Re-Creating the Sierra: Exurban Ideologies and Landscape Change in Nevada County, California

University Of Oregon Eugene, Eugene OR

Investigators

Abstract

This study documents the interactions between cultural, social, and environmental change in an exurban landscape since the late 1950s. The research uses a case study of Nevada County, California-an area representative of many formerly rural, resource-dependent communities that are increasingly dominated by in-migrants from urban areas seeking cultural and natural amenities. The study will survey a stratified random sample of 150 exurban households. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis of time-series aerial photography will then be used in combination with the quantitative survey and qualitative ethnographic social research methods and historical data sets to document relationships between cultural, social, and landscape change on these private rural-residential landholdings. Using recent theories of place and landscape from human geography, the study documents relationships between owners' images (or 'ideologies') of rural places, their land use practices, and environmental changes on their parcels over time. By establishing categories of owner ideology, land use practices, and associated environmental changes, a multifactorial analysis of variance method will be used to verify relationships. An estimated 60 million Americans live in once-rural areas defined as exurban, and this category of land use is expected to increase dramatically in the next decades. 'Rural sprawl' has attracted considerable political concern, in part because the areas most attractive to exurban migrants are often part of important, unique, and fragile ecosystems. Balancing growth and environmental protection in such areas poses a major challenge. Yet there are significant gaps in our current understanding of the processes of exurban growth. In particular, little attention has been given to the heterogeneous character of exurban growth, or the cultural basis of this heterogeneity. Evidence from Nevada County indicates that exurban landowners use a wide range of land use practices and have diverse ideas of the rural landscape-from those who seek to recreate a suburban lifestyle in a rural area, to those who seek a romanticized 'cowboy' lifestyle, to those who seek closeness to nature. Although other research on exurban growth has documented the social forces driving exurban migration, this project focuses on the ways that diverse cultural perceptions shape exurban practices and environmental changes. A better understanding of the cultural dimensions of land use change in exurban areas is recognized as a necessary foundation for more effective policies to address the challenges of exurban growth.