Land ownership in the United States is understood as a bundle of sticks representing rights to sell, lease, bequeath, mine, subdivide, develop, and so forth. The right of exclusion allows owners to prevent others from exercising a right of access. Historically, access and then exclusion contributed to a sense of self-determination and personal freedom in the American landscape. Governing agencies reserve four rights for their use: condemnation, regulation, taxation, and escheat.

This study uses a segmentation technique to classify landowners into four relevant groups to explore their information-seeking behavior about the red oak borer—an insect pest found primarily in the Ozark and Ouachita regions of Arkansas. Cluster Analysis technique was used to classify landowners into four groups—amenity focused rural, amenity focused urban, passive rural, and passive urban landowners—based on ownership objectives and rural and urban residence of the landowner.

Rural landscapes are increasingly diverse and heterogeneous, involving a mix of small and large parcels, amenity and agricultural properties, and resident and absentee owners. Managing invasive plants in landscapes with changing ownership requires understanding the views and practices of different landowners. We surveyed landowners in two rural valleys with 26% absentee ownership and a large number of small parcels in Missoula County, Montana. Landowners indicated a high level of awareness and concern about weeds; more than 80% agreed that weeds are a problem in their valley.

A longitudinal study of California hardwood rangelands shows significant change in landowner characteristics and goals. Results of three studies spanning 1985 to 2004 were used to develop and evaluate a multiagency research and extension program known as the Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program. Program-sponsored education and research aimed at encouraging landowners to change woodland management has been reflected in a significant reduction in oak cutting and an increase in oak planting.

Understanding factors that influence the supply of private acreage for lease hunting has become increasingly important to sustaining hunting. Improving on existing studies that mostly utilized landowners' responses from contingent surveys, we adopted a different approach to this question by analyzing 2009 market data from Georgia counties.

Successful prairie restoration will depend in part on convincing private landowners with agricultural and recreational use goals to implement appropriate rangeland management practices, such as prescribed burning and cattle grazing, to control invasive species and encroachment of woody plants. However, landowners have been slow to adopt appropriate practices in the US Midwest. The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes and behaviors of private landowners toward prescribed burning and moderate stocking as rangeland management tools.

Early-successional habitats (e.g. grasslands, shrublands, and early-successional forests) and their associated wildlife are declining throughout the northeastern United States. State wildlife agencies are generally charged with conserving all native wildlife and their habitats within their respective state. However, some have suggested that state wildlife agencies in the region are not addressing the decline of early-successional wildlife and habitats sufficiently.

There is an extraordinary assortment of technical approaches to conserving carnivore populations, but the effectiveness of conservation activities is rarely evaluated. Accordingly, we initiated a study to assess the impact of several conservation interventions on the dynamics and persistence of a leopard (Panthera pardus) population in Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa. These included revisions of the statutory systems that regulate problem animal control and trophy hunting, and we instituted a program intended to reduce human-leopard conflict in the region.