Rural West 2026: Culture, Community, and the Rural Ties That Bind

On March 24, 2026, the 12th Annual Rural West Conference convened in Bozeman, Montana, delivering a day-long event titled “Beyond the Range: Exploring Rural Horizons in Montana and the Intermountain West.” Scholars, practitioners, policymakers and storytellers came together in conversation to examine how rural regions are responding to changing political conditions, the necessity of environmental stewardship, and questions about what it means to responsibly inherit and belong to a community. The conference was co-hosted by Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West and Montana State University’s Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands & Peoples of the North American West.

Across opening remarks, two morning panels, a keynote, and an afternoon session, a consistent theme emerged: the lives of rural Westerners are being shaped less by singular policy solutions than by the interplay of culture, relationships, and the environment. In the words of historian Daniel Grant, head of the Ivan Doig Center, “Building community, building connections” can be seen as a “radical political act.” Other speakers echoed this sentiment, expressing lived-out convictions that strengthening social ties may bring about more meaningful change than conventional policy approaches alone.

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Opening Remarks: Framing a Regional Conversation

Zephyr Frank, director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West, along with Daniel Grant, opened the conference by emphasizing the importance of convening across institutional and geographic boundaries. When the Bill Lane Center launched the Rural West Initiative in 2009 with generous support from the Spencer F. and Cleone P. Eccles Foundation, the goal was to lend deep attention to rural communities across the North American West, which often get less consideration than they deserve. The Rural West Conference series, now in its 12th year, continues to rotate across the region, expanding a network committed to prioritizing rural challenges through collaborative, interdisciplinary engagement.

The rural West is and always has been a diverse meeting ground, a space of mixing and intermingling, of multiple peoples and cultures and landscapes and economies coming together with sometimes surprising and counterintuitive consequences. -Daniel Grant

In welcoming remarks, Frank and Grant framed Montana not just as a host, but as a case study — one where political and cultural complexity, along with environmental pressures — are especially visible and instructive. Grant suggested that Montana’s layered history and identity offer a way to understand the broader dynamics of the rural West as a whole. “The rural West is and always has been a diverse meeting ground, a space of mixing and intermingling, of multiple peoples and cultures and landscapes and economies coming together with sometimes surprising and counterintuitive consequences,” he said. “The issues we’re discussing today are legacies of Western pasts that are anything but singular and anything but linear.” Like Montana — with its stark inequalities and what one observer has called “political schizophrenia”— the rural West is defined less by coherence than by tension, competing interests, and ongoing change.

To delve into these layers, the first panel took the stage for a discussion on the state’s shifting rural politics.

Panel I: Shifting Rural Politics in Montana

The opening panel examined Montana’s evolving political landscape, highlighting the state’s historical Democratic roots and more recent shift toward Republican control. While acknowledging that rural politics can often be driven by fear, intolerance and anger, panelists nonetheless emphasized the importance of remaining open-minded and working across party lines in the service of healthy, functional rural communities.

Jon Bennion of The Washington Companies was first to speak, offering an overview of the political history of Montana. He traced a transition from post–New Deal Democratic strength to increasing Republican dominance in the 21st century, yet he cautioned against simplistic “red state” labels.

"Around 2000 is when the American obsession with politics began," said Bennion, who is the author of “Big Sky Politics: Campaigns and Elections in Modern Montana.” "It's around that time we started talking in terms of 'red states' and 'blue states.' Montana was seen as a red state because we preferred Republican candidates at the time, but that’s an oversimplification of Montana.” Montana currently has a split Senate delegation, which is rare in the age of political polarization. With its two U.S. Senators representing different political parties, it is one of the relatively few states with divided representation. As Bennion suggested, Montana remains politically competitive and independent-minded, even though it leans Republican in federal elections overall.

Bennion handed off to Zach Brown, the Gallatin County commissioner (2020–present) and a former three-term Montana state legislator (2014–2020). Importantly, Brown framed himself as more of an urban Montanan, but with deep engagement in rural communities.

A Democrat, Brown’s position was clear: though Democrats are struggling in rural Montana, a relational approach is far more effective than partisan entrenchment. Politics shift when people choose relationship-building and local, practical community action over nationalized, partisan positions, he argued, urging the audience to “show up,” appreciate each other's differences, and demonstrate curiosity about them rather than intolerance. In the face of divisive polarization, community-based leadership — such as grassroots investment groups and local organizing — offers a pathway to renewed civic participation, he argued.

How do we make rural politics more hopeful and abundant? By showing up and leaning into differences — by being hopeful and curious about differences, rather than repulsed by them. -Zach Brown

Brown concluded by reiterating the need for an approach to rural politics that privileges curiosity and relationships, which he sees as an inspiring alternative to the tendency to try and make others around us think, act or vote in comfortable, familiar ways: “Each of us is more unique and complex than any labels that others may ascribe,” he reminded the audience, imploring them to treat themselves and others with the curiosity everyone deserves. “This might be the medicine we all need to improve rural Montana…The future of our families, communities, government systems and the civic threads that hold this nation together depend on such courageous and intentional curiosity.”  

Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, an attorney and founder of the Montana-based nonprofit Upper Seven Law, shared key lessons from Montana’s constitutional history that helped frame the broader discussion. Montana’s 1972 Constitution — drafted in response to corruption enabled under the state’s 1889 constitution, including the well-known case of William Clark buying a U.S. Senate seat — remains a central framework for voter protections and democratic engagement today. Despite the state’s shifting red and blue politics, the constitution continues to serve as a widely valued, unifying document, Sommers-Flanagan noted – so much so, that she developed “The Montana Constitution Roadshow,” a traveling, civic education effort to highlight the value and distinctiveness of the 1972 document. It reflects a tradition of community-based, relational decision-making and offers a model for how diverse groups can come together to make durable decisions beyond partisan divides.

From a legislative perspective, Montana State Senator Cora Neumann underscored the continued importance of Montana’s citizen legislature culture, where personal relationships and constituent-first representation still enable positive policy outcomes.

"Montana politics has been nationalized," Neumann said. "We were once considered a purple state and now we’re considered deep red on a federal level." And yet, Neumann emphasized, Montanans do think and vote independently, and they still know how to work together. She expressed great pride in overcoming the influence of the nationalized Freedom Caucus in the state legislature by forming bipartisan coalitions that passed key bills like Medicaid expansion and increases in teacher salaries.

Though the presenters spoke from different backgrounds and perspectives, a common theme emerged that infused the panel with an optimism not usually felt in the current political climate: rural resilience in Montana depends less on partisan alignment and more on sustained local relationships and community-grounded decision-making.

Panel II: Perspectives on Environmental Stewardship

The second morning panel shifted to environmental stewardship, exploring how rural communities balance ecological integrity, economic necessity, and deep-seated cultural values.

Economist Terry L. Anderson, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and professor emeritus at Montana State, spent much of his career focused on “free market environmentalism.” In his remarks, Anderson framed environmental conflict as fundamentally cultural, arguing that land-use debates — from wildlife management to conservation — reflect competing values as much as economic incentives. Enduring stewardship, Anderson argued, requires the integration of local cultural values and free market mechanisms.

In contrast to Anderson’s faith in markets, Julia Haggerty, professor of geography and head of the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State, argued that some problems – particularly those related to environmental justice and infrastructure – require direct public investment and deeper relationship-building; relying on markets, Haggerty believes, can leave vulnerable communities behind.

When it comes to achieving justice, Haggerty advocated for meeting communities right where they are to build capacity for environmental, energy, and climate solutions. She spoke with great pride about her work forming the Mountains and Plains Thriving Communities Collaborative at Montana State, a now-defunct EPA-funded Technical Assistance Center that served six Western states and 28 Tribal Nations. The center helped under-resourced rural and tribal communities access funding to build safe and healthy environments and more economic prosperity.

Private land conservation, suggested the third panelist, Isaac Nehring, may be another critical strategy for ensuring the health and wellbeing of rural Western landscapes. A Stanford senior and Bill Lane Center student ambassador, Nehring painted an idyllic picture of his childhood in Helena, where he grew up “hiking, floating, and camping on public lands.” With a palpable love for Montana driving his presentation, Nehring focused on the need to preserve land that has been fragmented by historical land grants and development pressures. The success of such preservation depends on fostering multi-generational relationships and community engagement, Nehring argued.

A point of convergence for the three presentations might be the need for integrating culture, economy, and ecology, rather than treating them as separate entities. Effective environmental stewardship in Montana requires centering local culture and relationships. Rapid, larger-scale approaches fail because they ignore community agency and the real, human dimensions that make conservation and sustainable environmental governance actually work in the rural West.

Keynote: Ethical Questions at the Center of Rural Futures

“What does it mean to belong to a place? What does it mean to inherit one? What does it mean to join one responsibly?” These were some questions posed by Justin Farrell, professor of sociology at the Yale School for the Environment, in his keynote address on civic culture and community resilience in the rural West. And rather than focus on new programs or policies that might solve some of the many problems facing rural communities today, Farrell impelled the audience to consider ethical questions instead. Why this turn to ethics? Farrell argued that culture is the primary lens through which rural communities experience change. “This conference is about political, economic, and environmental futures of the rural West,” he said. “And those things matter a great deal in policy, markets and ecology. But my claim is simple – it’s that moral culture and the culture that sort of bonds us together…a great deal flows from that, maybe more than we might realize or want to understand.”

What does it mean to belong to a place? What does it mean to inherit one? What does it mean to join one responsibly? -Justin Farrell

Farrell defined culture broadly — as the “moral world of a place." As the composite of shared values, norms, and narratives, culture always mediates economic and environmental pressures faced by communities, he argued. And communities with strong cultural cohesion are better equipped to manage conflict, adapt to change, and sustain civic life.

He pointed to challenges such as rapid wealth influx, housing pressures, and declining social trust, all of which can destabilize rural communities when cultural bonds are weak. At the same time, he highlighted education and place-based learning as tools for rebuilding shared understanding and civic engagement.

The keynote echoed some of the earlier panel discussions on the importance of integrating a community’s cultural foundations into policy and economic decisions. The success of rural futures depends on certain material forces, of course – but not on material forces alone, Farrell argued. Paying significant attention to “the stories that individuals and groups tell about who they are, what they value, what they reject, what a good life looks like,” etc., is foundational in ensuring rural resilience, not secondary. If we care about strengthening the rural West, we shouldn’t forget how much community-level culture really matters, he cautioned.

Panel III: Community Revitalization in the Intermountain West

The conference’s final panel turned toward the question of what it takes to revitalize rural communities and build promising futures for those living in the Intermountain West. The conversation brought together perspectives on Indigenous land stewardship, rural businesses, and storytelling, looking at how communities are managing challenges like land loss and economic strain while finding new ways to sustain local economies and culture.

Shane Doyle (Apsaalooké), a conservationist and advocate for Indigenous approaches to land management, opened with a focus on the uniqueness of rural Montana, and the deep connections between tribal communities and the landscapes they have long inhabited. His work on tribal bison restoration, he suggested, is not only about ecological repair but also about cultural renewal — an effort to restore relationships among land, species, and community.

That connection to land — and the consequences of its loss — carried into remarks from Andrew Huff, senior policy and legal advisor to the Center for Indian Country Development. “Native peoples are deeply attached to their traditional territories,” he said. “Languages are based very frequently on the geographies where we live our traditions, our religions all come from our traditional lands.” Huff then pointed to the lasting impacts of dispossession, noting that the loss of land also meant the loss of the resources communities depended on “to build generations into the future.” At the same time, he highlighted signs of progress, including tribal enterprises, land reacquisition, and new financial tools that are supporting greater economic self-determination.

Questions of economic resilience also shaped the discussion of rural business models. Montana rancher Cole Mannix described his work with Old Salt Co-op, a producer-led company that seeks to align ecological stewardship with economic viability. The goal is to build “a resilient and regenerative food system” grounded in shared values and “old fashioned grit.” For Mannix, revitalizing rural economies begins with relationships close to home: “Figuring out what our neighbors need and navigating local relationships is kind of where it starts.”

If land and livelihoods formed one thread of the conversation, storytelling formed another. Megan Torgerson, a farmer’s daughter from rural Montana and founder of the podcast Reframing Rural, spoke about the power of narrative to reshape how rural places are understood. Her work aims “to cultivate curiosity and conversation across geographic, class and cultural divides,” offering a counterpoint to more familiar — and often incomplete — portrayals of rural life.

Throughout the panel, speakers returned to a common set of challenges, from farm succession and labor shortages to the scarcity of childcare and other basic services. These issues, they suggested, point to the importance of social infrastructure alongside economic investment. More broadly, the conversation underscored a recurring idea: that strengthening relationships —“building community, building connections” — may be one of the most consequential forms of rural development.

Looking ahead: An Ongoing Forum for Building Rural Resilience

During the day-long conference, conversations about the future of the rural West pointed to both the beauty and practicality of privileging human-centered innovation in rural life. Again and again, speakers pointed to the importance of relationships — between neighbors, across generations, and among groups that do not always see eye to eye — as the foundation for addressing economic, environmental, and political challenges.

The relational focus of the panels clearly resonated with the audience. As shared by Christy Wyckoff, a Bill Lane Center advisory council member and owner-operator of Redwing Ranch in Southern Colorado,  “The takeaway theme I lifted from the day was the importance of considering and supporting a community's culture and social bonds as we work to address the many challenges facing the rural west - a theme I will be more intentional in tying back to our own community work in rural Colorado!”

Additionally, informal breakout sessions for each panel allowed  attendees to broach their own questions. These more intimate settings surfaced deeper discussion of local governance in sparsely populated areas; tensions around land use; land succession planning; and much more. 

Overall, the day’s conversations, both formal and informal, reflected a region in the midst of change. In Montana, that change is visible in debates over governance and growth; in Native communities working to rebuild economic systems tied to land and sovereignty; and across the region, in new business models that aim to link environmental stewardship with economic viability. What connected these examples was a shared focus on working at the local level through cooperation, informal networks, and institutions that carry community knowledge forward.

Though such collaboration can be difficult, with a collective spirit and much intentionality, it does offer a practical path forward, one grounded less in abstract solutions than in place-based experience and shared responsibility.

As the Rural West Conference continues to grow and traverse the region each spring, the Lane Center has been watching its transformation from “singular event” to “ongoing forum” —  a continuous conversation where participants can test ideas, build relationships, and identify approaches that reflect the realities of life in the American West today. The hope is that the dialogue continues to sustain resilient rural Western communities for generations to come.