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Research in Rural Social Science
Exurbanization, or the migration of urban residents to rural environments, has increased greatly over the past two decades, often motivated by perceptions of an improved quality of life in rural locations.The effects of sudden population changes on forestry can be significant, affecting local forest-based economies and social structures, attitudes about forest management practices, and ultimately forest policies. Research in the rural social sciences is helping elucidate the effects of this phenomenon and provide guidance for future research.
Numerous forested rural areas throughout the northeastern United States are experiencing increasing population pressures. Many exurbanites, seeking to improve their quality of life, have migrated to rural areas near or easily accessible to urban centers (Brown and Wardwell 1980; Hawley and Mazie 1982; Steahr and Luloff 1985). These urban migrants have attitudes, needs, and values that are often very different from those of long-term residents. When translated into policy, these differences have the potential to affect the way rural lands are used (Danbom 1996; Gottfried 1996; Howarth 1996; Logan 1996).
Such shifts are of particular interest in growing rural counties and communities in which there is a historical economic dependence on resource extraction, including timber harvesting. In addition, in regions where large metropolitan population centers dommate decisions about the disposition of natural resources generally located in less-populated rural areas, the potential for conflict between newcomers and long-term residents over land use is heightened.
This exurbanization of the nation's rural countryside is manifested in changing attitudes about the use and management of forests, shifting rural forest economies and social structures, and the development of forestry policies and practices that reflect changing forest values. In an attempt to better understand the effects of this migration on forestry and forestry-dependent communities, this article reviews the rural social science literature pertaining to this important phenomenon.
What Do We Know?
America's forested landscape is changing. A general trend reported by Patrick and Ritchey (1974) indicated a decentralization of industry throughout the country, often to regions that offer employees the quality of life generally associated with rural environs. For example, in Graber's (1974) study of a small, rural Colorado town, it was suggested that a large number of urban Americans would pursue this quality of life by...