Transcripts For CSPAN3 Aspen Institute Discussion Focuses On Rural Economies And Innovation 20170301

But theyll be ushered in. Good afternoon and welcome to the Aspen Institute. On behalf of the Strategy Group and the Rural Development Innovation Group, i want to thank you for joining us for this lunchtime dialogue series. Americas rural opportunity. I want to thank all the people in the room here, in washington, d. C. , with us, as well as the hundreds of the people Live Streaming and those of you watching on cspan3. So i am i wonder how many there are. Im janet topolsky. Im executive director of the Aspen Institute strategies group. What we do here at aspen usg is we do a lot of work out in the country equipping local leaders to build more prosperous regions. And to advance those living on the economic margins while they do that. Since 1985, aspen csg has focused most of its work in Rural America. And through our experience over those years, we have learned full well that Rural America is not flyover country. Rural america, rather, is livein, workin, start a business in, and raise a family in country. So recent media headlines as we all know have focused attention on our nations acute rural challenges. The decline of critical sectors, inadequate job opportunities, infrastructure challenges, Community Health crises, and more. Those are real. But a deeper understanding of Rural America reveals an important but less publicized picture of innovation. And collaborative local leadership using their local assets to turn challenges into opportunities. So to launch this series today, we wanted to highlight just three representative stories of innovation that have built on local assets, from three different parts of Rural America. Were happy to be joined today by the people you see here on the podium. By Rural Business entrepreneurs and critical intermediary organizations that partner with them, and are deeply engaged in the Rural Economic Development and building rural urban connections. Before we get those stories under way, i want to introduce rob riley, whos president of the Northern Forest Center, and the Northern Forest Center and bob are really who instigated the Innovation Group. Hes going to tell you what that group is. Rob . [ applause ] thanks, janet, and thank you all for joining us today. Im rob riley. The center works across a 30 million acre region of upstate new york. Building economic and Community Vitality while fostering found forest stewardship. Our work over the past 20 years has focused on helping local communities to transition a Rural Economy that was once dominated by one sole industry, pulp and paper, to a more diversified one that can capitalize on the still important industry, but broader Economic Prosperity that capitalize on our Natural Resource base. This transition has been long and painful. But also very inspiring. Back in late 2015, on the ver roon da of the Mount Washington hotel anyone been there . Thank you. Thank you. Come back. We would like you to come back. The idea of the Rural Development Innovation Group was born. It was clear to many of us that theres a need to more intentionally focus interest and investment on Rural Development. We are tired if not exhausted by the story line that janet mentioned of challenge, economic distress, that dominated rural, and wanted to create a new narrative, one that positions rural as a National Asset that it is, while at the same time acknowledging the need for effective investment and innovation to unleash potential opportunity. With the Aspen Institute Community Strategies group and u. S. Endowment for forestry, we meet for a year and it has been almost a year to provide expert advice to each other to accelerate the impact of our own work, and identify emerging opportunities for rural, troubleshoot strategies and collectively learn together. Now were highlighting innovative approaches and helping to inspire Public Sector and philanthropic Decision Makers to reconsider americas rural opportunity. The Innovation Group identified on your handout has invested their time and energy, balancing the hard work, the really hard work they do back at home with the work they have there, raising up innovative practices and stories to support rural opportunity. Lastly, i do want to say, on a slightly sentimental tone, but one laden with alternate practicality, that this is personal work for many of us. Personally i grew up working on my familys farm in southern vur montana that was hughed out of the woods 225 years ago. Cut my teeth really in fields, picking stones, working in the forests, and wondered what the future might be from my family and my community. I know im not alone with those challenges of what the future brings. To improve rural places. So thank you all for being here. Janet . [ applause ] thank you, rob. And we do want to acknowledge and thank several organizations for their inaugural support of this series. Besides our own group, these include the Northern Forest Center, the u. S. Endowment for forestry and communities, encourage Community Foundation in wisconsin, the Lower Foundation which partners with Rural Communities in the inner mountain west, and includes every member of the Rural Development Innovation Group, all of whom have contributed significant time and resources to the earth. If you want to share your thoughts or have any questions and youre not in the room, if youre out there in the twitterverse or universe, you can use rural innovation, which is right here next to me. Maybe you can see it. If you have a question, and youre not in the room, thats what you use to get the question. We have someone monitoring it. So when we have a q a section, you can well get your questions there. To learn more, get updates, or share your stories, and wed love anyone to share stories, visit at as. Pn rural, or follow us on twitter rural innovators. Lets get started. Im going to hand the mike over to ray suarez who will be moderating todays panel. We didnt want to use veteran journalist, so im going to use been there done that journalist ray suarez who most recently was host of inside story, which was al jazeera americas daily news program. He spent 14 years as a correspondent and anchor of pbs news hour and more than six years as the washington based host of the nprs talk of the nation. Ray, heres your chance to talk with innovators from our rural nation. Thank you. [ applause ] i want to apologize at the outset for the stereotypical thinking that went into tapping me as the moderator for this program. Because after all, who else would you invite to do this but a puerto rican guy from brooklyn. [ laughter ] who is a residence of washington, d. C. , living in the smallest jurisdiction hes ever lived in in his life. But this is a topic of vital importance to me, as well as to the country. So im happy to be here. Of all the splits and tears in the National Civic fabric, there are few that are as vast and windening as that between americas metropolitan counties and Rural Counties. We take all places for investment, for preparation for the future. And solidify the lines. And i think even the hardest of hardcore urbanites would agree that americas world counties still need to be economically and socially coherent places, places that are able to provide for themselves, and the people who make their homes there. School systems need to be funded, roads need to be maintained, courts and sheriffs departments are places of accumulated capital, that needs to be maintained. And for that to happen, people need another microphone. We have great ideas working in Rural Counties and they are represented by my guests here today. To kick us off, well start with the Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth and john molinaro. Thank you very much, ray. Im very pleased to be here today. Im going to start by telling you a little bit about our region. We are the third of ohio that most people never thinks about, the appalachian part of ohio. About 18,000 square miles of rugged, heavily forested resourcerich country. Culturally and our population is both the way that you may think about an appalachian population, one that struggles with poverty, many people with scotchirish roots, but also a growing population from other areas. Immigrants, as well as very substantial and expanding amish population. The economy of appalachian ohio has always been focused on resource extraction and manufacturing. Thats still true today. Weve gone through periods where our timber, our clay, to make bricks, our iron ore, our coal are the drivers of the economy, and frankly the builders of the American Cities in the east. Today shell natural gas continues to play a huge role. Were seeing a resurgence in the hardwood industry. We have extreme poverty, but its mixed in with highly skilled manufacturing workers and artisans who are trying to cope with the erosion of jobs in the factories and industries in the region. And were beginning to see a rebirth. The coal and steel jobs have mostly been lost, but theyre being lost by the gas industry. And in a resurgent with products industry. Our story today is going to focus on the Woods Products in the region. Our fine appalachian hardwoods that grow there, because of economic displacement in the Great Recession we just came through, are no longer primarily used in the region. 80 are exported in their lowest value forms, as raw logs or green lumber. And mike workman from contracts furniture in mcconnellsville is a leader of a group thats really taking that on and driving more value back into our communities through higher value use of those Forest Products. Mike . Thank you, john. Thank you for being here in the audience. This is a 20year story thats hard to tell in five minutes but ill do the best that i can. I work for a furniture manufacturer in Southeastern Ohio for about 20 years. And in 1994, the company was sold by our Investment Banking firm who owned us to a Regional Bank in cincinnati. The reason the bank bought all the assets of the Investment Company was to get a seat on the new york stock exchange. But they were not interested in manufacturing, and nothing to do with it. As a result, in 1995, they closed our factory, and put 160 workers, including myself, on the street. We were all without jobs. After thinking about it, i decided that im going to start my own business this time around, and that was in 1996. A partner and i in our little town of mcconnellsville purchased at auction some of the equipment from our former factory my former factory, and we built an 8,000 square foot building and started manufacturing stools. And we hired three employees from the from our previous employer. And we went into stool production immediately. And it was a very easy business. It was almost like a hair pin. So life was good for a few years. From 2002, we concentrated just on stool production. And in 2003, i got a call from a gentleman most of you have heard of, his name was chuck williams, and hes the founder of williams sonoma. I had gotten to know chuck over the years i had been in business. He asked me workman, what are you doing . I said well, chuck, we are making stools for you, got my feet on my desk, life is good, we are shipping these to you every week and really enjoying life. And he said well, workman, he said i want some tables. I said well, chuck, we dont do tables, we just are doing the stools for you. He says youre not hearing me. He said i want tables and i want you to do them. So i said okay, give me a couple weeks, chuck, and let me think about this. So i knew a lot of people in the industry and i went through my list of people who were small manufacturers, they were backwoods people. They were not interested in marketing or Product Development or in sales, and i asked them if they would be interested in making Custom Furniture for me, and they said yes, we would be very interested in doing that. So over the course of between 2005 and 2009, we created or networked 20 factories in the Appalachian Region to do Custom Furniture and in back in 2004, chuck had asked me to do cabinets as well so the answer was the same. Ill figure this out. In 2010, i got a call from eric burkeman, president of the ohio manufacturers association, and eric asked if i would go to the Amish Country in ohio and help four small familyowned factories find their way in Product Development, in design, marketing, sales, that kind of thing. They werent really interested now, they were only interested in manufacturing furniture. So i gave him some tips to find out about the business, steer them on the right course and then eric asked me on the way home, well, what did you think. I said i see a big opportunity here that i think what you should do is network these people and brand this thing chiquita banana. He looked at me and said why dont you do it . So thats what happened. That was the catalyst. Eric set up a meeting with the Ohio Department of development. We received some grant money to vet this whole idea of networking and we were looking at what model are we going to use here. Is it a cooperative, is it a quasicooperative, how are we going to organize this. And we decided to organize it as a hub and spoke system and its been operating since 2011. In the last six years, our annual revenue has grown by 15 a year. We have increased our sales by 4 million. Our goal in 2020 is to increase it by an additional 6 million and so far, we have impacted 300 incumbent workers and created 100 new jobs from this effort. So i think that the story mike tells has a couple of really telling points. First, it was the local entrepreneurial spirit that really made this thing work but second, there came some critical points where some additional assistance was required. So Manufacturing Extension Partnership fund channeled through the state of ohio helped pay for pulling together the plan to hold together these companies. Subsequent to that, theres been additional manufacturing extension support that has helped with work force training. Mike mentioned there are 100 new workers. Someone had to train those up to the skills needed specifically in these industries. Manufacturing extension helped with that. We have also gotten some department of labor funds to help with skill upgrades and going forward, this is plugged into a larger Regional Innovation Cluster Initiative that was actually founded based on the principles of mikes work to drive more value in the Forest Products cluster back through the supply chain and do higher value work at appalachian ohio. So that Regional Innovation cluster is among a set of clusters sba supports in things Like Aerospace and advanced energy, we are focused on the product that people have been making things since we lived in caves but its working and driving more value into the region. Ray . Thank you for coming in on time. Its an example much to be emulated by other panelists. From ohio, we will move next to the state of oregon and hear from nils cristofferesen. Its a pleasure to be here today. Our storys a little different. Its the story about a Public Private partnership that addresses the challenge of Forest Restoration and job creation across the rural west. In the innovation that we are going to talk about emerged in northeast oregon, a threecounty area nearly the size of new jersey, with less than 50,000 people. More than 50 of this land base falls within the National Forest. Our communities in that area have always been tied to the land. We are isolated communities, very far from urban centers and markets, but rich in natural and human capital. There may not be many of us but theres a wealth of skills and knowledge and enduring work commitment, and a commitment to land stewardship. The forest and Wood Products sector used to be the highest private sector payroll provider in the region, providing very high wages and good private health insurance. Most of those jobs were lost in 1995 when the mills shut down. Following dramatic reductions in forest timber harvests. Profound impacts rippled across the communities. County services were cut. Schools laid off teachers and programs. The hospital struggled to remain solvent as more and more patients came in uninsured. But this is not just another story of mill closure. Its about the decline of u. S. Forest Service Capacity and funding as well as the decline in the condition and function of our National Forests. In 1995, fire made up 16 of the Forest Service annual budget. Last year it consumed over 50 of the annual budget. 1. 3 billion were spent fighting fire. In some of the largest fires, the costs exceed 1 million an hour. Left unchecked, the situation will worsen. In just ten years, its predicted that two out of every 3 the Forest Service gets from congress will be spent on fire programs. Those everincreasing costs of fire come at a cost to the rest of the agencys programs. The restoration work thats needed to reduce the risk of fire is cut as well as protection of watersheds, wildlife, cultural resources, the upkeep of infrastructure for recreation and a whole slew of other programs that deliver value to the american public. Our innovation in northeast oregon responds directly to these challenges. Its a new Business Model that converts the byproducts of Forest Restoration and fuel reduction into valueadded products, Renewable Energy and new jobs. It creates a new market that helps pay for the cost of restoration and reduce the threat of fire. It highlights an important Public Policy and investment opportunity, one that generates significant local and National Economic and environmental returns. Its an example of the Rural Development opportunity offered by renewed investment in land stewardship. To give that story, im going to hand it over to David Schmidt. He and his wife are coowners of integrative Biomass Resources in wallowa, oregon. Thank you, nils. Yes, we have been working on this together for quite some time, over ten years, and seven years ago, jessie and i moved to Wallowa County to start this business along with nils organization and really start addressing the challenges he spoke about. So one of the questions we were asked was what catalyzed our innovation. To me it was two things. It was an ecological need which nils spoke to, changing forest conditions and the need for markets to be able to pay for the way for that Forest Restoration to be done. As nils mentioned, lack of budgets to actually get it done require that we find market incentives to be able to do that. So there was an ecological need but it was the economic need. Forest restoration is expensive. How do we achieve it without having valueadded markets to be able to pay for the material to get its way out . That was one of the drivers. Federal land managers dont have the money to do the restoration without the revenue from byproducts. Then as we started to address that problem, another problem of economy comes into play, is that what do you do with a broad range of material. So you are restoring the forest, removing mostly small diameter timber that has low value, diseased timber, dying timber. Many species trying to get our forest back into a healthy situation. So its not just that you have a material that you have to find value from, its a wide range of material and theres not just one product that can fix that. So as we started to look at how do we innovate around this problem, part of the challenge was the products out there that people were looking at is how do we convert all this to electricity because thats something that can use a lot of this and can make most of it into one product, or lots of research was done into biomass ethanol as another energy product. So we started to look at these Big Solutions but none of them were actually getting it done. We knew we needed to be able to have smaller valueadded products that we could start extracting the best value from all parts of the resource that we were removing during restoration. So thats where our business and our innovation started. We looked at opportunities to be able to take a mixed basket of wood and have multiple valueadded products. We started looking around the country and i was working in technical systems with Small Businesses across the west and i saw lots of good examples. Theres a small mills that are taking small diameter timber and making agricultural products. Theres firewood operations that are taking dying and diseased trees and making it into bundled firewood. Theres some small saw mills going in that are taking some of the material and making timber. The problem was, none of those were addressing the bigger issue of combining it all together and all of them have waste, all of them have inefficiencies. So our innovation is looking at it and not going at it from an economies of scale perspective, but what we call an economies of integration. So what are the benefits of integration . So reducing cost by reducing handling, avoiding replication costs. Every one of these small valueadded businesses if were replicating the costs of taking in, having a yard, taking in logs, sorting the logs, having all the equipment to do that, if you end up with replicating infrastructure costs. Then also, increasing Revenue Streams by having multiple products which helped us address some of the other issues. Seasonality, some of the variability in markets. So we wanted to have an integrated facility that could really take care of those things. 2007 we started, jessie and i started the business in town buying residuals from a mill that nils organization had started with some Grant Funding after the last mill had closed in town. So we started taking their residuals and making them into densified heat logs for heating systems. Still we realized that wasnt addressing the issue. There was still a wide range of products we needed. We knew we needed to get on one site and get this integrated together. We worked with the county to purchase the last existing mill site five years after it had closed, moved on to that site and started to build an operation where we now take in material, mixed material so we are reducing costs in the woods, we can take in this mixed restoration material and we start putting nigit into we hav five value added products now. The material enters the system, we reduce handling costs because its never handled again by big equipment, until its in one of those five finished products. So we sort out saw logs we send to a regional mill, we are lucky enough to still have a regional mill, and we sort out small diameter timber that we feel into poles and sell for agricultural markets. We make bundled firewood and we debark all of our logs and use our bark in a bigger cogen system where we produce hot water that then is used to create electricity and to create for our kilns where we heat treat all of our firewood so we sell pestfree firewood across the west from our facility. So we are really using every bit of the product and thats the key to our innovation is being able to integrate so that not only are we creating extra efficiencies, we are also being able to utilize all of our materials so the results and outcomes of our innovation is in those seven years, we have created 25 jobs in our town of less than 1,000 people. We have developed markets that are driving the restoration. The first five years we were there, the Forest Service was only able to put up two small timber sales and Restoration Projects in our area. In the last 18 months they have put up six. The market is driving, making the incentives to actually be able to get the restoration done. And we are creating more jobs beyond our facility in land stewardship and in forestbased jobs which also support other fran structu infrastructure jobs in our community. I would say the unique outcome of our innovation is as nils mentioned a Public Private partnership, is that the community recognize that they needed entrepreneurs. Jessie and i were that. We were willing to come in and dedicate our lives to making this business work. So we couldnt do that without a community that was supporting us. So what we have done is the community has stepped up, the county has stepped up to be able to help us and make sure we are there and have the support we need and in turn, we have given some ownership in our company to wallowa resources to recognize the importance of their support in our venture. Its a unique situation. Thanks, David Schmidt from oregon. We go clear back across the continent to South Carolina. Bernie mazyck is with us from South Carolina association for Economic Development. Bernie . Thank you and welcome. I bring you greetings from warmer climates, where there are Smiling Faces and beautiful places. South carolina is a great place to be. We have urban and rural areas that definitely have slight differences. In South Carolina, the Unemployment Rate in our 11 most distressed and Rural Counties averages 12 which is twice that of the more developed and urbanized counties. Our states three most prosperous counties is home to 40 of the states Bank Deposits, and what that translates into is thats where capital largely resides, whereas the Rural Communities, the 11 most rural and distressed counties, is home to 4 of the states Bank Deposits. At the same time, South Carolina is rich in land assets. Over 65 of our state is considered rural as far as land mass. Now, some may say that that is a challenge but we see that as an area of great opportunity and innovation. One area that i would like to talk about is Allendale County. If you live in South Carolina, oftentimes when you want to see and hear about the most distressed conditions in the state, you will talk about Allendale County. Unemployment rate in that county is right around 10 . Populationwise, its a little over 9,000, 9,433 individuals. Allendale county is often seen as a place where educational challenges exist. But at the same time, Allendale County is rich in Natural Resources and Cultural Assets. The economic drivers in the county are largely forestry and agriculture. Unfortunately, Allendale County is separated from Major Urban Centers because of how the Transportation System aligns. At one time, Allendale County was an area where a local economy could thrive because it was a cutthrough between savannah and columbia and some of the more urbanized areas. But where the building of interstates that bypass the county, the county fell into economic hardship. The major areas of opportunities that we see there in Allendale County are focused on the local assets, and thats where we try to drill down on our own innovations there. As i said earlier, its abundant in Natural Resources, Cultural Assets and opportunities to really mine the potential that exists there. A recent study from university of South Carolina produced one other thing i will say about Allendale County, its a majority africanamerican county. 73 of the population there is africanamerican. 25 , euroamerican so there is some historical qualities that exist there. Recently, the university of South Carolina produced a study, one that we have been hoping to be generated for some time, that looked at africanamerican tourism in South Carolina and that study produced recently and released recently showed that africanamerican tourism in South Carolina was a 2. 4 billion industry. Just in africanamerican tourism in the state. So when you look at the Cultural Assets, the Natural Resources that exist, throughout the state but specifically in Rural Counties, we see that theres an opportunity for cultivating that. So i would like to move to one of our organizations in Allendale County and since im here by myself, you will have to imagine Allendale County representative here. He cant fit on the stage but hes actually here. For Allendale County alive is local Community Development corporation, its a certified Community Development corporation. I will explain the significance of that shortly. That was created by the community because the community itself recognized they had resources they wanted to cultivate and they wanted to maximize the potential that exists in their county. And what has happened, the state also recognized that a lot of our distressed communities had resources but without capital, they could not cultivate and receive investment in those resources. So the state created something called a community Economic Development tax credit. That tax credit incentivizes investment into local challenged communities. As long as there is a certified Community Development corporation or Community Development Financial Institution in that area. Allendale county alive is one of those Certified Organizations. Certification is done by our state department of commerce and any investment, contribution, equity or debt that is invested in one of these Certified Organizations, that individual, bank or Insurance Company who makes that investment gets a 33 tax credit, state tax credit, on their investment. What that has been able to do is to drive investment, private investment, into some of our more distressed communities. What Allendale County alive was able to do was to use that tax credit to be able to secure property and buildings that are now enabling them to operate and to advance heritage tourism, Affordable Housing development, as well as cultural tourism. Allendale as i mentioned earlier, most of our Bank Deposits and therefore our Bank Investments are in the more urbanized areas. Through cdfis that exist in the state, those cdfis have also been able to attract private capital and therefore, allowing them to lend capital to some of the more distressed areas. Recently, Allendale County alive received a 61,000 loan to advance their work. So in South Carolina, what our state policymakers have recognized is the value of investing in rural and distressed markets. We have had companies, individuals, banks, that have also invested in these markets using the tax credit as a mean to do that and if but for the tax credit those investments would not flow into those markets. To date the Tax Credit Program has directed over 15 million into these rural and distressed communities throughout the state, most of whom are rural and economically challenged communities throughout South Carolina. Now the tax credits have been exhausted. And we are engaged with our legislature now to up the ante. So were in discussions with them of increasing the tax credit from 33 to 100 . The current Tax Credit Program has an annual cap of 1 million, we are working with our state legislature to increase that to 5 million annually. Eventually we would like that to be a permanent tool within the state and thats what our conversations are underway currently. Weve received calls from investors, bankers who are really interested in receiving that tax incentive in order for them to target investment in distressed areas. So now that the tax credit, of course, is exhausted, were getting more calls than ever because this is a unique tool that is enabling us to channel capital into economically challenged areas throughout our state. And Allendale County is one of those that is receiving private capital whereby they would not have received it before. Bernie mazyck, thanks a lot. [ applause ] were going to be taking your questions in just a short time. But were going to keep the conversation up here a little longer. Im glad you ended, bernie, with the tax incentive program. It certainly makes sense on its face. Can you envision a time when Allendale County will attract that kind of investment without the tax credit where the advisability of capital going there is selfevident and doesnt need the spur of a tax credit . Oftentimes investors are not going to be drawn to an area where they cannot immediately see a return on their investment. So what the tax credit does is it brings their attention to an area and gives them the opportunity to see what the Investment Opportunities exist there. Thats why a Certified Organization is based or serves that particular county so that they can package the asset there and put them in a package that an investor can see the return on their investment as well as they get a tangible financial return from the state, but they could also get a monetary return from the investment. It is going to be below market, it is going to be Patient Capital that goes into the product, but theyre going to receive what we call a triple bottom line. Theyre going to receive a return from the state. Depending on their investment, they may receive a return from the project. And they will also play a role in moving the economy forward in that local market. If im sitting in columbia with my green eye shade on, do the numbers work . If South Carolina has foregone a certain amount of tax revenue, can i make a case for foregoing that revenue in money i dont have to spend for various kind of subsidies, social welfare payments, emergency aid to the people of that distressed part of the state . Sure. Because already the Tax Credit Program has proven to have a 51 leverage average. Sometimes that leverage is higher in some of the markets and a little bit lower in others. But on average a 51 leverage you are also creating jobs in that local market and providing return to the state. So yeah, the department of revenue with the green eye shades, theyre measuring that as well. And theyre seeing when they see that return on the investment, more importantly the legislature sees that return on the investment. And now theyre happy to forego that potential revenue, realizing theyre getting more revenue on the other side. That also includes the local tax base which helps with funding local schools also. Sitting here as we are in Dupont Circle in washington d. C. We are just a short stroll from the agencies that could make your lives in the short term or the near term a little easier, a little harder, a little more promising. The sba is not too far away from here. The u. S. Forest service. Are there really easy fixes that the relationship with both your own State Governments and the federal government are missing . Is it a low hanging fruit that really is kind of easily picked that is being missed right now . Thats certainly true. When you begin looking at the Economic Opportunities across Rural America there are many, many great opportunities that we miss simply because we dont have the initial investment of resources necessary to move to a state where they can sustain themselves. Weve seen this a good example for us in eastern ohio is is in the area of infrastructure. We have Many Companies that are looking at globally where it makes the most sense for them to locate an operation. And eastern ohio is extremely competitive as a geographic location, but we have a shortage of infrastructure to support that. So though well and by infrastructure you mean . Water, sewer, Building Sites that are capable of bearing plants. So in our region, if its flat enough to build on its likely a brown field. Its been built on before. Had industry on it before. Is on a strip mall, has an underground coal mine or is in a landslide area. So we have billions set in trust funds for reclaiming strip mined land. Theres a proposal which could move some of that money out but prioritize it for some sites that have the most Economic Development potential. That linkage between that Economic Opportunity and that fund can create a situation that basically fixes the problem we have of not having property available when Companies Come calling, wanting to create jobs in our community. David, you reinhabited a closed mill. That sounds like a perfect all around win. Yes. Revitalizing already existing capital. Yes. And there is a lot of it i know across the west there is. Particularly sawmills in our Forest Industry which has obviously suffered especially in some of our Rural National forest dependent communities over the last 20 years. So those sites are available. And the help to get on to them is really important. Our county, for example, stepped up and bought the old mill site in our community and leased it to us with the agreement that we would purchase it back from them over time. We got a fiveyear leaseback option and we were able to buy the property back from the county by getting some new market tax credit lending within 18 months. So the county recognized that for us to create jobs and grow our business in the community, we neednt be focused on infrastructure. We needed to focus on our processes to be able to create those jobs. So they stepped up and filled the gap. We were able to buy it back. But it was a perfect example of a Publicprivate Partnership to get that infrastructure into the hands of businesses without it becoming cumbersome. Are there interoperability problems . Are there ways the incentives provided in washington and in your own states dont line up or dont line up easily or could line up better . I think theres one the Community Block Grant Program that were involved with for entitlement areas which are usually the urbanized areas, the local government is able to design those very well for their local markets. But when you get to nonentitlement areas, those dollars go to the state and then the state will design a master plan for that. It oftentimes the state master plan does not align with some of our rural, local rural markets. So we really we want to see the cbg guidelines and directions to the state to be able to be a little bit more sensitive to what the needs are in the local market. We definitely support water and sewer projects, but there are also entrepreneurial opportunities that can be utilized and can be gleaned from using that program, as well as innovative programs and activities around youth entrepreneurship, Work Force Development and so forth. If we can get the cdbg program to be a little bit more directive as far as getting our State Government to do that. Whats the end game . Are we trying to provide a maintenance dose of Economic Development to Rural Counties, just to sort of keep them moving forward and keep them alive and keep them funded . Or are you trying to create places where people will move to. Instead of just taking care of the people that are already there, are you looking to something more ambitious than that . For my own experience, i spent 20 years working in western minnesota in a region which was predicted today to be about 175,000 people and today, its about 215,000 people. And the reason for that is a focused 20year effort to rebuild the local economy from the ground up, using local resources. It turned around the migration pattern. It created more vibrant communities. It defied all of the expert predictions about continued rural decline. It is possible. There are examples where its possible. It takes some flexible resource, driven by a local vision of the path forward to make it happen. But it is very doable. I have a point there too. Sure. The really important thing here as far as im concerned as an entrepreneur is to provide the opportunity for people to stay in their communities. So many times people have to move and leave the communities behind. And you see erosion of the tax base, erosion of the infrastructure, all of those disastrous things start to happen. So by creating opportunities on the market side the way i see things and bringing work to the people, keeping them in their communities, that you not only stabilize their families, but you start to stabilize those communities as well. So if you can find a way to stop the exit of people from these communities, then i think youve gone a long way of rebuilding Rural America. Nils . When we got started in 1996, the goal was to create jobs and create enough opportunities that kids come back to the schools. And that is happening. In 20 years after the mill shut down, for the first time in 20 years, and ive been on the school board for 12, the School Population is growing in the county. And its a real point of pride and excitement within our community. And our community is, there is so much Natural Resource wealth. And as i said before, so much ingenuity and human capital. And people want to work. They dont want a maintenance dose of federal funding and support. They want to work and theres tremendous opportunities beyond. Were working with farmers and ranchers across the county, developing microhydro systems and irrigation efficiency programs to create efficiencies in water use and energy use, that improve onfarm incomes and farm values. Were working with contractors in the woods to look at different systems of running their business and diversifying their business. So theyre no longer harvesters but stewardship contractors that are doing a full sweep of watershed restoration work in addition to the t timber harvest work. And thats what were trying to build is a stewardship economy. One that is rebuilding soil, rebuilding Forest Health while still creating some of the products that society needs. Whether thats food, fiber or energy. Bernie . And i also see people attracted to a place of areas that have a sense of place. Areas that are clearly you hear the diversity right here. Where a community has a sense of place and a sense of identity, and celebrates that, and then has the ability to attract the resources to grow that in such a way that you can understand the value of that sense of place. Theyre attracted to that area and thereby you can attract folk that align with that sense of place and bring their resources and their talents to that area. So the kinds of tools that we use, whether its federal resources or state resources are all aligned to do that, is to help strengthen that sense of place and grow it so others will be attracted to it as well. Im going to tell you guys a dirty little secret. From the urban side of the divide, its taken as an article of faith that because of the way our politics are structured, rural areas have disproportionate pull in the national dialogue. If you look at the United States senate there is the state of california with 40 Million People and the 17 nearest states have 41 Million People, and, of course, 17 times as many United States senators. How come politics and the way state legislatures and the National Legislatures are structured havent been able to champion some of the interests that we have heard discussed in this conversation so far . Yeah. I think the checks and balances that are built into our political system. So on the one hand you might think that with a majority of americas population being urban, that majority of the power would be there. And certainly if you look at the house of representatives, thats the case. If you turn that around and look at the senate, the idea was to in having that senate that was based on states versus based on population was to avoid what i believe was talked about in the federalist papers as a tyranny of the majority. So on the one hand, you have geography being the defining factor for power. On the other hand, population, the balance between the two should lead to more balance in american affairs. And generally it probably is the reason that much of Rural America hasnt been abandoned altogether. How come we have held on to so many counties in america that have been depopulating, that are adjacent to depopulating counties, where they might very profitably combine their sheriff departments, court systems, county jails, school systems, and yet they hang on as revenue centers, as centers of employment. Might you guys be helping your own cause with a rationalization of rural government across the country . Well, a lot of these counties have were developed for political reasons, and i know in South Carolina they have such a strong sense of identity that they dont do not want to lose that sense of identity. Now, what we have attempted to do in South Carolina is operate on a more regional approach where counties are working together. But those lines and those jurisdictions still exist. And, yes, you still have to have more than one fire department, more than one sheriffs department. But there are there are the beginning of economies of scale, where theyre beginning to collaborate more. A lot of it is youre touching the third rail, thats about who i am, and if you want a subsidy, i think we got to touch the third rail. Another point to that too, we do work on a regional basis from my seat. And from what we do. It is not just a county effort here. And we dont really have the time, nor do we have the interest. I personally dont have the interest in fighting political battles to get the economics done in our area. So for that reason, we go straight to the core of the problem, we look at ways to solve it, on a regional scale, and actually the things that were doing, the model that we have built and the hub and spoke system actually is transparent and transferrable. Ive talked to people at the federal level about taking this idea to the rest of appalachia and other Craft Industries like clay, like glass and leather and fabrics. I think it is starting to happen in North Carolina now in the fabric industry as i understand it. So this is not a county by county effort. It is a regional effort and it is a huge, wide swath of the region, were talking about 13 states here in america. And frankly, ray, i dont know a rural county in america that does it all on its own. Almost every rural county is collaborating with a nearby county. Almost every rural city is collaborating with nearby rural cities in order to make in order to bring the services that they need in order to get things done. Can we get can or should we get rid of those old political units that were based on how far our wagon can travel in one day . Im not able to fight that battle. That said, when we work on Economic Development in eastern ohio, i critically need Global Partners that understand the geography, understand the entrepreneurs, understand the Building Sites, can work on getting the infrastructure in place. That said, if youre in a town of 500 people or 5,000 people in appalachian, ohio, you cant effectively market that place to, say, a business in the Wood Products industry in the European Union that is looking at a location closer to their source of hard wood supplies to operate. So we work on a hub and spoke basis, even in Economic Development to get the job done. It is not like were sitting there in our castles and barring the doors. were already collaborating and innovating. Had we been able to do that on every level, is every unit of government in Rural America rational, no, but i would say the same thing about every metropolitan area in america. Im sure youve been thinking of your brief, direct and elegantly crafted questions. And we will move on to questions from the audience now. And your hand shot up right away, secretary. Former kansas senator and secretary of agriculture, dan glickman. Well, thank you. It is a great panel and the entrepreneurship and spirit of local development is just amazing. And i would just one comment and then a couple of questions. The comment is is that one of the problems that happened with Rural America is largely Rural America and policy affecting Rural America up until 1950 was strictly agricultural, and maybe until 1960. And the bulk of that agriculture was the commodity crops, wheat, corn, cotton, rice and soybeans. Timber was a little bit different, but it was viewed as a crop. And agriculture has changed so dramatically and depopulated because of production increases and productivity and other kinds of things that were left with a deep populated area, but the programs were designed for an area populated by farmers. And now it is just much different than it used to be. Thats the challenge, ray, as to making these political decisions. But were probably not going to change the constitution in the short term. So maybe president might want to change it, but the rest of us probably dont want to change it. But i would ask you how much you talked about the Forest Service, state tax credits, the federal government pumps a huge amount of money into Rural America. Its not in fact, one could argue its almost disproportionate through water and sewer grants, business and industry loans and infrastructure. It is very, very significant the amount of dollars that comes in. Some goes directly to the states. Some administered by the usda. Most of it is usda. A little bit sba. Most usda in this regard. Does it work . Does it help you do what you want to do . Does it need to be spent in a different way . There are billions and billions of dollars every year flowing into Rural America from uncle sam. Is it being spent the right way . Does it help you . The short answer to all of that is yes. In some ways the federal dollars do work, they do help. As i said earlier, sometimes we need it directed in a more strategic way. And it needs to be directed with more voice from the local community. And you may say that exists, but we really need to have that push down even further. It also needs to be more accessible. Directly to organizations that are closer to the ground. You might say local government is that entity. A lot of times local government in some of the Rural Communities and our small towns dont have the capacity to access those dollars. So that requires either some Capacity Building or structuring the dollars in such a way that local community, that local town can access them and really put them to work. So yes, we have many programs that are working very well. We still have some ways in which we need to structure federal programs so that they can go directly into the local community, utilize vital local municipal governments, nonprofits, hospitals and so forth. Thats going to be a more efficient and effective way of mobilizing local assets and capacities. I can only speak to the sector that im in, and as nils mentioned earlier, the disproportionate amount of money that is being spent on fighting fires. It absolutely dwarfs the amount of money were putting into restoration that can mitigate some of that. And being a business that is in the business of that, we are continually frustrated by seeing dollars flowing to stop fire or fight fires when were on the ground trying to actually stop them and create Forest Health. I think one of the things we see with a lot of programs, and i know the reasoning why, but sometimes we try to get big curealls. We want to have huge impacts. Lets focus on one big thing that gets big impact. I see it in our industry, i was talking earlier about biomass ethanol, for example. We want to fix the forest in one fell swoop. Lets invest tens of millions of dollars in research, on one thing we think can fix it all. We are seeing small disbursed solutions that are working, that in the 15 years we are spending trying to find the one big thing, we could be doing many disperse things that actually are making big impacts. Yes, good afternoon. My name is jose from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program. Im the southeast manager. First, let me congratulate the Aspen Institute and panelists for having a great conference without power point. It is very refreshing. Moving along, i got a question actually for dave schmidt. Im very interested in the you probably answered now, but im very interested in the billion ton initiative by d. O. E. And usda. And since you know biomass, thats a phrase i use, you already talked about the ethanols and all those, i imagine you have looked at it for the next steps since you have already handled it. What are challenges that you see right now to move to the next level . Because im looking into that for the southeast, thinking, you know, we know biomass in the southeast. What will need to happen to be able to start looking into that new Economic Development . Yeah. Eastern oregon is about it is about little bit over 50 of the area is federal land, but over 70 of the forest falls within our National Forest. And the capacity has declined substantially over the last 20 years to manage that. And in Wallowa County alone, there is about 112,000 acres that broad Scientific Consensus says is in need of restoration and were accomplishing about 1500 acres a year. And that has impacted everything that david and i have done because some of the solutions that look good on paper when youre just crunching numbers become incredibly difficult to realize when you think about the uncertainty of the feed stock supply, the availability of supply coming off the federal land. So trying to figure out a way to achieve more consistency and continuity in the pace and scale of restoration on federal land, trying to get the country to accept that this is important work, that it is important to the health of the National Forest, and to reinvestment and all the other things that the National Forest does for the public, but it adds that extra benefit for our communities of jobs and income. That is a key constraint to us. The other thing is just because we operate in, you know, Wallowa County has 2. 2 people per square mile. We operated in a very dispersed geography with very long haul distances and steep mountainous and canyon terrain. So the cost to get fuel to a site often exceeds some of these big scale solutions. David mentioned that we looked at five and ten megawatt plants, power plants. And we could have easily fed that. That was within the scale of our feed stock, but they needed fuel to come in at 8 a green ton. At that time, we would not be able to deliver it for less than 25. Right. So those challenge some of the bigger ideas. Using the ruralinnovation, some questions have been coming in and janet has those. Okay. So lets start with this one. How do the rural innovators here think about job quality as part of the Economic Development efforts . Job quality. Great question. Great question. Yeah. John . Well, so, job quality is absolutely critical and we focus on that every day in our work. Most of the tools that we use to help encourage development wont, for instance, invest in anything that creates a job at less than 1. 5 times federal minimum wage. That said thats still a relatively low level. But that said, in my experience, until you begin to soak up your labor surpluses, your job quality will not go up. So once you get to the point where youre approaching 5 unemployment, then you start to see economic pressure to increase the quality of jobs. So it is a bit of a yin and a yang. A company is not going to pay more than the prevailing wage for labor with a particular set of skills in an area. So until you can get your until you get enough volume going to bring that Unemployment Rate down to a point where your workforce begins to be competitive, your wages arent going to go up. Thats roughly 22,000 a year for a full time employment . Right. Can you live on that in eastern ohio . So if you have two people in the family working full time, that will bring you above the federal poverty threshold for a family of four. Not the greatest living, but frankly the cost of living in rural areas is substantially lower 82 the national average. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is a twopart situation. Number one, i would say that investing in our education and in our Entrepreneurial Development in our Rural Communities is a big part of it. Because weve talked about the brain drain. Weve talked about people having to move to urban centers because there is no jobs for them, right . So a lot of people have left. So we need to reinvest in that to get people to be able to stay. And that is the other part of it is we have a lot of people that want to stay. Were in communities where people want to stay there. We have a lot of employees that are excited about the jobs we have because theyre in the sector they want to. They want to be working in the Forest Industry. They want to be able to be outside. They want to be working in that. So being able to create opportunities for them to stay is really important and so investing in that education, but also investing in some quality of jobs, a lot of it is lifestyle too and were creating opportunities for people to work in sectors that they want to be in. And lots of people who want to move back. When we manage to develop a good paying job in our region and the company is worried theyre not going to find somebody with a technical skill set or professional skill set, there are almost always people from that area who left for opportunity with that skill set that are willing to come back. I think one of the other issues too, ray, rather than throw money at the problem, at the issues, that i see going on all the time from the federal and the state level, i think it would behoove us all to think about what can we do at our local level to make a difference. And sometimes a small pebble can make a lot of waves in a pond. And in our case, we have if we would have listened to the outside world, where im from, we would never have tried even even attempted to create a creative business. Those are in atlanta, in new york city, those are everywhere but morgan county, ohio or other small counties like ours. But weve proven the point that our people are creative. We have to reach in the woods to find them and attract them to our business. But what we have done that we dont need any government help with is we have we have taken away the ceiling on the earnings. So talk about the quality of your job, when you go and do what you want to do, and are paid to your potential, that is a quality that isnt often found and thats what we have been able to do in our rural community. We have we offer even our hourly people in our Creative Office a Profit Sharing bonus. So they share they become part of the organization. I think these are the kinds of efforts, grassroot, and are very simple and they dont need a lot of money thrown at them. It takes leadership and it takes entrepreneurship to make this work. Who is next . Over here. Now its on. Hi. Im rene bryce la porte. Hello, john. Interested to hear from you guys for the jobs that new jobs being created, what kind of educational preparation do folks need to be able to successfully work those jobs . I would like to address that for one second. Educational level, thats thats kind of a soft area here. What is really going on in america is the lack of a work ethic, regardless of your education, and we have lost that somewhere along the line at the family level, at the community level, i dont know at what level. But we found and what we have done in ohio, we have concentrated on working with the amish and Mennonite Community where the work ethic is part of their way of life. And john has helped us create an Educational Program with Washington State college in marietta to do training for people. And our idea here is to take the work ethic element and make it transferrable to the english workforce if possible. We dont know that yet. It is still an experiment. But i think these are the kinds of innovative things at the local level that we can do to make a huge difference and make the pebble make bigger waves. Just a point of clarification, the english are what the amish call the rest of us. I would say that part of it goes back to back to jobs that people enjoy doing. And finding tapping into the things that people like and our Rural Communities, a lot of people are there for a reason. So for us working in Natural Resource, people are there because they want to do that. Jessie is here and she spends a lot of time with our employees. Sometimes i want to be, like, jessie, dont encourage them because we like to keep our good employees. We spend a lot of time with them finding out what do you want to do . What do you want to go to college for . A lot of times in our Rural Communities, kids dont know when they want to do when they get out of school. They need to spend some time figuring out what drives them, what theyre passionate about and identifying that and being able to invest in that. Investing in Workforce Development is an important part for our process. So we do lean manufacturing training and other things to try to find that thing that inspires people to say this is a direction i want to go. I think thats an important piece. And it is also difference between not difference, but education and training. You have education and oftentimes persons think immediately that thats college or a graduate degree. But its really training. One of the programs we operate is called the individual development account, ida program where individuals can say to acquire an asset, one of the assets is an education. Thats a match savings program. Most of the that go through well, most of the individuals that go through that program for education, theyre going for training. Now some of that is for professional training in barbering, beautician, welding. You have education and you have training and i think its also making training and education accessible to persons because not everyone is aligned to go to college or be in that environment, so as we create training opportunities that are closer to the community, grounded in the community that aligns with the values and passion of the people there, i think we wont have an issue where persons cannot find work because theyre not skilled. I think that also feeds to the work ethic because most persons that we may think of loss worth ethic is just because they have not been exposed to what the opportunities are. First of all we try to affirm them that they have something within them that can produce for themselves, their family and the Greater Community and then work with them to find what that is, and then provide the tools. At the outset you told us that the unemployment in your county was twice the level that it is in the state. To sop up some of that excess labor, where would you train your fire as far as the amount of education, the amount of training you need for these jobs . And once people have some experience and some skills, are there ladders that allow them to stay in the area, more skilled better paid work that they can move to overtime . Some of what is happening in Allendale County is helping persons to understand what resources are there and what potential entrepreneurial opportunities are there and how they can position themselves to be a participant in that environment. And then bringing the Training Resources to them so that they can transition from the unemployment roles to the employment roles. It takes some time, because my state is aligned very strongly on what we call smoke stack chasing. A lot of the Economic Development agenda is focused on that. Were trying to right side that a little bit so theyll also invest more in Entrepreneurial Development, Place Based Development so that in those counties thats not going to be able to attract a boeing plane manufacturer, they can generate alternative industry and from that attract a manufacturer that aligns with the Natural Resources that are there. Next . In case theres this is sort of a segue question. How are you reaching out to youths, to cultivate a future generation willing to work and live in rural . You began to answer that, is there anything else the rest of you are doing . Well, our resource has been running a research and Education Program with broad outreach both within the k 12 programs because most of the schools in Eastern Oregon are on a four Day School Week so we started offering programs on fridays. And create a variety of internships as well. I think this idea of continual Workforce Development and training is the more important one. Wallowa county has the highest rate of selfemployment in the state of oregon and people there are used to trying to create something on their own. One of the things you hear over and over again is that the Younger Generation has less direct experience than preceding one that grew up on a farm or grew up with a family that was working in the woods and using these as key tools to work and trying to figure out how we create those opportunities again so theres ability to use both your head but to use your hands and figure out the best way to do to build a trail, to build a fence, to skid a tree, whatever it is that were losing some of that and we want to create more opportunities for kids to do that. So some of the older generation were actually talking about on the largest abandoned mill site beginning to create applied Training Area for kids to get more involved in that and also talking with the vets, the returning vets to be involved in some of this work that could immediately go back to work doing a whole range of things on the National Forest system starting with simple things like rebuilding trails to doing some of the thinning work that we talked about earlier. And in our case with the Certification Training Program that john has worked on with our local community college, the idea here is to have a Board Certified at the state Level Program that can articulate so weve created an 18 hour curriculum for job training and skill training that will articulate, if the student wants to go to for an Associates Degree or beyond that, thats one path. Thats an option for them. If they want to go into the workforce, theyre now prepared to do that and were creating resources for the in manufacturing for those jobs to be opened for them when they do come through the school. And were supporting that we created a base in our community that we can support scholarships and support the educational cost for those students. So theres no reason that our kids in our area have to be on the streets. This is the best antidrug campaign that i can ever think of here that will get them in school, get them trained or get them on for further education. And not abandon them at that point. So one of our initiatives which has been extremely successful is something we call upscale which works with employers to identify people at those lower tiers in their companies who can do better, who are great employees but they dont have the next skill to advance, with the department of labor Training Grant we were able for an average of 600 per person help that individual move up into that next skill which allowed them to be promoted, which also opened their position for a new entry level person. We managed to train, place and place more people with that model than the other ten make it in America Workforce grants combined that were focusing on preemployment training. Its a very Cost Effective way to meet your skill needs and keep your workforce moving up. [ inaudible ] no. One of the metrics that big city mayors throw at each other when they talk about vitality and job growth and healthy economies is how many immigrants come to my metropolitan area and if you look at the smsas with the least immigrant inflow they tend to be some of the least healthy metropolitan areas in the country. Are rural areas in america just out of this conversation, not even in it, when a tremendous share of the people who come to america from other parts of the world are rural people. Well, i have one story but it encapsulates at least experience in South Carolina. We recently saw in a new u. S. Secretary to the u. N. , nikki haley whose former governor of South Carolina, who of course is born in South Carolina but her parents were immigrants from india. They moved to a rural area of South Carolina and they started an enterprise there, so rural areas is rich for immigrants that have been able to create an opportunity for themselves, a life for themselves and enable to grow and prosper from there so thats one story that shows the opportunity that exists but you can ag gras gate that up with numbers as well. There are many parts of Rural America where there is population growth going on. In the great plains there are many communities. You can go to communities in rural nebraska that are growing again because immigrants moving into the community. You can go into Rural Communities in the southwest that are growing and thriving and doing better because of immigrants coming up through the americas. The immigration issue and the immigration opportunity hasnt bypassed Rural America. Its as much a part of it s as it is urban narrative its just not told as often. I think we have time for one more question. We have a lot coming in. I had him in the queue. We have a lot coming in we wont have time for. My names dan neff. I work here in washington. I work with mike way back when in ohio in the 90s. My question is really simple and youve opened it to some degree, we just completed a very contentious election cycle and we have a new administration and Rural America was very much behind the new president and what he proposes to do. If you had access to his twitter account and you knew he was going to look at what you were going to say, what recommendations would you make to this administration as to what they could do to better help Rural America and to deal with issues and problems perhaps in more whole lististic matter. He does go on every day so he would see it. Again, sitting in far Eastern Oregon we are desperately hoping that the thoughts about infrastructure go beyond traditional infrastructure of roads, bridges, highways, schools and think about Natural Resource capital and the infrastructure that exists across our national our public lands in general that has a deferred maintenance account that exceeds 20 billion and a tremendous amount of opportunity to put people back to work restoring that infrastructure and that asset that has long served the public. So thats a key piece. The second thing would be to just make sure as david was getting to before that were not looking for just nice big splashy investments that get you headlines but were thinking about how do you package the programs that are the right size and scale with the right flexibility for small Rural Communities across the country. This may go counter to some of the narrative that were hearing out there but for one thing i would really like to see our administration understand the impact of uncertainty on opportunities related to International Trade and the impact thats that having in rural areas. I have 40 International Companies that are actively considering a possibility of making an investment. It would create jobs in our region. All of them have been on hold since the election because they dont understand the impact of the election on the operating environment. I would urge our administration and congress to make it clear that Foreign Countries that want to create jobs in america are welcome here and that the trade barriers that might prevent them from having successful Business Operation in america arent going to get in the way. I would encourage him or help to inform him that Rural Americas very diverse. That there are a variety of groups, ethnic groups and others that live in Rural America that really help to shape who Rural America is and so with that diversity lies many opportunities and so to think about the diversity and help inform him of the diversity of Rural America and help how those Cultural Assets can play a role in promoting Economic Opportunity in our Rural Communities. I would like to ask the president to not pay so much attention to wall street and main street, but pay more attention to the country roads. Thats where the jobs are being created on the entrepreneurial level, and 70 of new employees in this country are hired by entrepreneurs. I think it would behoof the president to take a look at that and see how he can support less regulation, more support for Small Businesses in america. And i would add one last thing, is that, it might be counter intuitive but i think theres large parts of Rural America that are starting to partake in a stewardship economy and want to have a stewardship economy, actually care about the land that they live on. Its a little bit counter intuitive that we are against regulation and Climate Change and so on when really not all Rural America wants to be in an extraction economy. Theres a lot of Rural America that really would like to be a part of a ste ward economy. Good point. Im told that he watches a lot more cnn than cspan3. But just in case hes watching thats a good set of messages to end on. One of the most important jobs of moderator is to get off on time and we just did that. Thank you very much. [ applause ] i want to thank all of our panelists and youre welcome to chat with them afterwards as you wish. I saw more hands up i know theres some detailed questions that some of you have. Just two things i want to remind you that we are actually very actively interested in collecting more stories of rural innovations so if you have any of those, please do either share them with us via a link twitter at rural innovators or you can visit us. Finally i want to thank you all for being here. Those virtually in the live stream cspan3 as well as in the room and invite you all back to our front porch for the next segment of americas rural opportunity which will be on march 17th here and were going to be focusing on entrepreneurship in Rural America. Thank you very much. [ applause ] Supreme Court Neil Gorsuchs confirmation hearings begin march 20th and are expected to last three or four days. Committee members will question him on march 21st. Watch live coverage and we will reair our coverage in primetime. In case you missed it, here are some clips of c spans programming last week. Nancy pelosi at the San Francisco health care forum. Were for the Affordable Care act. We want to see them come up with something that does not diminish what our goals were in the Affordable Care act. Those goals were to expand coverage to as many people as possible in our country, to improve benefits for everyone and to lower the cost. Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway at cpac. Theres an individual feminism if you will that you make your own choices. Mercedes, i look at myself as a product of my choices not a victim of my circumstances and thats really to me what conservative feminism if you will is all about. While in mexico, homeland john kelly spoke about deporitations. All deporitations will be according to our legal justice system, which is extensive and includes multiple appeals. The focus of deportations were beyond the criminal element that have made it into the United States. All of this will be done as it always is in close coordination with the government of mexico. Supreme Court Justice rouge gator beginsburg. I never saw a woman in a sim fa any ork stra. Someone came up with the idea of people who are listening and the judges. It worked like magic. Almost over night, women were making their way into symphony ork ca stras. It isnt that easy. I had one real and one fictitious role model. The real one was amelia air hart and the fictitious one was nancy drew. And from the british house of commons debate on President Trumps visit to england later this year. The day after inauguration 2 million women marched on the streets of america, a 100,000 marched here in this country and it was an expression of fear and anxiety that we had someone in the white house wielding thi