I am not against the settlers. Outsiders provide a lot of work for handyman, buy a lot of new stuff, and are a great source of good stuff at dispersal auctions. The electric company now charges $1500 per pole to run power to the remote cabins and sites. The local economy has learned to accomodate. As far as trying to change the area, lots a luck. The only changes to the area come from rising gas prices and wives working.
Locally a settler built a nice house something like the cover of Progressive Farmer mag, bought new JD stuff, nice Farm buildings and about 100 head of cows. The house and yard is Pretty enuff to make your eyes water, down the hill his cows were starving. Cows dont do well on leaves and sedge, a few left all lost shine and weight, when he got back from a vacation to FLA he resold the cows. At a big loss yes. Had his moveable property dispersal sales a few weeks back lots of good deals on high end stuff. The JD went for about 50%. The house is in real estate one of those 300-400 K spots.
All Im saying is the local economy seems to eat most settlers for lunch.