ABSTRACT
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Rural Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Production Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Mechanical and Technical Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Financial Management Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Relational Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Risky Shifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Making Risky Shifts: Understanding the Current Resource Flows . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Farm-Community Entrepreneurial Partnership and the Risky Shift from Bulk Commodity Production in Piatt County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Focus on Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
When aboriginal peoples settled the tall grass prairie, it provided pasture for ruminants, rivers for fish and amphibians, and a vast diversity of plants for gathering. The savanna was a mosaic of bluestem, oak, and hickory, with occasional closed canopy forests, usually found near water bodies that inhibited fires (Lauenroth, et al., 1999). Native American nations managed the ecosystem through fire (Sauer, 1950) and species-specific hunting (Hames, 1987). The tall grass prairie supported a large, dynamic human and plant population (Schleister, 1994).
