Rural & Small Communities

Wyoming has 80 food deserts in 21 counties. That’s when people live more than ten miles from a grocery store. But it’s a relatively new problem, according to a recent article in The Atlantic magazine.

It seems that every day a new headline tells a story of theaters shutting down. But in some parts of the West, including Wyoming, they’re still thriving.

“Delivering for America” is intended to cut costs and increase efficiency, as the postal service strives to break even amid a $9.5 billion dollar loss last year due in part to mail volume declines and inflation.

The federal government is allocating more funding to help rural and tribal communities better respond to wildfires. Several of those communities in Mountain West states have already seen an improvement in their firefighting abilities.

Wyoming’s primary is Tuesday, Aug. 20. A lot of the country is keeping an eye on the voting patterns of rural voters to see if it continues to trend more conservative.

Policymakers in Colorado envision a future with close to a million electric cars on the road by 2030. But before all those electric cars can hit the roadways, we’ll need a way to charge them. That includes in rural areas, not typically electric vehicle hotbeds.

As natural disasters strike the Mountain West, rural communities face some barriers to recovery. But they can’t always get their hands on climate resilience funding.

Federal officials have announced another $759 million in funding for rural high-speed internet, including for states and tribes in our region. This is the third round of funding to build out internet access in rural areas. It finances projects in 24 states, three territories and tribal nations. In the Mountain West, that includes projects in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Wyoming and the Navajo Nation.

Community development experts in Utah have published a step-by-step guide to help rural communities attract private investment.

Though the death rate in rural America has decreased since the end of September, it is still significantly higher than in urban areas.