This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I was born and raised in Manhattan's lower east side in New York City, and our agriculture was conducted on a fire escape in flower pots where my mom raised basil, tomatoes and green peppers for the Sunday "gravy."

We are Italians. I had lived in cities most of my life, including Salt Lake. I have lived on a ranch in Montana in Ravalli County for a few years and have come to understand how hard ranching is (ever hold a newborn calf down which was stronger than you to tag it?) — and what the depreciation of the lumber industry did to that valley.

In 2004, I bought a small resort at the foot of Great Basin National Park in Baker, Nev., a townlette of 52 folks. This was my first rural living experience. I quickly gained knowledge of rural folks' thinking by engaging the battle against the Las Vegas pipeline project, the last wells of which were to be sunk at my resort's doorstep, to protect the valley's water resources and my business interests.

Certain rural folk believed for some time I was a shill for the water authority who bought the resort only to spy on them. Suspicions punctuate folks in those parts, as outsiders are always thought to have ulterior motives, especially environmentalists, which I was quickly, and openly, on my part, labeled.

We environmentalists owe rural America, particularly in those regions where energy development is on the wane. We tore into coal and other fossil fuel to take it down and, in my mind, justifiably so. But precisely because we caused, in addition to markets, the depreciation of the economies of these areas, we must and have the moral obligation to assist in their redevelopment toward new economies not reliant on the broken fossil industries. I firmly believe in my core that if we don't, we are part of the problem and not the solution.

But the fossil fuel industries also owe rural America. They promised that their operations would bring jobs, which it did. They also promised to not harm the environment of rural communities, which they did. In fact, many communities are now left with cleanup costs for ruins left by bankrupt fossil fuel industries. Not to mention the depreciated health of rural fossil industry workers.

And the state legislatures that enabled the fossil fuel companies to enter, promise prosperity and then despoil their own communities also owe rural America big time! Many took campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies and promised their constituents prosperity, et al. But, as in the Utah example, they choose to fund a fossilized concept to move coal to the west coast while the hurt of our own rural people becomes more exacerbated by the obvious and inevitable transformation of the energy sector. The Medicaid expansion in rural America is a no brainer as these — we — rural folks now need health care from the degraded health of folks due to fossil fuel development.

I went to the governor's website for rural development, and found efforts to help our own wanting:

1) There is a list of accomplishments of the governor's rural partnership board for 2002-6, then a note "needs historic update."

2) Business Development for Disadvantaged Rural Community Program was funded once in 2004, and not since.

3) The last meeting of the board was April 17, 2014.

What is this department thinking? Fifty-three million dollars for a dying industry, and no rural board accomplishments for 10 years? Need historic update? Need rural focus update.

We environmentalists need to now ask our fighting fossil foundations to redirect monies to redevelop rural economies. Legislatures need to redirect funding as well and maybe donate some of those excess campaign contributions from fossil industries to their rural constituents. And fossil industries need to redirect significant funds back to the communities of broken promises.

We plant trees in our cities voraciously but now we need to plant our money in rural America to bring it back to prosperity and no later than today. Wind and solar energy, tourism, the opportunities that remote work through technology allows for urbanites to escape to the beauty of the mountains and valleys and joys of rural hospitality, and other opportunities are some of the ways of revival. It is our moral obligation. We owe big time.

"Upon his deeds not his ideas does God's favor rest on man"

— Rabbi Eric Silver, on a plaque in Memory Grove.

Terry Marasco is a member of the Utah Clean Air Alliance.