Rural Land Concentration & Protected Areas: Recent Trends from Montana and Greater Yellowstone

• DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2022.2038318
• Publication Date: 2022-02-23T10:40:28Z
• Authors: Julia H. Haggerty; Kathleen Epstein; Hannah Gosnell; Jackson Rose; Michael Stone
• Keywords: Fragmentation

Where agricultural land use and biodiversity conservation values overlap, science has tended to focus on the challenges posed by ownership fragmentation. However, dynamics of concentration also affect rural landscapes economies upon which increasingly depends. In this study, we provide a methodological approach measuring using parcel-level data generate description private landownership trends at boundary Northern Rockies Great Plains, two ecoregions global significance. Across our 25m-acre study region in Montana, USA large increased 7 percent between 2005 2018. Growth county's largest landholding through agglomeration properties into single mega-estate emerges as recurring trend. Other drivers contribute concentration, suggesting mix opportunities that merits further research consideration academic resource management stakeholders.