RURAL LANDS AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS: USING LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES TO REVITALIZERURAL AMERICA

摘要

The nature of rural America, and our appreciation for the people, places, resources and culture comprising it, is going through a period of reassessment and renewal. A variety of forces contribute to this rural rediscovery. The continued growth in urban America, with attendant challenges to daily life from traffic congestion to housing costs, mean the frustrations of urban living give new allure to what people perceive as the relaxed and unstressed ideal of "rural" living. The movement of the baby boom generation into a period of, if not outright retirement, at least repositioning and transformation, means people are more mobile and less tied down. The opportunities for career changes are made more possible by the accumulation of wealth, pension funds, real estate gains and declining responsibilities for children. Increased mobility makes moving to the country, perhaps even back home, more feasible. "Back home" and "the country" are often rural areas, and moving there is more inviting if high speed internet, access to quality health care, and other amenities are available.