Rural System

Rural System's E-Book

Rural System? Just Dreaming …
A For-Profit Conglomerate for Meaningful Jobs
Healthful Communities
and Improved Natural Resource Management

by Robert H. Giles, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
2007

Chapter 10. The Groups by Sectors

Dreaming: … An oversized dream… oversized? … undersized … a dis-order … well-ordered … inter-ordered … sequenced … as around and around but down a helix … just to get up the helix a little … or out into its central space … vast…oversized. Just Dreaming …

The potential enterprises of Rural System, 100 of them, are organized by sectors with a brief comment about each. The total can be assumed to be a "cluster" or association. Details about each are available at www.Rural System.com and many are addressed in Chapters 18 -31 (see the list).

"Sectors" are similar to those well known for the market place. They might be, for example, mining, transportation, banking, or tourism. I have not analyzed the relevance of sectors to Rural System but it seems likely that a sector theme can be especially useful in areas with long history, conspicuous involvement, or new investments and immigration. Efforts to develop a static organization of topics have failed as quickly as have my office and Internet filing. Everything is overlapped; the degree of overlap and its importance seems to change daily. No sooner than I file an item on "trail building" with "trails" do I need to file it with "roads and access," then with "outdoor equipment," then "recreational development," then with "hiker and camper impacts on trails and camp grounds," then with "off road vehicles," then with "access to viewing points and GIS maps of viewscapes." I yearn for clear sectors but there are none. I sense being consoled by temporary sectors for all of the rural resource enterprises (called Groups) and key word searching capability.

I attempted organizing Groups too simply as "indoor (office-bound)" and "largely outdoor." Nature Folks, one proposed group, had many groups and some fit both categories. Further refinements and grouping helped some people, perplexed others. The need for presenting a few groups for describing the system remained. The Sectors, now used, still suffering the insinuations and slights seeming to arise from the major overlaps, are:

Q Works (or System Central) discussed in Chapter 11
Forestry Topics
Wildlife / Nature
Agriculture Topics
Sports and Recreation
Products and Communication
Land Force discussed in Chapter 14
Rural System Tracts discussed in Chapter 12
- Lands of Private Land Owners and Corporations
- National Forest, Park, and BLM Land
- Lands of the Commonwealth and Military Areas
- International Land Units

I'll discuss the small parts, the 100 proposed Groups, below, (they are all available in detail) but perhaps a few notes on several of the Sector categories will be helpful to some readers.

Ranging (Chapter 18) was once viewed as a Sector but it is an encompassing corporate and regional policy and activity that demanded a separate Group for continual innovation and promotion. It exemplifies the difficulties, lack of meaning, and inefficiencies and duplications in forming organizational units without budgets, control, and accountability. It is described in Chapter 18. Ranging is conceptually all-inclusive, but specifically it links tightly with the Groups of The Base, The Tours Group, Camps, and Novosports (described below and mentioned in several other chapters.

The Products and Communication Sector

There is a list of over 20 potential products that may be developed and the list grows. A fairly radical idea within Rural System is that of the land as a platform and thus anything that is generated or produced there, whether it comes from the soil, water, or the "creative juices" of owners and citizens … that is a product. Breaking the connotations of soil products or of small-crafts will be difficult. Poetry, fiction, biography, music, art, soil itself … all are products of a special type. Not only their content but their form and presentation should speak to the quality standards of the ranging region and of its Rural System.

Forestry, Agricultural, and Livestock Sector

The international literature of agro-silvo-pastoral activities is growing. I surprisingly did not include terrestrial fauna or fish and mollusks … or any of the other possible major products or activities of the typical unit called a "farm." The related potential benefits from ecotourism were separated. Thus, this sector is merely a not-very-specific grouping of the conventional cropland, livestock, and forestry components of the rural environment. It is the group of terrestrial "land" resources and the place where most of the other activities take place. It overlaps strongly with the large fishery, clearly agricultural, but an activity often classed as recreation.

The "fisher" is an animal (Martes pennanti), so that name bothers people who want to call people who fish "fishers." "Fisherman" fills the literature, and that word now seems sexists to some people, but "fisherwoman" seems strained. "Anglers" may work, but not for those who use nets and who seek other products from the same waters such as mollusks. "Fishery" has had as much trouble with coalescing words and meaning as fisher. Herein it is merely the heading under which things primarily aquatic are grouped. It includes watersheds, lakes, ponds and streams and of course their channels and watersheds. It includes interests in native fish and probably reptiles (e.g., alligators) and amphibians, rarely for the purposes of taking them. Boats are often used in fishing, and thus separating recreation, boating, boat sales, from the acts and equipment of angling seems excessively difficult and of importance only in teaching and within agency budget squabbles.

Forest agencies promote forestry. They produce literature about trees. They have a natural, appropriate bias. One definition of "forest" is simply "land for or with trees." Forests are much more than places for trees. There are mapable areas with trees, but with many other resources, economic potentials, and intrinsic values. Many landowners claim that pride of ownership, recreation, and other benefits are far more important than financial gains from tree sales. We do not need to debate whether wildlife (or other resources) is a product or by-product of timber harvesting, or whether timber harvests are a technique of land management to benefit wildlife. We prefer to think of both and simultaneously of how to get full production of needed valued resources cost effectively from production that is part of a comprehensive, total managed system. Our bias is not towards trees, but toward total system management for people over the long run.

Since before the emergence of the Land-Grant University concept and that of a cooperative Extension Service, there has been an emphasis in the university on teaching, research, and extension or some generalized concept of "outreach," application, service, and relevant use of knowledge. These has been viewed by many in different ways - simply as three fingers held up in speeches, three arrow-related corners of a triangle, and as a triangle balanced, teetering, on a point near the center of gravity among the three topics at the corners of the triangle.

New pressures from regions of education-quality, educational technology, energy-shortage risks, tax bases, student numbers, modes of publication, and a changing work force now have reshaped that image. It is hardly recognizable. Simple analogies and forms no longer are relevant.

Rural System, a "business ecosystem" could have many parts, ecological richness. I called the parts that are really subsystems, Groups. There are 99 of them suggested. Some may not be successful when working out of one franchise. Most were conceived as separate, somewhat independent small business units, but it was clear that competition existed and thus threatened failure. Each was seen as a good idea probably already tried but having failed. The unification of them all into a conglomerate corporation, bolstered by "centering" (Chapter 11), and by shared gains, common interests and enthusiasm, and new technology and knowledge, seemed to suggest at least modest success in terms of the system objective - providing employment, community stability, and an improving natural resource base. Behind the Groups there has been planned synergism, potentially among more than two Groups for each Group. A key difference from "the groups" and past "conservation efforts" was that of a group not working for or from the land but with the land and each other. All are "for profit" but some are primarily supportive of others.

The groups were listed (with little effort) within topics. Although several groups may be managed initially by one person, and they have different numbers of links and relations, each is a separate organizational entity. (Some may prove infeasible; some may not gain adequate size and may be combined with others.) The groups are listed here and many are elaborated in the following chapters, but in this chapter, only a brief comment about each is given. Remember that all are not newly or uniquely created and may be affiliate groups.

Sector 1. Q Works (An overview of Q Works has been provided within Chapter 11)

Ranging is a word for all dispersed outdoor recreation and related activities. It is a new form of soundly-based, diverse, regional tourism, eco-tourism, and sightseeing, combined with most forms of extensive outdoor recreation (hunting, fishing, archery, boating, swimming, hiking, biking, camping, climbing, birding); and outdoor projects, events, memberships, shows, contests (e.g., triathlons), and games. It is for residents as well as guests, some called "ecotourists."
Base is a marketing group, promoting all of the enterprises, a mini-chamber-of-commerce seeking memberships, affiliations, and attendance at conferences and other participation.
Insurance is an example of a few expert people handing the complexities of modern diverse recreation, land use, health and other insurance for the public and all members of all of the enterprises. Gaining efficiency is sought over services dispersed within each of the enterprises.
The Wealth Group assists land owners over the complexities of forest and land taxation, investment strategies, trust land decisions, and changing tax laws and regulations all affecting risks and annual decisions about planting, timber harvests, building improvements, adopting energy conservation measures, and providing funds for college tuition and inheritance estates…annually.
The Law and Justice Group offers and contracts a wide array of legal services for rural residents, ranging from land sales and trust arrangements to protecting clients from unknown laws and regulations and impact condition violations.
The Rural Knowledge Base has unique international library and data base connections that allow superior reports to be prepared on almost any rural topic. Results are useful in management, research papers, legal briefs, and in work with the Memorials Group and others that contract for books being developed on assigned topics.
Farm Urticles (an invented word) publishes electronically the incomplete article, the paper never quite finished, the excessively reviewed paper. It conserves the knowledge gained from millions of dollars spent on research and projects that for many reasons was never shared and brought into use.
Rural System Inns is a confederation of local dwellings, some "bed-and-breakfast," all maintained and operated to conserve energy, reduce the need for local investments for housing visitors, maintain the local character, and help the aging owners of rural places. Aided by the Land Force and closely related with the Gardens Group, the Inns provide dispersed housing for writers, conference goers, and business and school retreats.
The Realtor Group locates desirable sites for clients and helps owners sell lands and facilities to those with special interests. (See Chapter 25.) It provides exceptional information about land via The Trevey, increasing land value and the means for its improvement and development … or resale.
The Ebay Group is a drop-off spot for local people to sell their items. It provides services, makes images, and secures highest prices, reducing the needs for the expertise required for such processing. It expands with Ebay options. It offers an existing alternative to the price-based e-catalog of Rural System.
The Warehouse Group uses select, well-located lands that are unlikely to grow crops or provide other opportunities for storage (e.g., borrow pits, mines and quarries). The group benefits from GIS knowledge and from optimizing placement for those with produce (e.g., lumber, Alpha Earth) or items (e.g., vehicles) to be stored.
Youth and Adult Camps first work with existing camp owners, then supplement or expand activities for year-around activities and services. These include day or extended camping experiences for youths, special programs for the elderly, and in some areas, the Writers' Camps. These "camps" may be on university grounds, within or supported by Rural System Inns, or within the grounds and facilities of this group. A special facility, a language camp, Clachan, is part of the dream.
RuraLives captures the wisdom and experiences of rural people. For a modest fee people submit information about themselves or their departed family or friends. It seeks to value and conserve the lives of people, especially their rules-of-thumb, special or unique observations, grounds for success, and words for their grandchildren. Not an obituary entry, the enterprise allows expanded notes to be saved about people and includes search capabilities for key words.
The Memorials Group offers special places for the placement of cremation remains, places of beauty and solitude and for reflection. It offers RuraLives but also access to lasting memorials in books dedicated to loved ones. It offers special programs and projects for awards to retiring people of enterprises.
The Tours Group works with local tours, acquainting local people with their own areas and opportunities. It conducts statewide and national tours that are related to Nature Folks and a variety of natural resource topics. "Exchange" tour programs are offered with Rural System Groups developing in other countries. A variety of "life-list" building groups are formed and tours designed for them. It depends upon The Guides.
Rural System Guides is a group of bonded, insured guides and interpreters available to safely conduct individuals and groups to meet personal needs or group needs of all types within the rigion as related to Rural System objectives.
EarthQuilt (already at www.Earthquilt.com) provides advice and connections for failing communities and groups, helping with suggestions, information on past successes, opportunities for working ideas and help. It works with the Rural System Foundation.
The Safety and Security Group provides a variety of aids to Rural System Tract (described in Chapter 12) owners to protect them from fire, theft, vandalism, and trespass. It installs hardware, patrols, and conducts modern education.
The Health Group concentrates beyond the natural resource-based part to deal with the human health aspects of the system. We already approach human aspects as part of the system (socioeconomic, value systems, esthetic, recreation and ecotourism). People in the rural areas need to know about healthful gardens, diets, exercise, avoiding trauma and, if not how to gain emergency treatment. The link to the Safety Group in preventing accidents is clear. Rural people need to know about pesticides and their uses and the effects of toxicants in their lives. They need to know about pollutants and secondary effects of combinations of substances that may become toxic. They need to know the benefits and costs of organic gardening and livestock raising. They need to know how to keep fit now that medical science has allowed increased life expectancy. The Group works at these issues, creates a subsystem, and seeks assistance and cooperators.
The Rural System Foundation was often recommended in the early days of design of Rural System as "the way to go" rater than for-profit since it was so evidently interested in environmental topics, in conservation and improved land use and had a strong educational component as it sought graduate student involvement with their studies. Sticking to the "for-profit" theme, an alternative for an internal foundation dealing with esthetics, education, conservation, environmental improvement and research was developed.
The GIS Group tended to use the Alpha Unit concept, seeing land as 10 x 10 meter squares (with other vertical dimensions), and from past work and data sources maintains a knowledge base of over 100 factors about such map units. Handled within a computerized Geographic Information System, such data can be transformed using statistical models into site-specific values such as "probable suitability" or "likely production" and mapped for use in the field and elsewhere. Most field-related Groups use the services of this Group in planning, impact analyses, and legal action.
The Energy Group works with and promotes the leading paradigm of rural resource management, that of energy budgeting. Concentrating on "embodied energy," that which is required for an object or idea to be produced and exist (the major energy equivalent), the Group does optimization to meet needs in long-lasting objects or produce with the minimum energy inputs. Antiques, for example, are highly prized and usually have been time-, energy-, and money-costly to produce. Special tools help do work, and those that are costly to produce (e.g., stainless steel) and are lasting are favored for their embodied energy. Solar radiation is carefully mapped (GIS) and studied for maximum crop yields. Energy analyses are done on structures.
The Carbon Market studies the carbon sequestration policies and opportinities for carbon credits throughout forestry, gardening, and rangeland and pasture developments. It studies carbon estimates for water, soil, litter, grasslands and corps, and forests and collects or creates models for pictures of likely carbon stored up or "sequestered"within each ownership over time. It advises on carbon credits for land owners and how they best fit in land use and energy and financial budget optimization.
Zeta Group is a company promoting the expansion of Rural System internationally. It studies the ecological potentials, the legal and financial limits, and works to assist villages to implement Rural System locally. Its premise is that the only major changes in the mapping and software dimensions are those of translation and changing coefficients for models that are in use. It works with the Rural Knowledge Base to capture folk knowledge for the prescriptive systems.
The Wealth Management Group, working with bank affiliates and brokers, improves land owner income by improving investments, donations, trust formation, estate building, cutting costs and avoiding litigation, and advising on taxes and specialized financial provisions within the agricultural and forestal community. It works with the Insurance Group.
Homys (now at www.Homys.org) is built on the increasing awareness that many employees do not need to work at a central office or plant. Many can work efficiently during many days each week from their homes or from local central places. Computer programmers and others can correspond by voice and image worldwide via the Internet to deliver products and to make conventional business arrangements cost effectively. The company arranges procedures, finds willing participants, and monitors work performance.

Sector 2. Forestry Topics

The Forest Group affiliates with existing forest inventory and management enterprises, helps market their services and expands on their potentials by the Tours Group, Nature Folks, Certification Group, Fire Force, and others. It has a primary role in dealing with the part of Rural System Tracts with trees and can be a major income source. Their role in probable increase in financial productivity over the long run is notable.
The Foresters is a local organization for the staff, associates, colleagues, school children, and anyone interested in forests and forestry … all of the forest-related topics related to Rural System Tracts and their problems, values, benefits, management, and use. It is a means to promote the forests, reward successes, and increase communications. The Group provides tours, annual conference, advantages in clothing, book, and equipment purchases, web site access, recreational advantages, and discounts on Rural System services. It may become affiliated with the group, Right Rural, and Nature Folks. Income is from membership fees, advertising, conferences, tours, and commissions on publication and book sales.
The Certification Group promotes and arranges for cost-effective forest land certification under Smartwood. Smartwood is a recent development in forestry and wood processing generally. The Rain Forest Alliance and the Forest Stewardship Council (created in 1993) have developed a set of criteria for well-managed, sustainable forests. When a forest meets the criteria, it may be certified as environmentally sound and under sustained conditions. Special attention as well as economic incentives follows. Like a "Good-Housekeeping Seal-of-Approval," the designation significantly increases the value of the forest products from the areas, perceived to be initially 5-10%.
The Trevey (Chapter 19) provides information and guidance for making difficult, multifaceted, high-risk land use and development decisions that have long-term rural effects. It is a prototype for a dynamic planning system for large areas and an alternative for land use "zoning." It emerged from work with TVA, U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head, Maryland, and with a county-level comprehensive planning effort. It is being recommended (2005) for George Washington National Forest planning. The system produces a dynamic plan for a landowner (farm, military area, county, forest, park, etc.) available from an Internet site. Adequate security is provided. The landowner can call up his or her plan at any time, see color images, photographs, graphs, maps, etc. (i.e., hypermedia) and the latest information about the area and the plan. Models for components of everyone's plans are managed and improved from a central office but each person's plan remains directed to their personal objectives and local conditions. It greatly reduces costs of Smartwood certification.
The Fire Force as part of the Land Force adds to the quality of the Smartwood certification but deals with prescriptive burning for some select silvicultural and needs, pasture management, and above all provides a superior emergency attack crew doe rural fires, typically non-structure fires. It engages in prevention, clearing buildings from threats, and serves as a local "hot-shot" crew for rapid attack of fires. It continually monitors the literature for new insights into fire behavior, arsonists, and attack efficiency.
The Firewood Group provides superior dried species-specific firewood to the urban and residential market from small managed forest tracts.
The Chestnut Group seeks to work with existing organizations now developing American chestnut orchards, hybrids, etc. Involvement ranges from nursery and tissue cloning through crop marketing and expansion of working orchards.
Holiday Trees is the name of a group working with Christmas tree growers to produce and market such trees. It expands to provide trees for other holidays with color lighting, and other additions.
Walnut Vales is a group using GIS to locate superior black walnut growing sites and it then attempts to secure or rent such sites and to develop superior well spaced trees for nut-fruit production as well as furniture wood. It develops sites, gatherers, husking centers, waste disposal and alternatives uses, and manages the sites for balanced superior wood as well as nut products.
The Arborist Group specializes in work with individual trees, especially those of the residential and rural village landscape. Involved with tree health, it is developing wildlife habitats, reducing convective energy losses from buildings, recycling leaves and debris, and finding alternative ways for enhancing land value.
Stoneworms is a trail building and maintenance group. It relates with national and international trails but builds trails on local lands that provide for recreation, education, and solitude. Hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking are specialty trails.
The Wilderness Group helps use such areas locally that occur on state and federal lands. It is keen to note private tracts that have wilderness-like characteristics and to seek reasonable protection for such areas in the midst of intensively managed forests on adjacent land. It is a key unit for many members of Nature Folks. It sponsors wilderness tours and events with that Group.
Earshot is a soundscape group. There are well known "landscapes," but few people have heard of soundscapes. They become more important each day as trying to find a quiet place to work, think, meditate or live a stress-reduced life becomes more difficult. The Group works with Nature Folks and listens for the sounds of nature such as the calls of birds and particularly the night sounds of amphibians. It forms a paying membership, issues a newsletter, sells equipment, sells tours, and provides services for industry certifying certain noise levels and changes resulting from management, private groups promoting a more quiet space, and sales of services for quieting situations (such as buildings, dogs, individuals, and equipment.) It utilizes research on noise attenuation resulting from vegetation. It uses GIS to analyze gun shots to assist in law violation detection. The hunted zone and its gun noises (randomly distributed gunners) are mapped for general interest. Locating houses and recreational sites can be done with noise sources in mind and measures (or topography) selected to reduce effects of noise on people.
The Odorscapes Group works to detect and understand odors (microparticles including gas molecules) of substances. It provides services for analyzing potential impacts of factories and developments on natural areas and other rural areas of importance and developing a rapid analytical system for expressing likely olfactory impacts. It analyzes winds and their effects within ecosystems, including timber harvest patterns; works with scenting security and hunting dogs; studies baiting; assists in rural law enforcement and hazardous material detection and cleanup. It presents regional floral odorscapes and quantifies the seasonally changing fragrance (and allergens) of gardens. It tries to further the insect antennae work and hypotheses of Callahan of Florida
The Viewscapes Group works with a concept of the rural culture that it maps, describes, quantifies, develops scenes, themes, current scene scores, dynamics of the scores, a county beauty index, and a procedure to negotiate balancing losses and gains in natural beauty that may result from proposed development. The land of the region is beautiful but that beauty can be enhanced. Even more important, it must be managed so that it is not diminished and so that the full messages of the Rural System and of a system of total land management can be carried forward onto other lands. Staff develops plans, policies, and procedures for esthetic enhancement and management that will give the lands of the enterprise a personality and will assure benefactors that their lands will be similarly treated. Not another 'park service' or 'forest service' appearance, the new 'look' of the Rural System Tracts shows care, attention to studied concepts of natural beauty, cost effective work, diversity, sustainability, durability, and functional amendments to views and scenes.

Sector 3. Wildlife/Nature

Nature Folks is a membership organization like the Audubon Society. It has many special-interest parts listed below. It caters to people with diverse interests in nature, in unusual spots, in wilderness, in invertebrates and "creepy places." It manages an electronic bulletin, conducts tours, and promotes studies of phenology (the timing of biological events such as flower burst and leaf fall).
NatureSeen collects observations of nature unreported elsewhere. Electronic storage at low cost allows nature observers world wide to prevent the loss of unique observations. A search procedure allows subscribers to benefit from these usually-singular observations that may form a pattern over many reports over time. A rich, novel curiosity, the reports offer unlimited ideas a story fodder for writers.
Coyote of Nature Folks conducts tours of areas to observe coyotes and foxes, usually using electronic recorders at night. It builds a community interested in the wild canids of the world and sponsors tours to build life-lists (akin to well-known bird life lists).
The Owls Group conducts local evening tours for bus-loads of people with dinner, owls being called up on managed Rural System Tracts, and all followed by evening entertainment. Owl research is sponsored and tours arranged for those seeking a life-list maximum for seeing the owls of the world. Sculptured owls are sold from The Sculptors.
Prospectors is the geology enterprise. It works with GIS maps, collaborates with soils specialists, conducts educational tours, and provides specialized groundwater and mineral resource analyses for Rural System Tract owners.
The Plant People of Nature Folks specialize in the non-tree wild plants. It creates special gardens, conducts tours, sells plants and products, and sponsors art and poetry contests. It monitors plants, caters to knowledge of the plant populations of wilderness areas, and promotes life-list progress for members.
The Butterfly Band is the insect- and arthropod-oriented group within Nature Folks. It deals with pest species but caters to bees and honey production, biological supply house products, and tours for those making collections and additions to life lists.
The Fishery (Chapter 22)is a large and diverse group with separate talents for pond and lake work as well as those for stream and river work. It builds communities of managed farm ponds within an area, offering diverse private land opportunities for recreation as well as food. It sells opportunities, film, supplies, memberships, guide services and educational materials, does analyses of ponds, lakes, and streams, and markets to trail and wilderness interests. It conducts a growing wild-fish life-list building enterprise with aquarium and equipment sales.
The Raccoon Group is new for few people realize the complexity and relations of the system of that animal The need is for applying the findings of many studies, not just on the biology of the animal alone (the past trend) but on the total profitable enterprise. The prospects are not for recreational trapping (strongly opposed by some) but for a viable, profitable enterprise utilizing one of the natural products of the Rural System Tracts … in ways no one else has been able to sustain in the past. This is a single species system, one related not only to furs but also several types of hunting and related hunting dogs and population management in forests and wetlands.
The Furbearer Group, clearly related to the Raccoon Group has profits from a fur enterprise as its primary interest. The strategies include marketing of furs; strategic buying; improvements in trapper success and humane taking; improved care of the pelts; storage; local cutting and trimming; alternative uses of partials; and alternative uses of the entire carcass. Fur markets seem to fluctuate due to style and other phenomena. We propose to work with the fur industry, seek new marketing strategies, avoid public confrontations, retain a private-for-profit stance, diversify the work of the group, and demonstrate the potentials of storage to achieve sale when prices are high. Work will include sophisticated research (expected to attract visitors and students) and develop memorial books about the species; furbearer workshops for biologists; trapper schools; vertebrate pest damage manager schools; fur-buyer schools. Software development will enhance some work, especially as it shows how ecological communities (that support each furbearer) change over time. Trapping zones, presence of animal sign, species conflicts, profit per unit area, and costs-to-take maps are planned elements of the system. Visitors may come to the area with the planned objective of seeing and photographing all of the furbearers present. A newsletter announces the successful people, tells of research accomplishments, shares in knowledge of the furbearers, and provides excellent photographs, poems, new book suggestions and other natural history information of interest. Close links are built with other groups related to Nature Folks.
The Black Bear Group, like that of the bobcat, wild turkey, and raccoon groups are deviations for an oft-recommended multi-species or "multiple-use approach" to wild fauna management. It caters to people interested in bears, tours to see bears and their habitat in the wild, sells photographs and sculpted objects, attends to pest and damage issues and provides membership services.
The Bobcat Group is a wild felid-oriented group with memberships, conferences, tours, and active management of select areas. This group, perhaps more so than other groups concentrates on studies of the animal and its environmental needs. Clearly associated with wilderness and the furbearer groups, the cat resource is important to tourists, hikers, and others seeking outdoor experiences.
The Bird Group coordinates bird watching interests, assists with Official Avi (next link), works with federal and international migratory bird organizations, sponsors bird watching tours, uses actively the state bird data bases, adds to The Trevey, and assists The Owls Group.
Official Avi: A Bird-Watching Sport has also been called "bird golf or Avigolf" It is developed on a few select Rural System Tracts. Users pay a fee to use the course and after describing their abilities and the characteristics of the day and date, a "par" is computer produced. Participants play against past scores or competitors, seeking to see all of the birds of the area. A score is obtained. Life lists of birds seen on all such Avi courses expand the play internationally.
The Wild Turkey Group is single-species oriented. It serves Avi in some areas but is primarily for bird watchers and hunters. Guided tours are conducted to permanent blinds. Memberships include tours, publications, records, equipment reports, life history and ecology work.
Covey: The Bobwhite Quail Group works on farm lands to stabilize key quail populations. It works with dog owners and field trials, developing select areas with high populations, scoring areas and populations for memberships for people with specific high-intensity interests in quail, quail hunting, and quail as part of the living rural landscape.
The Dogs Group works with hunting dogs, maintains quality kennels, conducts dog training and sponsors field trials. It has a unique scoring technique for trailing abilities of hunting dogs.

Sector 4. Agriculture Topics

The Pasture and Range Group seems inseparable from The Fence Group (below). It designs and develops superior pastures for livestock of several types using GIS and soils knowledge to achieve superior grass production and pasture and range conditions (e.g., water and wind protection) for animal systems that will be profitable.
The Carbon Market studies the carbon sequestration policies and opportinities for carbon credits throughout forestry, gardening, and rangeland and pasture developments. It studies carbon estimates for water, soil, litter, grasslands and corps, and forests and collects or creates models for pictures of likely carbon stored up or "sequestered"within each ownership over time. It advises on carbon credits for land owners and how they best fit in land use and energy and financial budget optimization.
The Garden Group works with agroforestry concepts, promotes "victory gardens," employs alpha earth, uses designed fences, beautifies and enhances land value, and participates in the work of Odorscapes and Viewscapes. It develops specialty gardens such as those for ferns and daylilies.
The Moss Group grows moss for floral uses. It is designed in part as competition to remove pressure on wild mosses being exploited. It caters to specialized fern and aquatic garden sites.
The Bamboo Group specializes in selecting optimum sites for the many species/varieties of bamboo, making site specific sales, and besides using the plants for vegetating unique areas and providing special habitats, will develop handicraft products.
The Yards Group unifies work with the pasture and range group, garden group, sculptors, and fence group to produce and manage pleasant grassy areas around rural structures.
The Blueberry Patch produces blueberries on GIS-selected sites, and then provides specialized markets for large volumes from widely-distributed growing sites. The Patch is an under-stated system. It is created for private profit, employment opportunities, and heightened value of land that makes it especially worthwhile tending well. It is more than a "patch," really a system of patches and the total system that includes them. Blueberries can be grown well and we add and enhance value to these products of the land.
The Worm Corral is primarily for sales of a composting site with instructions, equipment, and services for local gardens and yards.
Alpha Earth is an enterprise developing superior soils from waste products, sawdust, earthworm action, and thinned forest products.
The Vineyards are GIS-selected areas growing grape cultivars selected to produce grapes for sale to local wine producers. Regionally dispersed, the sites provide local income.
The Bison Group works with a local bison ranch and explores potentials beyond meat sales with pasture management, tours and special events.
The Stables provides services for horse owners, trail rides, training areas, and relates to Alpha Earth
The Goats System works for improved goat herds worldwide, develops wildfire services, works for improved pastures and quality dairy products widely marketed. Goats are more efficient than cows in forage energy use for milk production, survive bad range or forage years better than cows (thus reducing entrepreneurial risks and boom-or-bust situations), can improve the range, and have more stable benefits than cows. They do require more manual labor than cows, but this is appropriate in some areas where there is surplus labor and/or where an active life outdoor life is viewed as one having high quality.
The Sheep Group develops a major market for "organic lamb." By "organic" lamb we meat that is as good for people as they are delicious because they are produced without using antibiotics, added growth hormones, or dangerous pesticides. Relations are explored with "hair sheep" and related hand-crafted products.
The Rabbit Group is profitable through widely dispersed, very-small operations within a single large system. Small livestock such as rabbits have in common the characteristic that they are relatively undemanding in their feeding requirements and easy to house and manage. They provide the same products and services as larger livestock, such as cattle, but are less risky, are easier to replace as they are not costly and reproduce faster. By optimizing the management of the animals as well as the integration of the animals into the farming system, the total production of the farm can increase considerably. They offer regular cash income throughout the year for youth and others.
The Goose Flock in addition to promoting domestic goose flocks, prepares and sells domestic geese, holiday meals, other products and services, and diversifies farm income from the total flock system on many ownerships (not just "a few geese" on the farm).

Sector 5. Sports and Recreation

The Wildland Crew is more than one crew. These are adults having common guided experiences in that they have built or developed wildland structures or engaged in useful projects. These are typically 3 day outdoor experiences with meaningful exercise, team work, recreation, and lasting memorable experiences. Each group has unique experiences but bonds are formed with other crews.
The 4 x 4 Group has great interest in off-road vehicles. It is an organization that sponsors safety, care of the wildlands, special events and tours, and does vehicle-dependent service projects.
Belles and Whistles is closely related to the 4 x 4 Group interests but it is gender specific, assisting women and their children to learn elementary, basic vehicle maintenance and repair. A membership, it sponsors garages and practical educational programs for members.
The Wildland Walkers is a hiking and camping club. Members use trails on Rural System Tracts and other trails, receive an e-newsletter, and are invited to conferences and shows. Safety, trail etiquette, and campcraft are frequent topics.
Run Along is a program to promote and encourage youth entry into natural resource-based and rural outdoor recreation activities. The program develops safe options, incentives and guided programs. It is health and physical fitness related, gender neutral, and links youth to the public and private lands for rural work as well as where outdoor recreation opportunities exist.
Tetra is a regional cross-country race seeking to become one of international interest because of high-technology dimensions, rural attachments, and major prizes.
The Triathlon Group sponsors triathlon events and related Rural Challenge events.
Rural Challenge sponsors an annual field event on a Rural System Tract and is similar to Tetra. The event features weight and strength contests dealing with rural items such as trees, hay, machines, rocks, etc. Stressing health and fitness and accident prevention. It profits from reduced costs of life derived from healthful living over longer periods. Providing a notable target or justification for people exercising throughout the areas, it links exercise and health and the opportunities on Rural System Tracts.
The Biking Group is for people who own or are interested in the many uses, applications, and secondary consequences of using non-motorized bicycles. The Group is dedicated to increasing use of bikes, their proper and safe use, and to improving health and land and resource conservation resulting from such uses. It sponsors triathlons with other groups and individuals.
The Rural River Runners have great curiosity about and love of the Powell, Clinch, New, James, and Jackson rivers (and later other rivers) and seek new ways to enjoy them but also to protect and improve them. There are paid memberships. Members conduct tours of the rivers, refine use-oriented maps for the rivers and their tributaries, develop refined GIS databases for the watersheds, and monitor and reports on landuse dynamics within the selected watersheds.
Tree Tops is an enterprise featuring the strange growing sport of tree climbing. It has paid memberships, climbing events and training sessions but is for "loners" as well as for people who use modern climbing ropes and gear to go to experience new places, new views, and rarely-visited parts of ecosystems.
NovoSports capitalizes on interest in health and exercise. It promotes new, active, diverse ways for all citizens to become participants, non-spectators, to "get out," and to establish new relationships with others and with the outdoors. The Group may find special relevance to students of nearby college and university recreational programs, both for study as well as creative student involvement and personal enjoyment. Currently proposed Novosports are conducted outdoors Money is made from memberships (as in a health or exercise club) and in activities associates with potentially-growing new sports. Related units are The Triathlon Group, Tree Tops, Biking Group, Tetra, and The Fishery (e.g., casting tournaments) and World Ball. Various conventional races (e.g., through Tetra or the Biking Group) are sponsored, but others (e.g., combined horse and foot races), rope climbing and weight lifting may be explored. Tug of war, Atlatl, and Topple teams are sponsored.
GPSence is a business related to all aspects of global-positioning satellites (GPS). It sells GPS units and services them, provides training programs, and sells related technology such as altimeters, and range finders. GPSence is a new organization involved in all aspects of geocashing. It combines excitement, adventure, knowledge, and strategy. Typically each person is given a GPS unit (or use their own) with vital coordinates of a cache. The location is very precise. The individuals or team collaborate to find the cashes (hidden boxes, metal stakes, marked trees, etc.).

Sector 6. Products and Communication

Right Rural is the large comprehensive citizens group, an organization for everyone in the region and, later, everyone interested in the activities, operation, and successes of Rural System. Membership fees support the development and growth in effectiveness of Rural System but it also provides members many benefits including a newsletter, access to their own web site, alerts, discounts on equipment, products, clothing, and entrance fees, and priority access both consulting as well as uses of Rural System Tracts.
The Codgers or the Old Geezers is a membership organization for folks that have done a fair amount of aging. Brought up on the idea of the importance of history, of building on the past, of respect for experience, on maintaining records, and of standing on the shoulders of giants, they're still have those ideas and feelings. Codgers believe that they may still have something to offer and do so through their web site. Local groups may form. Special advice, products, and related memberships are offered.
Fog Drip is an enterprise that collects, produces and sells recordings of rural music. It brings citizens a vital part of national culture, the songs and music to which we all listen, play and sing. It sells the new songs of the people of rural areas of the USA and, later, other countries.
Floats is an eChapbook and brings to citizens a vital part of national culture, the poems that give us pleasure, understanding, insights, and otherwise often-unattainable dimensions of life. The poems are made available freely (the share-ware concept) to subscribers and are primarily from the people of rural areas of the USA. They are original, unedited, and the best work of the authors submitting them. They are screened by the production staff.
The Arts Group works with painting and pottery. It provides an organization with instruction, tours, galleries, and marketing of distinctive local artistic products, typically depicting elements of the rural place and spirit.
The Products Group develops and sells products of some of the enterprises of Rural System. Some have beautiful, interesting things to sell, things that add profits and reduce the costs of achieving the greater system objectives. There may be little difference between products and services but this group deals with the physical things, most of which are for sale. Though many products from the System are not trees, animal, soil, water, or fish, the product sales contribute to reducing the costs of achieving the central profit-making objective of Rural System. Thus a progressive, learning, improving system can be developed. Land with its managers and users "produces" things. These may be negative (e.g., chemically-bound substances that cannot be used), neutral, or positive. They may be viewed as "goods," as "income," or as "benefits," but these words overload the decision process with multiple past definitions and yet-debated, even un-identified nominal unit concepts. We call these things that are produced product units. They may provide service, aid in work, provide pleasure (art), provide or enhance memories, enable and augment membership, and stimulate ideas.
The Toys Group sells a special product set, handmade toys from Appalachia and other rural areas. These may be sold from an Ebay drop off unit or from the e-catalog. Some of the toys are easily considered sculpting in wood.
The Sculptors is a business that promotes membership for those interested in sculpting in wood and other media. It is a new organization that forms local clubs, gives seminars, publishes a newsletter with ads and advice on a web site, has a chatroom, and conducts one or more schools. It sells quality solar-seasoned wood extracted from the certified sustainable Rural System Tracts, encourages hobby carving, provides suggested patterns for work, and assembles carvers for large projects. With the Tours Group, it conducts high-quality, family-oriented carving schools such as conducted in Austria.
Topics are unique wooden and metal objects, large and small, a form of sculpting, done by local people and sold to garden outlets and floral. These are numbered and authored objects, typically following a theme, and preparation offers local, part-time employment and marketing through Ebay and other groups.
The Big Bandana is an example of a trivial product that is a marketing and name- recognition device that can barely breakeven but is run from a home by a part-time worker. Many unusual uses are featured and eventually other related products are added to the line.
Inquire is the unified laboratory and laboratory referral service. It may be included within Q Works but sells specific services in soil, water, forage, seed identification, and toxic substance analyses. Cost-effective work and notable marketing set off the enterprise. It is closely affiliated with The Foundation. It sells ecorods.
Ecorods are decomposable plastic devices used to measure the total, complex biological decomposition rate of forest and other soils. Grossly measuring the life of the soil at points (each with its own GPS-informed and GIS database), the discs provide baseline information, measure effects of land treatment (or pollutants) and tend to provide a way to assure desired soil biodiversity.
The Fence Group promotes new and attractive fences in the region for improved pasture management and manipulating the spaces of several livestock groups. It uses special dried and treated woods and develops protection against deer and other garden pests.
The Pest Force confronts vertebrate faunal damage as a system, concentrating on long term, cost effective reduction of measured financial and esthetic damage and not to pest reduction.
Competency is a group that assures employers that rural workers have the competency that they assert. It is skeptical of "grades" and "diplomas" and overly diverse programs of study and conducts field tests of individuals and certifies to prospective employers observed competency in ability to perform each of dozens of small tasks - some in the field, office, laboratory, or computer.
Power Places are unique physical educational spaces, learning/teaching facilities where high-intensity education is done. Augmented with distance learning, the spaces provide the essential human contacts and physical materials and group situations unavailable by modern computer-based education. These are spaces where advanced research findings flow to give greatest possible individual behavioral change per unit time and per unit dollar.

I discuss Rural System Tracts later under The Working Platform, Chapter 12, and Ranging in Chapter 18. Next is Chapter 11, Centering and Q Works.

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