Media Coverage

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress is directing a historic amount of funds to climate resilience. But some rural communities risk being left behind on these investments.

• A rural capacity map

“Recreation destinations on average have seen larger price increases than nonrecreation destinations,” said Megan Lawson, a housing economist with Bozeman, Montana’s Headwaters Economics, which studies the West. 

• Recreation Counties Attract New Residents and Higher Incomes
• Housing in recreation-dependent counties is less affordable

The CPI captures how much consumers in urban areas spend on goods and services, with the key word being “urban.” It misses some of the nuance of rural life, according to Megan Lawson with Headwaters Economics.  

Neighborhoods at Risk is a free online tool that allows anyone to search what their hometown’s climate change risks are.

• Neighborhoods at Risk: About

‘Neighborhoods at Risk’ helps you learn about potential flooding, heat waves, and other threats to your community.

• Neighborhoods at Risk: About

In her research, Lawson has found that across the West people are moving to counties with recreation opportunities more quickly than to other places — and there’s faster job growth in those towns. But if you pull apart the numbers there is darkness there. Abundant growth doesn’t always lead to equitable growth.

• Recreation Counties Attract New Residents and Higher Incomes
• Housing in recreation-dependent counties is less affordable
• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.
• Unaffordability for renters made worse during the pandemic

Communities across the nation are vying for funds from the $1 trillion federal infrastructure package. Some of that money is designed to address wildfire, drought, floods and other climate-induced crises, but many small rural communities in our region lack the tools to get that money, like planning departments, broadband access, and civic engagement. 

• A rural capacity map

The Forest Service unveils its final forest plan for one of the country’s most ecologically, economically and culturally diverse national forests.

• Measuring trail use in Montana’s Bridger mountains

“At the end of the day, being able to plan proactively and do resilience planning is a privilege. Most communities do not have the resources.”

• A rural capacity map
• Mountain, Midwest, and Gulf States fail to secure FEMA resilience funding

In California, as in much of the world, climate anxiety and climate futurism coalesce into trans-apocalyptic pessimism. But, in spite of the doom, Weil suggests the situation is not completely devoid of hope.

• Kimiko Barrett

Kristin Smith, a researcher with Headwaters Economics, spends her time running the numbers and said that the billion-dollar estimate on the cost of the Marshall fire is only the beginning.

“The full cost of a wildfire is not just about property damage,” she said. “With any disaster, there are rippling impacts that people tend to overlook.”

• Mountain, Midwest, and Gulf States fail to secure FEMA resilience funding
• Full Community Costs of Wildfire

“What we’re starting to see is that affordable housing can no longer be ignored,” said Headwaters economist Megan Lawson. “There are more people recognizing the need to get involved in this conversation, especially big employers.”

• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.

Those cities saw median home values rise by more than 20% last year according to an analysis from the nonprofit Headwaters Economics in Montana. Megan Lawson, an economist with that group, said she doesn’t expect housing prices to collapse anytime soon. But she does think they’ll eventually slow down and stabilize.

• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.

Kimiko Barrett, who studies wildfire at Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit that aims to make “complex data understandable” so others can make better decisions around land use, helped snap this into focus for me one afternoon. We have, she said, “a home-ignition problem, more than a wildland-fire problem.” So simple, yet such a profound shift. Until we accept this, we’re going to remain deluded and stuck.

• Kimiko Barrett

Earnings from outdoor recreation stumbled a bit in 2020 because of the pandemic, but the sector remained an important part of the U.S. economy, according to a new interactive report from Headwaters Economics.

• The Outdoor Recreation Economy by State

“They can’t hire employees to staff the restaurants, to guide their rafts, to teach ski lessons,” she said, “because those folks can’t afford to live in these places.

• Housing in recreation-dependent counties is less affordable
• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.

Montana lost over 1.6 million acres of farmland between 20212 and 2017.

• Montana Losing Open Space

“I think that shines a light on the economic opportunity that outdoor recreation presents for communities, that even in a pandemic, it still has the power to bring visitors in and bring that spending in,” Lawson said.

• The Outdoor Recreation Economy by State

Some of Lawson’s more recent research shows more people moving to counties with lots of recreational opportunities and those newcomers tend to have higher incomes than people moving to cities. And those new residents appear more ready to direct tax dollars toward conservation. 

• Recreation Counties Attract New Residents and Higher Incomes

Three Forks has developed a plan for mitigating flood risk, but failed to receive federal funding when it applied earlier this year. However, under the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill passed in Congress last week, FEMA’s program for reducing flood damage has seen its budget more than triple to $700 million annually.

• Decreasing flood risk in rural communities: a pilot program in Three Forks, Montana
• Improving benefit-cost analyses for rural areas