Attachment to Community (ATC)

Participants were broadly asked about what factors they considered in the decision to live in the community and what kept them in the community. Four major community value themes emerged under ATC: attachment to social support group, attachment to rural way of life, attachment to community as a place of home, and attachment to surrounding environment. Figure 5 summarizes the effect of the impacts created by the boom on pertinent values and the resulting attitudes under ATC.

Figure 5. Effect of the Boom on ATC

Attachment to Community (ATC) Attachment to social support group Attachment to rural way of life Community as a place of home Attachment to the surrounding environment Positive Attitudes Toward the boom Negative Attitudes Toward the boom Negative impacts of the

boom

Positive impacts of the boom In-migration of home grown Out-migration of longtime residents

Rapid influx of people Rapid pace of change Loss of country town environment

Traffic and noise of industrial activity

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2.5.2.1. Attachment to Social Support Group

The social support group comprises family members, friends, neighbors, and other established social connections. It is one of the major factors that ties people to the community that people value as evidenced by one resident:

“I was born and raised here. For me, number one thing is my family is here: my mom my sister and my circle of friends. My group of friends are more like family. I lived in Minneapolis for few years. It was great, but every time I came home it was literally like a weight off my shoulders. It was just absolute security. Maybe it’s that sense of knowing that whatever happens, I got a full support group of family and friends here for me.” The out-migration of longtime residents has negatively affected the attachment to social support group, while in-migration of the home grown has positively affected social support groups. Before the boom, many elderly parents especially living in farms/ranches or rural communities had to endure their kids moving away in search of better economic and life opportunities and not knowing whether anyone would come back to take over the family farm or ranch after them. Some of those children are coming back to the community in which they grew up; thereby, renewing the hopes in parents for continued family presence in the community, as described by one participant: “there really wasn’t much for them here. But they’re coming back in droves now. We have a lot of our friends where the kids have been away who are back. Our son is one of them.” At the same time longtime residents have lost lifelong friendships and connections as many longtime residents have moved out of the community:20 _{“oh certainly yea. A lot of the}

20 _{Detailed discussion of why longtime residents are moving out is presented in our other} research work

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people that we know, friends with them have moved. Some people following their kids and moving to places.”

2.5.2.2. Community as a Place of “Home”

Attachment to community as a place of “home” is embedded in the accumulated life experiences and memories of being born/raised in the community, or living in the community for a considerable period of life. Therefore, the notion of community as a “home” represents the community’s physical and social aspects, in addition to being the physical space with all the memories and experiences associated with such dwelling. The notion of home represents feeling comfortable within the community, and assimilated/shared life experiences and memories in the community. To this end one young resident, who moved out but came back to the community before the boom, noted:

“I loved all the places that I lived but at the end of the day I came back home. I would say that when I was 18 years old I couldn’t wait to get out. It was just a feeling that there was more out there for me. I got a chance to do that, and I realized when I came home that a place is what you make it to be at the end of the day. I found ways that I really love here and its home.”

Residents became attached and built memories to physical community attributes (local land marks, or amenities) and social attributes. Feeling of home has been negatively affected by the rapid influx of people, rapid pace of change in community life, outmigration of longtime

residents, and loss of small country town environment because of development/ expansion of the community to accommodate the growth in population. One participant described this as: “we can’t wait until we get out of here. The only thing that is preventing us from moving is that over

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that 30 some years this became our home and we have real good friends. We won’t be close to them once we move.”

2.5.2.3. Attachment to Rural Way of Life

One of the main reasons why people chose to live in western North Dakota is because they value the rural way of life. Rural way of life is characterized by slower relaxed pace of life, endogamous relationships, agriculture based economy, and conservativeness (simple basic community needs). This value theme is closely related to sense of peacefulness and personal freedom, but it represents an affective bond to way of life as described by one of the participants: “I value and have a passion for rural areas and the life that comes with that. You may choose to live here because of your family but you often times are coming for the rhythm of rural that has its own complement to that.” This value theme is especially of high importance to people living in rural communities outside of hub towns in the area. The rural way of life has been affected by the rapid pace of community change, dominance of the oil industry and related activities, traffic and noise of industrial activity, and rapid influx of people. The rapid pace of change in the community and way of life has affected many residents. One of the residents described this:

“Well you know the fast pace. We are used to the old days where people weren’t in a hurry. Even my son is only 38 years old he wants to leave. He’s young but he wants to leave because the fast pace and traffic and he wants to leave. We used to have more like laid back.”

Another participant noted: “so living out in the country and this community area has changed. People aren’t as friendly anymore. Now we got all these different man camps and areas popping up every which direction which has caused an issue”

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2.5.2.4. Attachment to Land and Surrounding Environment

As farmers or ranchers and rural residents, western North Dakotans have a strong connection to the surrounding land and physical environment. Attachment to land is expressed based on serenity and tranquility of the surrounding environment and psychological investment in land. A longtime resident described the effect of the oil boom on land:

“One of the biggest tradeoff of this money is the land it’s getting ripped apart. It used to be green grass few fences here and there, now there’s red scoria roads going to an oil well. It will never be the same and it’s really changed our land and the land was one of the main things in our way of life here.”

Change in natural landscape (interspersed oil wells, well pads, constructed access roads, and certain practices associated with the oil industry such as gas flaring) and traffic, has negatively affected the resident perception of attachment to land. One participant noted: “I mean there wasn’t a lot of traffic. I live in the country. There wasn’t a lot of electrical poles everywhere. Now there’s electrical poles to all those pumpers and you know so before then it was just cows and calm.”