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Urban trail efforts increasingly are focusing on providing equitable access to trails. Trails and parks can create substantial benefits for public health, property values, and quality of life.
Understanding your local economy and how it compares to peers is a crucial part of community and economic development.
Slide show: A theory of economic development in the rural West.
This research and interactive charts show that the local economies adjacent to all 17 national monuments studied in the West expanded following the monument’s creation.
Many rural western towns face economic uncertainty. This report—informed by interviews and public meetings with residents—compares Lincoln to peer communities and outlines rural economic development options building on the town’s strengths.
The rural West matters for at least three important reasons: the vitality of the region’s landscape; its impact on local, state, and national politics; and the future of the area’s people and communities.
Many people talk about trails and quality of life, but how do we measure and obtain it?
Updated tools, research, and studies on the benefit of trails to communities and local citizens.
Understanding the local economy, and how it compares to peers, is a crucial part of smart community and economic development. Several new tools, utilizing the latest data (through 2014), now are available for every county in the nation.
Understanding what drives the local economy is crucial to smart community and economic development. This map provides detailed socioeconomic reports for every county.
In the West today, what economic sectors are driving the economy and make up the growing workforce?
This updated report analyzes the economic value of public lands in Grand County, Utah and the important role that these lands play for local businesses and the well-being of the region’s economy.
A sample of research and free tools available to help communities better understand the potential socioeconomic impacts of climate change.
Getting the economics right is important for communities to compete in a modern economy. We’ve created a number of tools to help rural, western communities better understand current trends as well as the role of the nearby National Forest or other public lands.
This study reviews how western communities are addressing wildfire risk, how they have responded to recent major fires, and useful lessons and public policy insights for the future.
This report analyzes the Front’s land, people, and economy, how the region has changed in important ways during the past several decades, and the potential impact of the proposed Rocky Mountain Heritage Act on the Front.
This report examines how investments in conservation and restoration provide both an immediate return through employment and revenue and help promote long-term economic growth that extends far beyond tourism.
This report, a first step toward understanding how paving rural roads impacts land use, reviewed eight projects in western Montana
“They might be economically disadvantaged, where these disasters can just instigate downward spirals,” said Kristin Smith, a researcher and policy analyst at Headwaters Economics. She said climate change is also causing more smaller disasters that aren’t large enough to warrant federal funding.
A new analysis from Montana think tank, Headwaters Economics, looks at BRIC money four years down the line and finds, nationwide, counties with fewer resources and staff received 19 times less BRIC funding than high-capacity counties.
In May of 2023, GIS instructor and analyst at Montana State University’s Geospacial Core Facility Jackson Rose and Headwaters Economics’ Kristin Smith traveled to Glendive in order to collect light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data along a 1.24-mile span of the east Yellowstone River.
“When done correctly, a hazard mitigation plan can help the community get behind projects and prioritize them, as well as help the community reflect on the risks they have and try to do something about them,” said Kristin Smith, a lead researcher for Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based nonprofit that helps communities with land management.
Competitive grants do have their place in rebuilding American infrastructure. Kristin Smith, who researches public finance with Montana-based nonprofit Headwaters Economics, said they can inspire innovative projects across the country.
“But when it comes to funding that is meant to save people’s lives, that’s designed to meet people’s basic needs, a competitive grant, in my opinion, isn’t the right tool,” Smith said. “It’s regressive. You have to have resources to access it.”