Anyone would be hard pressed to come up with the difference between "amenity ranchers" and part-time ranchers, both of which a new study includes in the non-traditional owner category, but there's little question that the growth of non-ranching buyers of large pieces of Western U.S. land have changed the ethos of land use. For one thing, as anyone who has fished the Rockies in the past few decades can tell you, access is more limited. The "I got mine" syndrome that accompanies a 1000% rise in land prices makes all this possible of course. But there is a silver lining, of sorts: greater interest in wildlife protection and land consolidation. An interesting article about the research recently completed by Oregon State University, the University of Colorado and the University of Otago in New Zealand, tells the story.
"'As long as the place looks nice, the owner is happy,' is something [assistant professor Hannah] Gosnell says she often heard from managers. 'One owner wanted his cattle kept from grazing near the main drive into the ranch because he thought they were unsightly.'" In the Corvallis, Oregon Central Valley BusinessTimes.
"We've seen the enemy and it is us."