Pacific Northwest Research Station

Title: Where will they all live? The enduring puzzle of land use change.

Author: Duncan, Sally.

Date: 2000

Source: Science Findings. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. April (23): 1-5

Description: 

A concern among land managers is land use. Who is using the land? What is it being used for? Is the amount of farm and forest land lost to development really increasing? Research forester and economist Jeff Kline and research forester Ralph Alig at the PNW Research Station are conducting studies to answer questions about land development in western Oregon and Washington.

A key finding of that research includes the projections of land use through 2050 indicate an increase in urban lands of 31.5 percent in western Oregon and 34.4 percent in western Washington. Potential reduction in the area of forest land in these two areas is 1.7 and 2.4 percent, respectively, and in farm land, 4.5 and 14.9 percent, respectively.

Kline and Alig use an empirical model to help define and project land use change. Tension will probably always exist among people of opposing viewpoints about land use. Perhaps this research will assist in moving people toward defining and developing the types of communities in which they will want to live in the future.

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Citation

Duncan, Sally.  2000.  Where will they all live? The enduring puzzle of land use change..   Science Findings. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. April (23): 1-5