Headwaters Economics, an independent, nonprofit research group based in Bozeman, Mont., has developed a new way to look at the West, generating research that shows that there are three distinctly different types of counties in the West, defined by their access to major markets and population centers.

A map generated by the group shows a tri-colored West: blue for metro areas, grey for rural counties and yellow for counties that are neither metro or rural, but represent an in-between continuum, with airport access a critical factor. Of all the states on the map, Wyoming has the largest number of “connected” counties — counties in a rural setting, but connected to the rest of the world via airports with daily commercial service.



Comparisons

According to Ray Rasker, the director of the group, comparing states is too clumsy an approach for researchers – not when metropolitan areas like Denver, Salt Lake City and Phoenix can skew statewide statistics. Yet comparing counties is awkward as well, unless you can divide them up into categories.

“Our hypothesis was that we could divide the West into three categories: blue for being one hour drive time to a city; grey for isolated, rural counties and yellow, the New West if you will – with characteristics of rural counties, but connected to the rest of the nation via airports,” said Rasker.

Headwaters Economics has written a technical paper, The Three Wests: A New County Typology Based on Transportation, where the concept of the Three Wests is tested statistically. The peer-reviewed paper was submitted to the Journal of Rural Studies earlier in 2008.



Useful tool

The research group has also tapped numerous census and research databases in developing a Web-based interactive tool that can help community leaders make better decisions in several important ways:

n Learn more about what type of county you live in.

n Compare your county to any other county or counties.

n Create a detailed county socioeconomic profile.

Rasker said the paper and the data base should prove useful to economic development groups, planners, chambers of commerce and county commissioners.

“Say you’re in Miles City, Montana, and you think it might be possible to become a city similar to Casper,” said Rasker. “These data sets allow you to play ‘what-if’ scenarios.”

“The vast open spaces of the West are both an advantage and a disadvantage when it comes to economic development,” said Rasker. “All that space makes it expensive to move products and get together with others, but it also serves as a real attraction to technological and knowledge workers who are looking for a great place to live.”



Key finding

What bridges the gap between rural and metro are airports, or your proximity to an airport. To be even more accurate, the shading of “connected” counties should be mixed with blue or grey, based on whether they are closer or farther from an airport.

“The closer to an airport, the more you have metro-like features and opportunities,” said Rasker. “The farther away you are, the more rural features dominate.”

According to the report, “while in the past a company’s ability to compete was determined by “the three Ls” (location, location, location), today’s companies will succeed if they adhere to “the three As” (access, access, access).

The role of airports is generally discussed in terms of being a necessary condition for the competitiveness of cities in a global economy. This is as true for the smaller towns and cities of

the West as it is anywhere.”



Advocates

Rasker and his group found that over time, there was a high correlation between ski resorts and airports, on whether that airport grew or not.

Not only do ski areas provide lots of customers to an airport, said Rasker, but the ski areas are effective lobbyists for state and federal funds to expand services and flights at that airport.

“The busier the airport, the more economic opportunities expand,” said Rasker. As a result, resort-based economies gradually expand to include manufacturing, retirees and knowledge-based businesses. With a good airport at hand or nearby, said Rasker, “counties can grow beyond tourism,” or a dependence on natural resource extraction, such as mining, timbering, grazing or energy production.

His recommendation for how to help the rural West? “Build more airports,” said Rasker.



Wyoming Business Report Managing Editor Brodie Farquhar can be reached at brodief@wyoming.com or 307 333-4024.