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Abstract:
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"I present an exploratory investigation of changing land ownership and use in a midwestern rural county. Because a considerable portion of the county has a topography too steep for agriculture, much of it consists of forest that is privately owned but left alone except for occasional timber harvests at 50-80-year intervals. As a consequence, much of this steep, forested land has been and still is treated as a commons. Although it is private land it is used by others, in particular for hunting, for mushroom and herbal root digging, and for riding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). But increasingly, larger nonresidence holdings in the county are being sold in smaller parcels to owners who come from outside the county, who build vacation and retirement homes and who are more restrictive about use of their property.
"At the same time, the international conservation group the Nature Conservancy has bought many thousands of acres in the county, to create a preserve for the protection of rare species and their supporting habitats. The Conservancy generally allows others access to their property for hiking and fishing, but does not allow hunting, mushroom gathering, root digging, or ATV-riding.
"I explore these changes in the county, drawing on interviews with landowners in describing how different groups of landowners view use of their land by others and whether change in land use is indeed taking place. I conclude that: 1) It does appear that use of private land as commons in Pine County is being restricted by the sale of larger rural holdings to new owners from outside the county. However, because the sample was small and not truly random, the differences must be interpreted with caution. 2) The Nature Conservancys purchase of land to create a preserve also appears to reduce some uses of those lands as commons but it may also protect other common uses.
"Because similar changes are taking place in many areas of the U.S. (large numbers of people are moving to rural areas) and because the Nature Conservancy is one of the nations largest private landowners and its holdings are growing, these conclusions have application elsewhere and a larger study seems warranted."
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