Rural Development through Land Stewardship

This web site has been developed to support collaboration between participants in the RVCC Rural Development through Land Stewardship working group. Here you will find items that are currently being worked on by the group, suggested reading, notices of important dates and other hot news.

RDLS Purpose and Goals

The purpose of the RDLS working group is to catalyze ideas, policies and actions that promote sustainable economic development in rural communities through active land stewardship. This working group will work collaboratively to generate the following contributions to RVCC:

Develop and recommend innovative rural policy and investment priorities
Secure greater interest in and investment of philanthropic and investor capital
Foster a new generation of rural and regional practitioners to innovative practice
Develop a core group of community leaders and a toolkit to share RDLS practices throughout the west

Actively Working On

We have drafts of three documents that we are hoping to get your feedback on, including:

Statement of Purpose: Group touchstone
Map of RDLS people, organizations and projects that exemplify the vision for Rural Development through Land Stewardship: Click on the link and add your self and your organization to the map!
SWOT of community and regional natural resource economies: Conduct a SWOT analysis of your regional economy. Here is a link to a template you can use. Here is a link to Lindsay's example, here is a link to Dan's example, here is a link to Bob's example, here is a link to Chelsea's example.
RDLS Talking Points Document: Hot topics and key points
Building Rural Business Capacity for Forest Restoration and Land Stewardship: Potential seed of relevant RVCC Issue Paper
Needs assessment to learn more about what kinds of capital investments are most in demand in rural communities today. Please click here to take the needs assessment survey.

Nils's Reading Room

Selected publications that can inform RDLS efforts.

USDA Rural America at a Glance 2017: This is produced annually with a different focus issue each year.
RVCC Rural Development Through Land Stewardship 2016: RVCC crafted stories of RDLS in action.
Headwaters Economics The Three Wests 2016: a case study on the importance of access to large population centers and their markets, via road and air travel, for economic development.
Ecosystem Workforce Program Community-Based Organizations in the U.S. West: What are community-based organizations and what role do they play in rural communities across the western united states?
Ecosystem Workforce Program Economic Development and Public Lands: The roles of community-based organizations in fostering public lands-based economic development.
Thoughts from the Aspen Institutes Rural Development Innovation Group
USDA Rural Development Program Matrix

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