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Media stories highlighted accounts of migration away from city centers towards more rural destinations during the COVID‐19 pandemic, but systematic research about how the pandemic changed migration in more rural destinations is only starting to emerge. This paper relies on U.S. Postal Service change‐of‐address data to describe whether and how established domestic migration systems changed during the COVID‐19 pandemic, focusing on differences across the rural–urban gradient and by outdoor recreation resources. We find little evidence of massive urban exodus. We do find that out‐migration from rural counties declined post‐pandemic onset and has stayed low in the 3 years since, stemming the tide of net population loss in many rural places. Most rural counties that experienced net population loss prior to the pandemic saw either less net loss or net gains during the pandemic. Rural recreation counties experienced greater gains through both decreased out‐migration and increased in‐migration in the first year of the pandemic; but by year three, differences between rural recreation and non‐recreation counties had balanced. Overall, counties across Rural America saw notable change to pre‐pandemic migration patterns. This shift may benefit rural areas through long‐term population stability and/or growth but might also exacerbate housing and childcare shortages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecotourism is lauded as a path toward sustainable development and women's empowerment in rural areas around the world, but little is known about how gendered expectations shape its processes and outcomes. This paper employs an in‐depth qualitative case study of a female‐only ecotourism cooperative in rural Mexico to investigate how local gender dynamics influence women's opportunities to benefit from ecotourism development. Findings show that women's family and work commitments prevent their ability to devote the resources and energy necessary to make the cooperative successful. In this context, women are first expected to be wives and mothers, and to fulfill the substantial daily expectations associated with those roles. In addition, most women work outside the home. This leaves little time or energy for a "third shift" as ecotourism entrepreneurs running their own cooperative. Women put their own interests and goals on the back burner, because of the demands of the first two shifts. If ecotourism is to empower women, localized gender structures must be understood and addressed. Overlooking these challenges can mean that ecotourism projects, even those specifically aimed at empowering women, may only further burden women and reinforce gender models that perpetuate inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This findings abstract summarizes the results of a demographic study of recreational anglers in five Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). Using annual fishing license sales data (2000-2016), we employed an age-period-cohort regression model to estimate the independent effects of age, time period, and birth year on likelihood to fish for males and females in each state. Generations of men born prior to 1970 were more likely to fish than more recent generations. For women, more recent generations (born since 1980) were more likely to fish than their mothers or grandmothers. Projections suggest that the future number of male anglers will continue to decline, while the number of women will grow. Females should be expected to make up an increasing share of anglers. Accordingly, fisheries managers and policy makers should engage women as active stakeholders in decision-making. Analytical reports, maps, and data are available at https://www.mtu.edu/greatlakes/fishery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]