Sustainable Rural Economic Development in the Great Plains

Abstract

The goals of rural economic development and natural resource conservation are mutually supportive when both are pursued in a context of sustainability. Being able to visualize a sustainable society is the first step toward building one, but old paradigms limit the ability to create a new vision of the future and move toward it. Transportation systems, water resource and flood control projects, mining activities, utilities, and settlement patterns have all played a role in changing the landscape and degrading ecosystems of the Great Plains. Probably, however, the most critical force has been that of conventional agriculture. Indeed, the same agricultural forces that have diminished ecosystems have indirectly diminished many Great Plains communities.