ABSTRACT
The rural US West has undergone dramatic economic and environmental changes since the late 1980s. While the high-technology industries flourished in some cities, rural communities, built on the region’s traditional natural-resource-based industries, have experienced heart-breaking declines in economic and social wellbeing. The most attractive and accessible of these communities are benefiting from the income brought by new retirees and telecommuters. Most rural communities, however, are left to their own devices to reinvent themselves in the 21st century or lose the places and people they value. A number of community and business leaders scattered among those communities have taken up the challenge of recreating their natural-resource-based industries-with environmental, economic, and social sustainability as the cornerstones of their efforts.
