According to the Michigan Roadmap to Rural Prosperity, a 71-page report that details challenges that rural communities across Michigan face, the biggest challenges facing the rural community over the next 10 years are: increasing housing opportunities, attracting a larger working-age population, changes to the cost of living, managing population growth and development, and retaining workforce. 

Three Rivers Public Library Director Bobbi Schoon returns to Keep Your Voice Down to discuss the library’s involvement with the Smithsonian’s Spark! Places of Innovation program. Spark! explores the unique combination of places, people, and circumstances that sparks innovation and invention in rural communities. The Three Rivers Library will be hosting its very own exhibit alongside a traveling Smithsonian exhibit that will make its way to the library this summer.

Alek, Doug, and Bobbi also discuss Women’s History Month, National Reading Month, and the myriad of ways citizens of Three Rivers can engage with the library.

For decades, scientists have studied the effects that livestock farms with large animal concentrations in Iowa and other states have on regional water quality, as increasing amounts of waste flow into rivers and groundwater. Now activists and some lawmakers say emergency measures are needed to stop toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay, and threats to drinking water in rural communities. In some states, lawmakers worry about the future of smaller family farms.