Information Division Director Roy Stryker said, “We were introducing America to Americans.”
With the American Bicentennial imminent, I founded the <a href="https://kydocphoto.com/">Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (KDPP)</a> in 1975 with the goal of photographing in each of the state’s 120 counties. 
Informed by the National Endowment for the Arts that the Project could possibly receive funding if I added at least two more photographers, I enlisted Bill Burke and Bob Hower. 
Their work was exhibited at the Speed Art Museum, the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The Frazier History Museum revived KDPP’s work in 2011 as <a href="https://kydocphoto.com/1975-1977/">Rough Road: The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project 1975-77.</a> The response to that exhibit was so strong that Hower and myself reincorporated KDPP and hired a diverse group of 26 photographers to document the state anew beginning in 2015.

<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230712" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2.-Exercising-Draft-Horses.-Adair-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBrittany-Greeson0D-3-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Exercising Draft Horses. Adair County Kentucky, 2022. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Brittany Greeson</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.fraziermuseum.org/exhibitions/documenting-kentucky-three-photographic-surveys">Documenting Kentucky: Three Photographic Surveys</a> is a visual tone poem to the state of Kentucky, interweaving photographs from the three documentary projects. The photographs are displayed in a series of “movements” that define the poem. 
Displayed here in the Daily Yonder, you can get a taste of the show with one of these “movements” on agriculture.

<figure class="wp-block-image alignfull size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230715" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5.-Bill-Conner-Holding-Newly-Hatched-Guinea-Chicks.-Stoner-View-Farm-Bourbon-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Jon-Cherry0D-3-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Bill Conner Holding Newly Hatched Guinea Chicks. Stoner View Farm, Bourbon County Kentucky 2021. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Jon Cherry </figcaption></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="521" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C521&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230713" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C866&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C508&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C513&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1026&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C802&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1336&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C521&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C472&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/3.-Farmer-and-Burr-Oak.-Harrison-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3-1296x866.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Farmer and Burr Oak. Harrison County Kentucky, 2021. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Michael Swensen</figcaption></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignfull size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230714" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/4.-Migrant-Workers-Leaving-Cucumber-Field-During-Rainstorm.-Daviess-County-Kentucky-2015.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-3-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Migrant Workers Leaving Cucumber Field During Rainstorm. Daviess County Kentucky 2015. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Ted Wathen.</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230716" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1025&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1334&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/6.-Chicken-Farm.-McLean-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0D-Julia-Rendleman0D-3-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Chicken Farm. McLean County Kentucky, 2022. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Julia Rendleman</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="wp-block-image alignfull size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="583" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C583&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230719" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C969&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C568&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C574&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1148&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C299&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C897&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C766&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1495&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C583&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C528&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9.-Loading-cut-tobacco-to-take-to-the-barn.-Fayette-County-Kentucky-1940.-Farm-Security-Administration.-0DMarion-Post-Wolcott0D-3-1296x969.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Loading cut tobacco to take to the barn. Fayette County Kentucky, 1940. Farm Security Administration. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott</figcaption></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230720" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10.-Harvesting-Soybeans.-Logan-County-Kentucky-2022.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DBob-Hower0D-3-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Harvesting Soybeans. Logan County Kentucky, 2022. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Bob Hower </figcaption></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignfull size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="519" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C519&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230721" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C863&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C506&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C511&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1022&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C799&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1331&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C519&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C266&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C470&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11.-Amish-Boys-at-the-Hart-County-Produce-Auction.-Hart-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DJon-Cherry0D-3-1296x863.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Amish Boys at the Hart County Produce Auction. Hart County Kentucky, 2021. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Jon Cherry</figcaption></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="521" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C521&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230722" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1296%2C866&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=760%2C508&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=768%2C513&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1536%2C1026&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1200%2C802&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=2000%2C1336&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=780%2C521&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?resize=706%2C472&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/12.-Claire-Neitner-center-with-her-Family-on-her-79th-Birthday.-Neitner-Family-Farm-Camp-Springs-Campbell-County-Kentucky-2021.-Kentucky-Documentary-Photographic-Project-II.-0DMichael-Swensen0D-3-1296x866.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Claire Neitner (center) with her Family on her 79th Birthday. Neitner Family Farm, Camp Springs, Campbell County Kentucky, 2021. Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (II). Photo by Michael Swensen</figcaption></figure>
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots"/>
Documenting Kentucky: Three Photographic Surveys runs through November 9, 2025 at the Frazier History Museum, 829 W. Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202.
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/documenting-kentucky-a-journey-through-decades-in-photographs/2025/06/27/">Documenting Kentucky: A Journey through Decades in Photographs</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">230710</post-id> </item>
<item>
<title>Q&A: Creative Economic Development and Rural Ingenuity</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-creative-economic-development-and-rural-ingenuity/2025/06/27/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/qa-creative-economic-development-and-rural-ingenuity/2025/06/27/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ilana Newman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Rural Life]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231000</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?w=2560&ssl=1 2560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Danny-Baxter_Maria-Headshot_Welcome-Sign_2018-04-03_005-1-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&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>
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week. […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-creative-economic-development-and-rural-ingenuity/2025/06/27/">Q&A: Creative Economic Development and Rural Ingenuity</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/path-finders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Path Finders</a>, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-appalachian-potter-josh-copus-has-mud-in-the-blood/2025/06/20/#signup">join the mailing list at the bottom of this article</a> and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
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Maria Sykes is the cofounder and executive director of <a href="https://ruralandproud.org/">Epicenter</a>, one of the only nonprofit organizations in the small town of Green River, Utah (population 881). About 50 miles from the closest towns of Moab and Price, the town sits along the Green River in the Utah desert. 
For some, it’s a drive-through town – the last stop for gas along a lonely highway. For others, it’s a launching point into the desert wilderness or the river canyons that stretch out in every direction. For Sykes, it’s home. Sixteen years ago she moved to the area as an AmeriCorps volunteer with an architecture degree, and simply never left. 
Epicenter is a do-it-all organization, bringing creative design work to every project, from affordable housing, to parks, to community events. Sykes and her colleagues invite artists from around the country to do projects for, and inspired by, the community of Green River through their artists in residence program. It’s a perfect example of rural ingenuity in action. 
Sykes and I talked about bringing creative economic development to small towns and what keeps her living in Green River. Enjoy our conversation below. 
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 
DY: Will you start just by telling me a little bit about the path that led you to where you are, working on rural community development today?
Maria Sykes: I grew up in rural spaces, mostly like medium-sized towns, but all of my extended family lived in rural places on farms, mostly in the South. And whenever we would visit those folks, I felt very much at home. I love cities, but rural was really special to me, especially seeing women living by themselves and off of the land. I ended up graduating from architecture school at Auburn University, which does have a focus on rural architecture and design, it was always in the back of my mind of like, do I want to live in those spaces? I want to work in those spaces. And when I graduated from Auburn, the great recession was just starting, so this typical notion of architecture, which I wasn’t really interested in anyway, wasn’t possible. No one was building. So I reached out to some of my colleagues and folks kept talking about AmeriCorps. I ended up coming out to Green River, Utah with a couple of colleagues from architecture school. They’re no longer here. I’m the crazy person who stuck around for 16 years. I originally came here as an AmeriCorps VISTA [volunteer] to help develop affordable housing. One summer turned into a year, which turned into 16. Originally it was working with the existing community center that was here. And then eventually it became “I think we need to develop our own nonprofit and our own programs and projects.” That happened in like 2014, when we became our own nonprofit.
DY: Tell me a little bit more about this nonprofit, the organization Epicenter, based in Green River where you live.
MS: Epicenter got started in 2009, kind of, like I said, as a program of another nonprofit and we became our own nonprofit in 2014. But the work that we do is unique in that we’re not just an arts organization and we’re not just a housing organization. We’re not just an economic development organization. We combine all of those things, which I think is so critical to the work that we do and a lot of rural places as well. You can’t be living in a small town [and be a nonprofit] only working in the arts, in my opinion. How are workers living and where are they living, what are their working conditions? Do they have good jobs? You have to engage with all of these things and work holistically if you’re going to make any sort of change or to truly understand the community.
Everyone on staff is an architect or a designer or a design researcher – anthropologists, writers, something like that. We’re all coming from a creative perspective to look at economic development and community development. I think that really makes us unique in the work that we do, in our approach and our projects. Because of that, we do all types of projects. So developing affordable housing, but we create and help with different community events. We designed and built the town’s neon welcome sign. That’s very iconic now.
Day to day, we’re showing up to the meetings, we’re going to the basketball games, we’re a part of the community and that’s really important to our process as well. We also have an ongoing artist residency called the Frontier Fellowship, which we’ve hosted over a hundred artists and collectives here to do different projects with us. Those projects vary from a community publication to something like the welcome sign, creating a new community event or just bringing new vitality to existing events, whatever that might be.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231002" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1.jpg?w=2000&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Epicenter-Spring-Summit-2025_Sandra-Salvas-00713-sm-1-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Epicenter’s 2025 Spring Summit opening dinner (Photo by Sandra Salvas)</figcaption></figure>
DY: How do you balance creating for the community versus attracting tourists or outside visitors?
MS: If you create a place where people want to live, visitors are gonna want to visit. That goes for any place, it has to be this place that people love living in. I think that’s really important. I just keep going back to the welcome sign because it kind of illustrates the point in a lot of ways, but that was designed by people in the community. It’s the best project we’ve ever done. We could build a hundred houses and the welcome sign will still be the greatest thing we’ve ever done. It’s like a spot now where people stop and take photos. I’ve seen people traveling through and then go get a tattoo of it. It’s so bizarre how much it’s become a symbol for people that are road tripping, but also a point of pride in the community.
DY: How do you see the importance of art in all of these economic development spaces? 
MS: I think artists and creative people are absolutely critical. In rural places, often it’s like, boom bust, boom bust. How do we actually break this cycle? I’m sure economists or someone who’s worked in economic development in the West have ideas about how to break that cycle. But how do you actually communicate that to people? How do you actually engage with the community and actually make change or engage the community in writing policies or something to change that. I think artists and designers are key to that, whether it’s “here’s how we’re going to visualize this information for you,” or “we’re going to ask these specific questions,” or “we’re going to hold these conversations” and I don’t know of an economic development person who can do that very well. I think artists and designers have to lead that process or it’s just going to keep hitting a wall and booming and busting.
DY: I see that happening in my community with our creative economic development in Mancos, Colorado as well. But it feels like a rare thing in many rural places. There’s just fewer resources and fewer people. Can you talk about why you appreciate living in a rural place as a creative person? What drew you there and what keeps you there?
MS: There’s a couple of things. If I were doing this sort of work in a city, there wouldn’t be an immediate response, good or bad. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve screwed up and I know it, right? You’re going into the grocery store and [someone says], “hey, that was really stupid and I don’t like that.” Okay, all right, I learned my lesson.
So I really appreciate that, even though it can be like a bit much. But that’s really important. Rural places have so many layers, it’s really complex. It also feels very approachable in terms of community and getting to know people. You start to understand who the families are and the dynamics. Maybe that exists in the city, but not anywhere I’ve ever lived.
It’s nice to be able to understand where people are coming from and how that layers and develops over time after being here for over a decade. There are also lots of willing partners, whether it’s the mayor, the principal of the high school – they’re the people who are never going to turn you away. We need creative energy, we need people to come into the school and talk about college, right? Willing partners are incredibly refreshing, which I think in bigger cities, there’s a lot of red tape or there’s 20 people trying to like work in the school and maybe you’re not going to be prioritized.
It’s the familiarity, which can also be exhausting as well. I’m never anonymous when I go anywhere, one grocery store, one post office, only a certain number of restaurants. And so even when you’re off the clock, you’re on the clock, which is good and bad.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231004" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/john-watson_welcome-sign-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Neon welcome sign by artist Lisa Ward (Photo by John Watson)</figcaption></figure>
DY: Yeah, that kind of transitions well into my next question: What does collaboration look like for you? What do you see as the value of collaboration for rural development work?
MS: Yeah, I think collaboration is everything and it can’t be an afterthought. When I talk about going to the basketball games and showing up and being a substitute teacher, it’s filling in gaps, but also understanding the community. And so when you go to ask this parent, “Hey, do you want to participate in this project?” They know who you are. They know you’re going to do what you say you’re going to do. Building that sort of trust over years is really important. So that you’re able to engage those people that are in the community from the start of a project.
We also really value rural-to-rural collaborations. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel if the next town over has already dealt with this. How can we kind of take lessons they learned? And then also what information can we give back to them? So that exchange is really important to us. And same with rural-to-urban, but I think rural-to-rural is especially valuable. And then we also bring in a lot of outsiders, like I said, through our artists in residence program. 
Our visiting artists come in and collaborate with the community on different projects, whether it’s an event, or a publication, or whatever it might be. It’s at the core of everything we do. It’s almost like a hard question to answer because collaboration is everything. We don’t do anything in a silo.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231005" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=2048%2C1366&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=2000%2C1334&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LYON-2019-05-21-Green-River-166-Edit-1-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“Localized Gestures” by 2019 Frontier Fellow Calista Lyon (Photo by Calista Lyon)</figcaption></figure>
DY: Yeah, definitely. Are there any upcoming projects that you’re particularly excited about right now?
MS: A lot of our projects are coming to a close, which is exciting. We just had our summit, we’re almost done with a city park that we’ve been working on. We are halfway through some of our current fellowships, which are really exciting. 
I’ll just talk about one of them briefly, by the artist Teal Gardner. Green River is a post-uranium, post-boom and bust community, and has a lot of dilapidated buildings. A lot of people come to town and they photograph these old buildings that are just totally derelict, right? And they’re like, there’s cool old buildings. They talk about what was, what was the potential – that’s like, focus on the past. And yeah, those things are cool, but we also want new buildings. We want those buildings to be fixed up. And Teal’s project is specifically focusing on people’s front yards where they have given a lot of care and created something that’s really beautiful and outward facing. And so instead of focusing on this “ruin porn,” which seriously, google Green River and that’s most of what you see, instead can we focus on the people who do live here and the care that they give to the land that they own or rent?
[Gardner] is going to be documenting those yards and those people and learning their stories. And she’s a ceramic artist too. I think she’s going to be creating some ceramic trophies to potentially give out for like best shrubs, you know, most unique yard, or whatever it might be. I think that’ll be really fun. And on surface level, it probably seems like, “that’s like a cute project,” but I think it goes so much deeper than that. It’s talking about people’s perception of rural spaces, especially like why does this town look like crap when you drive through it? There’s so much, so much history and layers, and reasons why these spaces look like this. And so her project will address a lot of that. And that’s just one of like five projects that we have by our artists this year. So I’m pretty, I’m pretty stoked on that one.
We’re also getting our first five houses done on Canal Commons. So we’ve been working for years to develop affordable housing and we’ve done a lot of home repairs and we’ve built a couple of houses including a prototype for mobile home replacement. Using all that information we then approached the city about some land that’s actually right next to our building here. The city donated the land. I say donated, but actually we’re trading in-kind services – I think I finally paid our debt, through grant writing and volunteering for one million things. But anyway, we own the land now and we’re developing affordable housing on that. It’s 30, 40 years since there’s been new affordable housing built in Green River. So when that is finally completed, probably in November, that’ll be huge and really exciting. I think it gives a lot of people in town hope for the future because it used to be like, “my kid wants to move back to Green River, but there’s nowhere to live and I don’t want them to live with me.” And so we had a lot of – we have a lot of – continued out-migration.
DY: Yeah, I feel like that’s a constant issue in so many communities and that’s all really important. My last question for you is, I love your website URL, which is <a href="http://ruralandproud.org">ruralandproud.org</a>. That stood out to me and I’m just curious, what does it mean to you to be a proud rural resident?
MS: It means a lot of things, but I think it makes me go to this Ed[ward] Abbey quote that I talk about a lot, partly because one of our artists did some neon art with this quote, but it’s “instead of loneliness, I feel loveliness.” And it’s this sort of idea that a lot of people perceive rural places as places in deficit, they’re places that need resources, they’re places that need help. And there’s very little focus on the resources that do exist. Like knowing your neighbors, that social capital. Access to the land, hopefully. I could list so many things that rural places have and why we live in these places. and so I think let’s focus on the positive, how do we strengthen those assets while also addressing the challenges?
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The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/qa-creative-economic-development-and-rural-ingenuity/2025/06/27/">Q&A: Creative Economic Development and Rural Ingenuity</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<title>‘Local Control, Cheaper Prices, and Flexibility:’ Rural Electric Distribution Co-op Goes Independent</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/rural-electric-coop-goes-independent/2025/06/26/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/rural-electric-coop-goes-independent/2025/06/26/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ilana Newman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Community & Economic Development]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=230812</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&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>
In southwest Colorado, a rural electric cooperative is taking a big step towards energy independence and locally driven power decisions.  La Plata Electric Association (LPEA), a rural electric co-op for parts of Southwest Colorado, is in the middle of a two-year contract termination process to leave Tri-State, the generation and transmission organization that currently provides […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-electric-coop-goes-independent/2025/06/26/">‘Local Control, Cheaper Prices, and Flexibility:’ Rural Electric Distribution Co-op Goes Independent</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Lineworker-Bayfield-Colorado-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&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>
In southwest Colorado, a rural electric cooperative is taking a big step towards energy independence and locally driven power decisions. 
La Plata Electric Association (LPEA), a rural electric co-op for parts of Southwest Colorado, is in the middle of a two-year contract termination process to leave Tri-State, the generation and transmission organization that currently provides LPEA with electricity. 
Rural electric cooperatives are member-owned, not-for-profit organizations that provide electricity to <a href="https://www.electric.coop/electric-cooperative-fact-sheet">more than half of the country</a>, including most of rural America. <a href="https://www.electric.coop/our-organization/history">Established in the 1930s</a>, electric co-ops were the government-backed response to a lack of investor-owned electric utilities in rural areas. 
<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230813" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06384-1-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in Taos, New Mexico was the first co-op to leave Tri-State Generation and Transmission in 2016. Photo by Ilana Newman.</figcaption></figure>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Venturing Out on Their Own</h3>
The cooperative model means that all customers of the electric co-op are also its owners. Each co-op has a member-elected board of directors that makes strategic decisions, most of which can be made without member approval, based on the bylaws of the individual co-op. 
In March 2024, LPEA provided <a href="https://lpea.coop/sites/default/files/2024-03/Resolution%202024-03%3B%20Notice%20of%20Unconditional%20Withdrawal.pdf">unconditional notice to leave</a> Tri-State, starting a two-year stopwatch for the withdrawal from its contract and membership with the not-for-profit generation and transmission organization. 
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<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="872" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1.jpg?resize=780%2C872&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230816" style="width:360px;height:auto" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1159%2C1296&ssl=1 1159w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=680%2C760&ssl=1 680w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C859&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1373%2C1536&ssl=1 1373w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1831%2C2048&ssl=1 1831w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1342&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=916%2C1024&ssl=1 916w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C2237&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C872&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C447&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C790&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-scaled.jpg?w=1560&ssl=1 1560w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Chris-Hansen-green-background-1-1159x1296.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Chris Hansen is the CEO of La Plata Electric Association (LPEA), hired in late 2024. Hansen is a former Colorado State Senator and Executive Director of the Institute for Western Energy. Photo courtesy of LPEA.</figcaption></figure></div>
Leaving Tri-State “will allow us to invest locally and it will allow us to invest in a way that helps bolster economic growth in our service territory,” said Chris Hansen, CEO of LPEA in a Daily Yonder interview.
Despite the member-elected board having control over decisions like leaving Tri-State, some members feel misrepresented by their board and do not support the move away from the Tri-State contract. 
Dale Ruggles, a member of LPEA, expressed concerns that the LPEA board of directors is making decisions that do not reflect the feelings of their constituents. When asked what he would have wanted to see done differently, Ruggles said he wanted “a vote of the members, if the members vote to leave Tri-State, so be it”.
Local control, cheaper prices, and flexibility with sourcing are what co-ops like LPEA hope to gain by leaving contracts with their current power suppliers. 
But members who are against leaving Tri-State, like Ruggles, say that they are worried about the cost that will be put onto members and the potential volatility of being on the open market instead of in a consistent contract like with Tri-State.
The withdrawal from Tri-State  comes with what some of these members see as more than a $200 million price tag.”It’s just too much debt, and they’re not being transparent,” said Ruggles to the Daily Yonder. Hansen said that the money is a contract termination payment and not anything more than they were already contractually obligated to pay during their contract with Tri-State.
“It’s not a punitive fine. It is the amount of debt we would have already had to pay if we stayed there,” said LPEA board member Nicole Pitcher.
The payments are calculated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and are determined through a specific calculation that helps to maintain rate stability for the rest of Tri-State’s members.
<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230814" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C864&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C507&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DSC06381-1-1296x864.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An 82 kilowatt solar array outside of Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in Taos, New Mexico. Photo by Ilana Newman</figcaption></figure>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Moving Towards Renewables</h3>
Lee Boughey, VP of strategic communications for Tri-State, said that reliability and affordability are Tri-State’s number one priorities. Boughey emphasized that Tri-State is owned and governed by its members — the distribution co-ops like LPEA all have representatives on the Tri-State board— and decisions like contracts are also dictated by the members. But part of that is allowing members to leave if Tri-State is not serving their own needs. 
Rural electric co-ops are leading the way in energy innovation because of this member-driven governance. “It’s part of the co-op model to respond to local demand and to do innovation,” said Gilbert Michaud, a professor of environmental policy at Loyola University Chicago. 
Tri-State is going through its own transition, led by the members. In 2020, Tri-State announced their <a href="https://rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tri_states_responsible_energy_program_case_study.pdf">Responsible Energy Plan</a>, which laid out their plan to move away from coal and towards renewables like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. 
Boughey said that as renewable energy has become more affordable, generation and transmission co-ops like Tri-State have been able to invest in them more. “For cooperatives, reliability and affordability are critical, so it’s only natural that you would see cooperatives add more renewables as those prices came down,” he said.
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="1170" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-230817" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=864%2C1296&ssl=1 864w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=507%2C760&ssl=1 507w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C1800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&ssl=1 683w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?resize=706%2C1059&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1.jpg?w=1365&ssl=1 1365w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/LPEA-Sunnyside-Solar-Photo-Credit-Monica-Vick-1-864x1296.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">La Plata Electric Association’s (LPEA) Sunnyside Community Solar project was completed in 2024 and consists of 3,623 solar panels. The electric co-op plans to continue adding to Sunnyside in the coming years. Photo by Monica Vick, courtesy of LPEA.</figcaption></figure></div>
Until recently, cooperatives haven’t been on the same playing field as investor-owned utilities when it comes to developing their own utilities. As a non-profit organization, Tri-State does not have access to renewable energy tax credits that are available to for-profit companies. Rural electric co-ops are <a href="https://www.cooperative.com/news/Pages/Treasury-Final-Direct-Pay-Rule-Reflects-Input-From-NRECA-and-Co-ops.aspx#:~:text=Both%20tax%2Dexempt%20and%20taxable,Easy%20filing%20process.">now able to take advantage</a> of direct pay tax credits, the result of legislation passed in 2022.
“We’re among the first cooperative utilities in the country to own large [scale] solar, so that’s exciting,” said Boughey. 
However, for LPEA, leaving Tri-State is still the right option, according to Hansen. He also said that leaving will lower the co-ops cost of electricity immediately, putting less pressure on rates.
“We’ve got lower wholesale contracts on the day we leave. On April 1, 2026, our wholesale power costs will come down,” said Hansen. Some of that power will be coming from power purchase agreements with Tri-State, different from the contract, which would have locked them into Tri-State’s rates until 2050.
The total bill for members won’t necessarily go down, because of other increasing costs like infrastructure, but Hansen added that “it takes the pressure off of our rate structure if your wholesale costs are flat or declining.” 
Boughey also said that Tri-State’s wholesale contracts keep costs down for its members. He said their contracts allow for more consistency, whereas being on the open market could have more volatility. Tri-State’s rates <a href="https://tristate.coop/tri-state-reviews-2024-financial-performance">have grown 2.46%</a> between 2017 and 2025. 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">A Trend Across the Country and the Region</h3>
Attempting to get out of traditional electricity contracts is not unique to Colorado. 
In South Dakota, in 2023, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="https://www.basinelectric.com/News-Center/news-briefs/8th-Circuit-affirms-judgement-in-Dakota-Energy-East-River-Electric-lawsuit">upheld a decision by a federal judge </a>that Dakota Energy Cooperative could not leave its contract with its wholesale power supplier, East River Electric Power Cooperative. 
Dakota Energy Cooperative wanted to buy energy from Guzman Energy, a for-profit company out of Denver, Colorado, which has been a partner to many rural electric co-ops looking to leave their long-term contracts. But in South Dakota, this became a question of local vs out-of-state, with East River Electric taking the stance that local is better, even if it was coal-powered energy compared to the renewables that Guzman offered. 
On June 1, 2025, Indiana electric co-op Tipmont <a href="https://tipmont.com/categories/electric/energy-efficiency/tipmont-reaches-exit-agreement-with-wabash-valley/">left its contract </a>with its power supplier, Wabash Valley Power Alliance, after multiple years of negotiations. 
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In the Southwest, four other electric co-ops have left contracts with Tri-State over the last decade. Kit Carson Electric Coop, in Taos County, New Mexico, was the first in 2016. 
As of 2022, Kit Carson has reached 100% daytime solar energy—all generated locally—something they never could have done under the Tri-State contract.
Kit Carson CEO Luis Reyes, who has worked at the co-op for over 40 years, said starting in the early 2000s, the Kit Carson member owners were concerned about committing to long-term contracts with Tri-State, which at the time was primarily buying and producing coal-powered electricity. 
“The co-op program has been great. I think it’s the best model to deliver electricity to everybody with the members being the focal point,” said Reyes.”My opinion is we lost who the focal point was. We catered more to what Tri-State wanted than what our members wanted.”
Reyes says since<a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/seeking-more-renewables-kit-carson-co-op-exits-relationship-with-tri-state/421719/"> Kit Carson left in 2016</a>, Tri-State has “really turned the ship,” but in 2002 when Kit Carson first wanted to invest in renewables, “solar was bad,” Reyes said, according to the board members of Tri-State at the time. But for Reyes, “it was good business, and it’s what the members want.” For Reyes and Kit Carson, leaving Tri-State was the way to accomplish their solar and renewable goals that the members wanted.
Kit Carson completed their $37 million <a href="https://www.taosnews.com/news/business/kcec-completes-tri-state-contract-exit/article_eb41ba69-6418-529d-ac2a-045ae50940b5.html">contract termination payment in 2022</a> six years after formally withdrawing from Tri-State. That year, Kit Carson said their <a href="https://kitcarson.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Lowest-Rates-Chart-KCEC-Guzman-partnership-081722-FIN.pdf">power rates were lower </a>than any Tri-State member. 
The pressures from members leaving, decreasing prices of renewables, and new voices at the table have brought Tri-State a long way from “solar was bad”. Current contracts, which Boughey said have been signed by most members, increase the amount of local power that members can generate from 5% to 20%, giving members a lot more flexibility to develop their own utilities. 
A lot has changed at Tri-State since Kit Carson left Tri-State in 2016, and Boughey said that any member has the ability to pursue leaving at any time, if the current policies aren’t working for them. They continue to have good relationships with co-ops that have left, including LPEA which is in the process of leaving now. 
“It’s not a negative issue,” said Boughey. “It’s flexibility that our members want to have, that some members take advantage of, and we work very closely to execute those withdrawals in the spirit of the cooperative business model.
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-electric-coop-goes-independent/2025/06/26/">‘Local Control, Cheaper Prices, and Flexibility:’ Rural Electric Distribution Co-op Goes Independent</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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<title>‘No Kings’ Protests Across Rural America Biggest To-Date</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/no-kings-protests-across-rural-america-biggest-to-date/2025/06/26/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/no-kings-protests-across-rural-america-biggest-to-date/2025/06/26/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ilana Newman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 2025 09:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Rural Voters & Elections]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Data]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Trump's Second Term]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231032</guid>
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On Saturday, June 14th, rural communities showed up to protest against the Trump Administration in the largest day of protest to date.  According to a Daily Yonder analysis, at least 600 rural communities protested across the country on that day, with at least one rural protest held in every state except New Jersey, Delaware, and […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/no-kings-protests-across-rural-america-biggest-to-date/2025/06/26/">‘No Kings’ Protests Across Rural America Biggest To-Date</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
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On Saturday, June 14th, rural communities showed up to protest against the Trump Administration in the largest day of protest to date. 
According to a Daily Yonder analysis, at least 600 rural communities protested across the country on that day, with at least one rural protest held in every state except New Jersey, Delaware, and Rhode Island. 
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The “No Kings” protests were the largest protests to date in most rural communities, bigger in scale than the <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/not-just-a-blue-dot-in-a-sea-of-red-april-5th-protests-across-rural-america/2025/04/10/">“Hands Off” protests</a> held in April and the several nationally organized protests held since.
According to data collected by <a href="https://thepeopledissent.substack.com/">We the People Dissent</a> and analyzed by the Daily Yonder, out of those 600 rural protests, 391 self-reported attendance numbers with a low and high estimate. The low total estimate of those 391 reported attendees was 192,932, and the high estimate landed at 242,315, which is still likely a low estimate given how many towns and counties held protests but did not report attendance to We the People Dissent.
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231043" style="width:428px;height:auto" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=1296%2C972&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=760%2C570&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?resize=706%2C530&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm.jpg?w=2000&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bafkreieghmvskwtvzmcc2owg47kk3u6pvk66jhzkknidw2pfg6ikxmlqwm-1296x972.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Brandon, Vermont reported 460 people in attendance at their June 14th protest. (Photo posted on BlueSky with the caption “Brandon is ready” by Donna Brutkoski)</figcaption></figure></div>
At least 355 of those rural protests broke local records for protest attendees, including one in Bluefield, West Virginia, which held its very first public protest ever. The largest protests were held in Traverse City, Michigan, with between 7,000 and 8,000 attendees, and Concord, New Hampshire, with between 5,000 and 8,000 people in attendance.
The Daily Yonder defines rural using the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) list of Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Merrimack County, where Concord is the county seat, is a nonmetropolitan, or rural, area with a population of 157,000.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231041" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=1296%2C972&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=760%2C570&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1152&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1500&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?resize=706%2C530&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3.jpeg?w=2048&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/a9a2825c-1d19-49d8-8506-95c521eb76d3-1296x972.jpeg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">In Union, Missouri, population 13,000, around 400 people showed up downtown to protest “No Kings day”. That’s at least double the 200 protesters who showed up on April 5th in Union for “Hands Off” protests. (Photo courtesy of Gennesa Nickles)</figcaption></figure>
Seven rural areas held protests with single-digit attendance rates, including one single protester in Hamburg, Arkansas, and Loogootee, Indiana. Elwood, Indiana, and Waitsfield, Vermont, both reported six protesters. 
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="1040" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597.jpeg?resize=780%2C1040&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231045" style="width:244px;height:auto" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=972%2C1296&ssl=1 972w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=570%2C760&ssl=1 570w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=1152%2C1536&ssl=1 1152w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=900%2C1200&ssl=1 900w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=450%2C600&ssl=1 450w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=300%2C400&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=150%2C200&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1600&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=2000%2C2667&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=780%2C1040&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=400%2C533&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?resize=706%2C941&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-scaled.jpeg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_024597-972x1296.jpeg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">At least 500 protested in Long Beach, Washington on June 14th. (Photo courtesy of Tiffany Turner)</figcaption></figure></div>
The “No Kings” protests began in response to Trump’s plan to hold a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/06/15/nx-s1-5433765/3-takeaways-from-the-military-parade-and-no-kings-protests-on-trumps-birthday">parade</a> on the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which coincided with his birthday.
Over 700 people showed up in Cortez, Colorado, population 9,000, more than 100 more people than showed up on April 5th. June 14th was the largest turnout the town has seen at any Trump Administration protest. 
Many attendees of the Cortez protest said they came to the event to find people with whom they share values. Several, like Jill Steindler, recently moved to the area and “wanted to find their people”. Small town protests become a hub for local progressives and inspire community building and future organizing, said attendees, including Steindler. 
Julia Anderson recently started (or re-started) a Montezuma County chapter of Indivisible, a national progressive movement that began as a response to the 2016 Trump Administration. Indivisible Montezuma put on the protest on June 14th, and Anderson said she was very impressed they pulled off a national day of organizing only two months into the chapter’s existence. 
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="587" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT.jpg?resize=780%2C587&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231037" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C976&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C572&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C578&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1157&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1542&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C301&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C904&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C771&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1506&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C587&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C532&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_191244687.PORTRAIT-1296x976.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">In Cortez, Colorado on June 14th, around 700 people lined Main Street with signs and flags to protest the Trump Administration. (Photo courtesy of Joel Newman)</figcaption></figure>
“A lot of people can say, ‘Oh, we’re just in Cortez, a small, little community in the middle of nowhere. But if every little community is doing it, which every little community is doing it, you make a statement to your neighborhood and your community,” said Anderson in a Daily Yonder interview.
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="1036" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944.jpg?resize=780%2C1036&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231044" style="width:249px;height:auto" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=976%2C1296&ssl=1 976w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=572%2C760&ssl=1 572w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1020&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=1157%2C1536&ssl=1 1157w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=1542%2C2048&ssl=1 1542w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C200&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C1594&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=771%2C1024&ssl=1 771w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C2656&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C1036&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C531&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C938&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-scaled.jpg?w=1928&ssl=1 1928w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PXL_20250614_194353944-976x1296.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Protesters lined both sides of Main Street in Cortez Colorado on Saturday June 14th. (Photo courtesy of Joel Newman)</figcaption></figure></div>
Laurie Hall, with the Montezuma County League of Women Voters, who helped organize the Cortez protest, said it’s important for community members to see how many people in the community show up for such a protest. 
“We depend a lot on federal dollars for hospitals, for our public lands, for our food programs, and it’s really critical that people who might not have other exposure to news media other than their traditional conservative outlets, to see how many people in their own community are really concerned,” said Hall. 
“It’s not about politics, it’s not about right or left, it’s not about Democrat or Republican. It’s about our Constitution, and we’re worried about it,” said Anderson. 
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<title>FCC’s First Amendment Tour Arrives in Kentucky</title>
<link>https://dailyyonder.com/fccs-first-amendment-tour-arrives-in-kentucky/2025/06/25/</link>
<comments>https://dailyyonder.com/fccs-first-amendment-tour-arrives-in-kentucky/2025/06/25/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Will Wright]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:56:41 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Government & Policy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[The Yonder Report]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Yonder Report]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://dailyyonder.com/?p=231018</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=760%2C428&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=706%2C397&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&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>
The lone Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Anna Gomez, began her speech in rural Kentucky last week with a warning. “This administration has been on a campaign to censor and control since before day one, and since day one, the FCC has been implementing the will of this administration and undermining the […]
The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/fccs-first-amendment-tour-arrives-in-kentucky/2025/06/25/">FCC’s First Amendment Tour Arrives in Kentucky</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?w=1920&ssl=1 1920w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=760%2C428&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?resize=706%2C397&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Full-FCC-Panel.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&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>
The lone Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Anna Gomez, began her speech in rural Kentucky last week with a warning.
“This administration has been on a campaign to censor and control since before day one, and since day one, the FCC has been implementing the will of this administration and undermining the First Amendment at every turn,” Gomez said.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">Watch the Video Below:</h3>
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<iframe title="Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez hosted a listening session in Fleming-Neon, Kentucky." width="780" height="439" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r2b8WjKcAUA?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>
</div></figure>
Her stop in the small Appalachian town of Fleming-Neon, Kentucky, was the third on her recent tour about the First Amendment. At an event hosted by the Center for Rural Strategies, which publishes the Daily Yonder, Gomez led a panel of experts about the five First Amendment rights: speech, religion, press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government. 
Gomez warned that the FCC, under the Trump Administration, has threatened these rights. 
“Here’s what concerns me: the First Amendment has protected our fundamental right to speak freely and to hold power to account since 1791. It is foundational to our democracy,” she said. “And yet today, the greatest threat to our freedom is coming from our own government.”
<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/about/leadership">The FCC</a> is a federal agency that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Gomez cited, among other examples, an FCC investigation into CBS News over claims of “news distortion” on the program “60 Minutes.”  
The Center for American Rights, a conservative law firm, filed a petition against 60 Minutes last year over an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. While the initial petition was dismissed, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-fcc-60-minutes/">reopened it</a> days after Trump returned to the White House.  
Last year, Trump sued CBS’ parent company, Paramount, claiming “60 Minutes” had improperly edited the interview with Harris in order to “tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party” in the 2024 election. Paramount has offered to settle the case, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/paramount-has-offered-15-million-settle-cbs-lawsuit-wsj-reports-2025-05-28/">the news agency Reuters reported</a>. 
Both the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” and CBS’ news president and CEO, have resigned, citing concerns over editorial independence. 
For the FCC to pursue the investigation, Gomez said, was an example of the agency using its regulatory power to bully journalists and publishers who don’t toe the line of the Trump Administration. 
“The FCC is supposed to make decisions based on law, facts, and technical expertise, not politics,” she said. “We take our direction from the Constitution, from the law, and from the public. That is what Congress intended.”
Gomez was joined by five other panelists: Preston Mitchell, a faith leader and Episcipol deacon; Tiffany Sturdivant, director of the media non-profit Appalshop; Tracy Staley, a journalist and marketing expert who works with the Center for Rural Strategies; businessman, author and former Kentucky state representative Bill Weinberg; and Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center Executive Director Wes Addington, whose non-profit law firm advocates for protections for coal miners.
Each member spoke about their lived experiences with one of the five First Amendment rights. Staley, speaking about freedom of the press, noted that the group Reporters Without Borders now ranks the United States <a href="https://rsf.org/en/country/united-states">57th out of 180 countries</a> in press freedom.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="439" src="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-231022" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=1296%2C729&ssl=1 1296w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=760%2C428&ssl=1 760w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1125&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C439&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C397&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/dailyyonder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1st-amnendment-1296x729.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The First Amendment enshrines five rights: the freedoms of speech, religion, and press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances. (Photo by Joel Cohen)</figcaption></figure>
The report notes the decline in number of local journalists and a growth in partisan media coverage that has eroded trust among the public. It also cites the politicization of the FCC and the administration’s “explicit threats to weaponize the federal government against the media.”
“Even on a local level, what’s happening on the federal level is trickling down,” Staley said. “And that’s really, you know, high stakes for people who are in communities like the one we’re sitting in now.” 
Throughout her First Amendment tour, Gomez said she’s been critical of what she sees as abuses of regulatory power — and that she checks her email every day to see if she’s been fired.
“If I’m removed from my seat at the commission, it wasn’t because I failed to do my job; it’s because I insisted on doing it as a commissioner,” she said. “It is my responsibility to respond to these attacks on the First Amendment. I refuse to stay quiet while the government chips away at fundamental rights by weaponizing our regulatory authority.”
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The post <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/fccs-first-amendment-tour-arrives-in-kentucky/2025/06/25/">FCC’s First Amendment Tour Arrives in Kentucky</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dailyyonder.com">The Daily Yonder</a>.
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