CNH-L: Coupled Social and Ecological Consequences of Conservation Easements

一种私人土地保护工具，保护地役权，在过去的三十年里在美国被广泛使用，其受欢迎程度可能与为公共利益而激励私人土地保护的税法相对应。本研究项目将研究美国不同地区地役权持有人、地役权出让方/卖让方、区域土地利用压力以及与受保护土地的联系之间的变化动态如何影响地役权的空间格局、公共利益和生态完整性。这些动力学将在精细尺度上进行检验；国家和区域政策结构将在小块土地一级联系起来。本文将分析保护地役权过程中的公众投入如何影响地役权的空间利用，以及地役权对相邻和县级土地成本的邻里效应。这项研究的结果对公营及私营土地用途规划者十分有用，有助他们更深入了解运输过程及环境结果。学生将接受数据库创建和评估方面的培训，加强国家的科学队伍。采用多元、空间叠加和时间序列分析，将考察政治和法律因素与保护地役权传播之间的关系。区域空间数据集将与县级地役权供给者调查的结果以及精细和粗过滤生态完整性方法相结合，以评估以维持生物完整性为目的的保护地役权在其空间安排中是否比其他保护地役权更有可能为保护区网络做出贡献。这种情况是否更有可能发生在地役权安置过程中受到公众监督的地区，将被确定。将讨论环境结果如何影响地役权决策过程。理论将通过在单一空间和数量框架中检查地役权工具的地理效应以及社会因素如何影响其使用来推进。更广泛的影响将包括使规划者和土地所有者更好地了解完整的保护地役权程序，以及对本科生和研究生的培训。

A private land conservation tool, conservation easements, have become widely used in the United States over the past thirty years, and their popularity may correspond to tax laws creating incentives for private land conservation in the public interest. This research project will examine how shifting dynamics between conservation easement holders, easement donors/sellers, regional land use pressures, and connections to conserved lands are affecting the spatial pattern, public benefit and ecological integrity of conservation easements in different regions of the United States. These dynamics will be examined at the fine scale; national and regional policy structures will be linked at the land parcel-level. How public input during the conservation easement process affects the spatial use of easements, as well as the neighborhood effects of easements on adjacent and county-level land costs, will be analyzed. Results from this research will be useful to land use planners, both public and private, who will benefit from a better understanding of the conveyance process and the environmental outcomes. Students will be trained in database creation and assessment, strengthening the nation's scientific workforce. Employing multivariate, spatial overlay, and time-series analyses, the relationship between political and legal factors and conservation easement propagation will be examined. Regional spatial datasets will be combined with the results from county-level easement donor surveys and both fine and coarse filter ecological integrity approaches to assess whether conservation easements whose purpose is to maintain biological integrity have a higher likelihood of contributing to reserve networks in their spatial arrangement than do other conservation easements. Whether this is more likely to occur in areas with public oversight in the easement placement process will be determined. How the environmental outcomes affect the easement decision process will be addressed. Theory will be advanced by examining the geographic effect of the easement tool, and how social factors may influence its use, in a single spatial and quantitative framework. Broader impacts will include better understanding of the complete conservation easement process for planners and land owners and the training of undergraduate and graduate students.