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- Info
Eight principals for property rights in the anti-sprawl age
| Author: |
Freyfogle, Eric T. |
| Date: |
1999 |
| Periodical: |
William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review |
| Abstract: |
Private property is a central institution in American culture. It is one of the pieces that give the nation its identity, and it has helped account both of the vigor of American democracy and the nation’s remarkable economic growth. Yet if private property has been a strength and virtue, it has also been a liability. Left alone, landowners too often look after their individual interests and act in ways that undercut the well being of surrounding lands and people. Environmental degradation is one of the several disturbing results. Many land uses, appropriate enough in isolation, become problematic when lots of landowners engage in them. Particularly over the past century, intensive land uses have spread all across the landscape, giving rise to new forms of ecological degradation. Ecosystem processes are disrupted in ways that threaten the long-term fertility and health of entire regions. Landscape beauty has suffered, and unregulated congestion has helped separate people from nature in ways that diminish human life. Then there are slow-developing problems, unseen by the ordinary landowner, like soil degradation and declining biological diversity. |
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