UMaine Home 
All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘rural’
Reinventing Rural Regions
Rural areas across the United States have been undergoing a fundamental transformation away from their commodityand resource-based economies. This edited keynote speech addresses the question of what’s next for rural areas. Mark Drabenstott, vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and director of its Center for the Study of Rural America, presents the top 10 ways to …
Read MoreThe Margaret Chase Smith Essay: The Other Iraq
In May 2004 I was one of three rural health specialists visiting northeastern Iraq, the home of 4.5 million Kurdish people. This region, friendly to America, secular, self-governing and fully functional, is very different from the parts of Iraq that dominate the news. These differences beg the questions, “What is it that so many troops from Maine are being asked …
Read MoreAn Ecotourism Quality Label for Maine? Insights from Sweden’s Nature’s Best Initiative
Nature-based tourism may be one way to revitalize lagging rural economies. Here, David Vail offers “food for thought” based on Sweden’s recent development of an accreditation and branding process for ecotourism operations. For an ecotourism product to be awarded the label Nature’s Best, the operator must undergo a voluntary accreditation process which certifies that a set of quality standards has …
Read MoreThe Human Face of Housing Policy for Rural Elders in Maine
Here, Sandra Butler reflects on the ways in which the older households she has been encountering in her recent in-depth research in Washington County match those described by Stephen Golant in his article on the needs of elderly homeowners and the solutions to those needs. She has conducted extensive interviews with volunteers and clients of the Senior Companion Program, which, …
Read MoreCommentary: A Commentary on the Essential Programs and Services Model
To further discussion about the Essential Programs and Services (EPS) model for funding public education in Maine, we asked eight superintendents—representing districts across the state—to provide their views. We also asked each to discuss the needs of his district and whether additional state policy options were necessary to tackle the most pressing issues. The districts represented by these superintendents are …
Read MoreWhither Maine’s Population
Demographic changes affect many aspects of a state’s economic and community well-being. In this article, Mageean, AvRuskin and Sherwood describe some of the potential impacts of Maine’s changing population. In particular, they note that Maine’s population is aging, the percentage of Maine’s youth is declining faster than in other New England states, and that rates of growth remain relatively slow …
Read MoreRural Development Strategy: 1990s Context and Constraint
In this comprehensive essay on rural economic development, authors David Vail and Michael Hillard describe key trends and past changes which are shaping rural America’s–and in particular, rural Maine’s–economic future. They conclude with seven hypotheses about rural Maine’s socioeconomic crisis, and call for the development of a state-level strategy for rural development that fully accounts for Maine’s varied resources, geography, …
Read MoreAn Interview with David Peterson and David Jones: Envisioning the Future of Rural Health Care
Managed care and other healthcare changes may impact Maine differently than more urban states. Managed care companies, striving to create economies of scale in healthcare financing, often prefer to fold rural regions into larger plans that emanate from more populous hubs. In much of this state, many question whether this will be best for the consumers and providers of rural …
Read MoreSustainable Agriculture and Public Policy
Sustainable agriculture is consistent with the concept of sustainable development, which focuses on economic development as distinct from economic growth. Economic growth requires an increase in output. Economic development can be achieved by increasing the quality of inputs and/or outputs without expanded output. Sustainable agriculture provides adequate food output, although perhaps not increased output, while meeting several societal objectives, such …
Read MoreThe Safe Drinking Water and the Clean Water Acts: A Small Community View
The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1986 and the Clean Water Act Amendments of 1991 present significant financial and technical challenges to municipalities in Maine and other states as they struggle to meet compliance standards. Steve Levy, executive director of the Maine Rural Water Association, offers a view of the effects of these requirements on rural communities; Chris Branch, public …
Read More