The article then goes on to mention the plan has been an early success. I do wonder if the good Professor has ever traveled west of the Garden State.
Yeah. The Hmong immigrants, who largely settled in California initially, are emigrating to Louisiana and Arkansas for cheaper land and a easier chance to enter the poultry business.Mud Princess said:
True. But if enough population density is established, perhaps some of those entrepreneurial people will actually develop those amenities -- start businesses to serve the newcomers. You see this phenomenon in urban immigrant communities.BKM said:
Believe it or not Dodge City, Kansas has a small Mongolian population. The Community college is a jumping off point for many of the few Mongolian imigrants to the US. Additionally, Mike Gurnee, a fellow Cyburbian, is considered the Dali Lama of Dodge City. (I was just kidding about that last part.)BKM said:...Since we are talking about the cold, flat Great Plains, though, how many immigrants do we really have from Mongolia or Tibet?
I thought they were the ones; I did remember them being from Rutgers.BKM said:
BKM said:
Actually at the conference yesterday, one of the speakers telecommuted from Palmer Iowa, to the office in Denver. He has a side business building kalidescopes. His opinion is this is exactly what is happening.
That's what annoys the hell out of me about my city. They give these tax breaks to developers of residential and commercial properties, while I have to scrape to get my $4200 annual assessment together. Why should the middle class and the poor be expected to shoulder the burden of inner-city redevelopment?
Imagine this: Tens of thousands of acres of land in eastern Montana and the Dakotas is allowed to revert back to a natural landscape of shortgrass prairie, rolling hills and occassional tree-lined steams. Unproductive farms and ranches are abandoned, and roads and schools are closed. The costs of building and maintaining infrastructure drop as the grass grows and the bison return. Environmentalists, outdoorspeople, wildlife enthusiasts and others begin to take notice of this place. They come to visit, to hike, to camp, to hunt, to fish, and otherwise enjoy the natural world. They begin looking for hotels and restaurants. Some of the ranchers decide to start offering guided horseback trips. In one town, somebody decides to rent canoes for trips down the Missouri River. Somebody else starts selling camping, hunting, fishing, and related supplies. Other towns have similar businesses. They begin to grow....boilerplater said:
I recall doing a poaper in college on early geography of the "great plains" also referred to as "America's bread basket". Its interesting to see old maps labe the midwest from north dakota to texas and west to the rocky mountains as "the great american desert"Cardinal said:
... except that a lot of the habitat required for these species is gone, replaced with non-native plant species. I read recently that Iowa, or one of the other Plains states, only has 1% of its original prairie grasses left. Very sad!boilerplater said:
Yeah, it could bring some new growth, creating new stresses on the environment, but will it be all that much? I don't think so. Prairie in Iowa just doesn't have the appeal of say, Glacier Nat'l Park. The tourists will be people who are really into Prairie wildflowers or Buffalo, things like that. Where would you choose to spend your precious week of vacation? A spectacular landscape with mountains and waterfalls, or a prairie that looks pretty much the same for miles around? If you're trying to market a place as an ecotourism destination, you have to plan for ways to retain its appeal as a "natural" place, even if the prairie is restored from 150 years of farming.
You underestimate the power of invasive plants. I'm sure many of those non native plants are "naturalized" by now and won't be going anywhere. That's not to say many native species couldn't have a come back.
ahhem.... http://www.tallgrass.org/The Irish One said:
Very nice and encouraging, thank you.
