As Times Staff Writer Challen Stephens noted in a report in Sunday's paper, the amount of farmland acres now is less than half of what it was in 1985 - 250,000 acres.

Urbanization - from business, industry and subdivisions - is cutting a swath through the fields like fiscal locusts. When land is going at $10,000 an acre in some areas, many farmers are finding it more profitable to sell to developers than to continue a rugged vocation that's at nature's mercy.

While county farms - both row crops and livestock - generated some $37.5 million in 2006, the defense industry was pouring almost $2 billion into the 5th Congressional District.

And, as we've documented time and again, the latest moves by the Pentagon will bring thousands more Army and civilian defense jobs to the area during the next few years. Those people are going to need homes, schools, better roads and places to shop. And that means more rural land is going to be converted to urban and suburban use.

The transformation of Madison County brings with it certain challenges. Water quality - even water availability - will be affected by new development. And flash-flooding will become a bigger problem.

But it's not just the shifting land use that will pose trials for this area. Already, the area's vibrant economy has made it a mecca for incomers, and roads and schools are overburdened and, in some cases, inadequate.

Figuring out how to meet water and sewer needs is also going to be difficult, although Huntsville Utilities has expressed a desire to work with municipal and private systems to coordinate efforts to make sure that infrastructure is adequate.

But in no area will change be required more than in local government. The days when officials in Montgomery could successfully micromanage how counties operate has long passed. And areas like Huntsville, where growth abounds, have dramatically different issues than areas of the state like the Black Belt where poverty and illiteracy prevail.

For Huntsville, Madison and Madison County to cope effectively with the transformation that is both increasing and inevitable, home rule powers must be increased. The challenges that urbanization present demand the ability to act quickly and decisively to keep us from sinking from our good fortune.

Not everyone will agree, to paraphrase Sheryl Crow, that this change will do us good in all its aspects. But the evidence that we must address it is overwhelming. And the sooner we begin to do that, the better.