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News About Frontier Communities and Frontier Issues and Ideas

Wray, CO Schools Harness Wind

Responding to the Wray, Colorado school district's request that staff suggest ways to save money, agriculture teacher Jay Clapper suggested harnessing the community's plentiful wind resource to generate electricity. What followed is a remarkable story of local and international cooperation and ingenuity. The result is power for the school district, some left over for the community and a great learning opportunity for the students. Read Karen Auge's story in the Denver Post.

From The Daily Yonder

The Daily Yonder covers news in rural America and its website, www.dailyyonder.com, offers an opportunity for comment. Three recent stories by The Daily Yonder highlight population movement in and out of rural America and offer a new take on prosperity in rural America.

Finding Rural America's Prosperous Communities, Bill Bishop, November 4, 2007

Poor People Are Moving To Already Poor Rural Communities, Bill Bishop, September 27,2007

Double Whammy Rural Counties Lose Population Two Ways, Daily Yonder, September 13, 2007

The Daily Yonder is published on the web by the Center for Rural Strategies. Editors Julie Ardery and Bill Bishop have written for national magazines, for newspapers in Kentucky and Texas and authored books on American politics, art and culture.

The Daily Yonder was developed with the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Media Democracy Fund (a project of the Proteus Fund).

"The Buffalo Commons: Its Antecedents and Their Implications", by Deborah Popper and Frank Popper was published December 31, 2006 by the Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy (2006.6). The article offers some excellent history and background on frontier issues. The Popper's are the leading experts on the demographics of the contemporary frontier. Deborah is a geographer who specializes in de-settlement and re-settlement patterns in the US and Frank is a demographer/planner. They also are members of the Board of Directors of the National Center for Frontier Communities.

"Saving St. James", by Curt Arens, American Profile, March 4-10, 2007. St. James, Nebraska, is a small, rural community that was saved from extinction by a group of five motivated women who opened a new community marketplace and cultural center.