Utah’s Rural Communities: Planning for the Future

For many of Utah’s rural communities, the problem of either growth or decline has been compounded by dependency on public lands and the changing perceptions by the general public of how these lands should be used. Utah communities whose economies have revolved around farming, ranching, and extraction of natural resources have depended upon access to and use of public lands, but use of these lands for tourism, recreation, wildlife habitat, military operations, and other public purposes have increased user competition and decision making conflicts. Planning for the future of their communities is difficult as decision-makers face changing and increasingly diverse public perceptions about public resource issues. The viability and sustainability of many rural communities depends upon their ability to harmonize their traditional uses of these lands with new economic opportunities.