Shifting Ground is a public radio series supported by the Orton Family Foundation and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Aired on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered program, episodes of Shifting Ground bring to life today’s most pressing land use issues. Listen to the stories and read more about the series below.

Green Burials, Metamora, MI Joan Graham, age 80, bequeathed her farm in Metamora, Michigan to a local land conservancy to protect it from development after she’s gone. But then she thought, why go at all? She’s made a request to be buried on the property and has welcomed others to join her. Can death add life to conservation efforts?  Read more >>

Rural Character, Golden Valley, NV This episode looks at a community in Nevada that’s trying to save its rural character in the face of suburban growth. The central figure of this story is a donkey living in the Golden Valley—a region that has long celebrated its rural character. But some new residents would rather do without the smells and sounds that come along with a rural lifestyle.  Read more >>

Conservation Easements, Johnson, WY A conservation easement placed on the C Bar B Ranch in 1993 was designed to permanently conserve the property's scenic and environmental resources. Nine years later, the company owning mineral rights under the Ranch decided to pursue coal bed methane development, calling into question how "permanent" conservation can really be.  Read more >>

Wind Power, Lewis County, NY The Yancey family has lived on Tug Hill in rural northern New York for generations, making a living from the rocky farmland and an inn with a view of the Adirondacks. But when the Maple Ridge Wind Farm descended on the region two years ago, the Yanceys found their town, and their family, torn apart.  Read more >>

Coastal Erosion, Surfside, TX Surfside, Texas is a beach town that has experienced some of the worst erosion on the Gulf coast. Homes once set back from the beach now rest at the water's edge—property State officials now consider public beach. Calls for the removal of these homes have sparked debate, and raised complex questions of ownership and responsibility.  Read more >>

Highway Beautification, Osceola, FL Ever since President Lyndon Johnson signed the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, communities across America have been sprucing up their roadways. They've planted spruces, oaks and other trees to create a more appealing scene. But in some places, trees have run up against a powerful opponent: the billboard industry.  Read more >>

About Shifting Ground

The American landscape is shifting and, in the eyes of many, not for the better. Farms and fields yield to ever more suburban development. Commutes lengthen as traffic worsens. Rising home prices force families to relocate farther from cities and jobs. America seems to be metamorphosing into a repeating scene of strip malls and chain stores while, in many communities, residents lament the lack of community. Shifting Ground, aired on National Public Radio's acclaimed afternoon news program All Things Considered, brings new depth to the reporting of land-use issues.

The Orton Family Foundation supports this on-going series because these stories and others emphasize many elements of our Heart & Soul Community Planning approach: the need to listen to and learn from all community members; to tell good, important stories about people and place; to inform citizens about how abstract policies result in real changes on the ground; to build truly inclusive community processes; and to showcase innovative tools and practices communities can apply to their own land-use challenges.

Shifting Ground reveals the difficult tradeoffs that planning inevitably involves, providing a glimpse of what America’s future landscape could look like and how towns are trying to shape that future. Johnson County, Wyoming, and Golden Valley, Nevada, are just two of scores of towns across the nation where citizens increasingly feel disenfranchised from their own futures, and where some individuals are trying to wrest back control. The Orton Family Foundation is working to help small cities and towns forge a new path—a path for citizens to build while discovering and voicing what they value most about their communities. We believe that the Shifting Ground series can help achieve this goal. Read more about the Foundation's Mission & Ends here.

Series producer David Baron is an award-winning author and journalist who has worked in public radio for more than 20 years, previously as science/environment correspondent for NPR and science editor for the PRI/BBC program The World. His 2003 book, The Beast in the Garden (W. W. Norton), explores the growing conflict between people and wildlife in suburban America.

The series is made possible with support from The Orton Family Foundation and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.