projects
Ongoing Projects
Rural Futures - a team of entrepreneurs, economists, and researchers oriented towards supporting rural community development and resiliency.
Projects span 1) community research for needs and desires, 2) investigating opportunities, both rural practicality and financial feasibility 3) developing research and project proposals, 4) implementation and 5) reporting.
See ruralfutures.org/ for more information
PRevious Projects
How Do You Public Land - a multi-year research project to satisfy requirements for dual graduate degrees at Idaho State University. Project term: 2016-2020.
Degrees obtained: M.S. GIS & M.A. Anthropology
Research project utilized 2-tier approach combining Anthropology and GIS techniques to 1) delineate the interrelationships of U.S. public lands and distinct user groups and 2) explore how proximity of users (to public land ecosystem) affects stakeholder perspectives of multiple uses and management strategies.
expertise gained:
start to finish project development - spanning design, approval, implementation, analysis, and reporting.
leveraging systematic approach to explore the multi-faceted relationships and perspectives
collection, analysis, and visualization of qualitative and quantitative data
liaising between community members, municipalities, as well as state and federal entities.
See resources and reports below:
Link to Research Summary: Summary of Research and Thesis 2020
Link to Thesis Report: Heaps MA Thesis 2020 PDF*
* see Abstract below.
Link to collected raw data: Data Folder
Survey participants in Lemhi County, Idaho. August 2018
Presentation for a state-wide public land stakeholder group
Heaps Abstract 2020