News from rural America.

An Idaho county’s ban on wind and solar energy may soon be overturned, some of Virginia’s money for healthcare is instead going to ICE, conservation is the focus of next year’s planting season in Iowa, and bikers cruise into autumn.

TRANSCRIPT

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

A rural Idaho County's ban on renewables could be overturned this fall as presidents debate the pros and cons.

Commissioner Jeff Huff was the lone dissenter when Bannock County's three-member Republican Board passed a 2024 ordinance against utility-scale wind and solar.

Since becoming Commission Chair, Huff says he'll move to repeal it and to allow nuclear power.

It's not good for Bannock County as a whole to say we're not going to have any energy projects in the county.

And so I'm looking big picture.

Grain farmer Dale Lish opposes the ban.

I don't think that's American.

I think we as private property owners ought to have a chance to do what we want within reason.

You know, we love this land.

Last year, nearly 60 percent of rural areas had similar moratoriums.

But the vote in Bannock County shows communities may be re-evaluating the costs and benefits of clean energy.

Rural Virginia is losing hospitals, with 19 closed or about to, leading to questions about where money to keep them open is being spent.

Research from Forward.us says it's going to things like immigration enforcement.

Felicity Rose says they found Virginia among the states suffering most as federal money is shifted away from rural providers.

When those close down, there's not really any other option, so people end up having to travel further for their health care.

Since January of last year, ICE has arrested 15,000 people in Virginia.

Rose notes that many worked in health care.

Who have families, many of whom are citizens, who have been doing caretaking jobs.

It's harvest season, but some farmers and farmland owners are pivoting to meet rural conservation goals for next year's crop.

Carol Boschka and her sisters rent out their land in Winneshiac County, Iowa.

She says they're offering a rent break to tenants to keep 20 acres of pollinator fields and 4,500 trees and shrubs.

To create this windbreak on our farm for habitat for insects, birds and mammals, and to sequester carbon.

About half of Midwest farmland owners rent out their land for others to farm.

Owners and tenants can both get government incentives to move away from livestock and row crops and turn to more regenerative models.

With cooler fall temps, the country's cyclists are gearing up.

Everything from a gravel grinder in Arkansas to a leaf-peeping tour of New York and recreational rides through Midwest Plains.

Event director Karen Geigel with South Dakota's Whelan to Wall says their ride gives folks an up-close look at nature on the prairies.

What we forget or oftentimes aren't able to observe is how vibrant that ecosystem is.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.