Land conservation initiatives in the American West: An examination of varying levels of support

Local land conservation ballot initiatives in the American West are a paradoxical phenomenon whereby citizens use direct democracy to raise taxes or issue bonds to purchase private land for public open space. The support for these local open space initiatives is remarkable, given the volatile clashes over federal public land use and the cultural collisions over the West's economic and social changes. The central focus of this study is to examine if community characteristics and land use designations of local municipalities and counties help explain the varying levels of support for the open space ballot initiatives in these American Western localities.; Two broad research questions are addressed. First, do New West communities support open space initiatives at higher rates than Old West communities? Second, is there any relationship between the federal and state public land designation in the community and support for land conservation initiatives? The research employs a multi-methodological approach, using statistical modeling and inductive grounded work with Geographic Information Systems mapping.; The results of this study confirm that New West communities are more likely to have higher levels of support for open space initiatives; however, Old West communities do not reveal a statistically significant relationship with lower levels of support for land conservation ballot initiatives. Additionally, civic social capital is found to be a significant predictor for support of open space initiatives at the county-level, whereas environmental social capital is not. The GIS results also reveal that specific combinations of federal land designation may impact support for land conservation initiatives.