Land Use in the US

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Land Use in the US

• Dana Constantine
• Lesleigh Dexter
• Rick Howard

2
Major Land Uses

• Grassland, pasture, and range
• 31 of land use 578 millions acres
• Decline since mid 60s of 636 million acres
• Reasons for decline
• improved forage quality
• Increased productivity
• declining numbers of domestic animals

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Major Land Uses

• Forest land
• 29 of land use in US
• 553 million acres allowed for timber production
• 65 million acres that prohibit timber production
  (i.e. wilderness areas, state and federal parks)

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Major Land Uses

• Cropland
• 24 of land use 455 million acres
• Designated for crops, pasture and idled cropland
• Lowest amount - 1964 with 444 million acres
• 2 major peaks of
• cropland
• 1949 470 million acres
• between 1978-1982

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Major Land Uses

• Special Uses
• 11 of land use 207 million acres
• Includes
• Urban areas
• Rural transportation
• Rural parks and wildlife
• Defense and industrial uses
• Farmstead/farm roads and lanes
• Other misc. non-farm uses
• Increased 328 from 15 million acres in 1945 to
  64 million acres in 1997

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Major Land Uses

• Miscellaneous other land uses
• 6 of land use 102 million acres
• Consists of
• marshes and swamps not included in other land
  uses
• bare rock areas, deserts
• other uses not inventoried
• Decreased until 1964 but now increasing

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Regional Changes in Land use

• Cropland
• Increased in the Northern Plains, Mountain, Corn
  Belt, Southern Plains and Pacific regions
• Decreased in the Northeast, Appalachian,
  Southeast, Delta and Lake States from
• Failing small farms
• Increased urbanization
• Increased taxes
• Decreased profit margin

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Regional Changes in Land use

• Grassland
• Increased in the Southern Plains and South East
• Decreased in all other areas
• Decreases due to
• reforestation of abandoned small farm
• urbanization
• concentration of the dairy industry
• conversion to cropland

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Regional Changes in Land use

• Forest land
• Increased in the Northeast and Appalachian
  regions
• Due to reforestation of farmlands
• Decreased in the Pacific and Mountain regions
• Due to conversion to recreation and wildlife areas

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Regional Changes in Land use

• Special Uses Land
• Increased in all areas except the Northern Plains
• Due to recreational and wildlife use,
  urbanization, and transportation
• National defense areas and miscellaneous farm
  uses decreased in all areas

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Crop Land Usage

• Crop land idled crop land, crop land in pastures
  and crop land in crops
• Typical harvest
• - 2-3 crop failure
• - 5-10 summer fallow
• Corn, soybeans, wheat and hay account
  for 80 of harvested crops

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Federal Programs for Idle Crop Land

• Acreage Reduction Program required participants
  in USDA commodity programs to idle a percentage
  of crop acreage
• Eliminated in 1996 Farm Act
• Conservation Reserve Program
• current program has 30 million acres of idle
  crop land

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Federal Lands

• 563 million acres of U.S. are federally owned
• BLM manages 264 million acres
• FS manages 192 million acres
• Both BLM and FS manage land for
• Grazing
• Timber
• Oil, gas, and minerals
• Recreation
• Conservation practices
• FWS and NPS manage the remainder for recreation
  and conservation

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Use of Federal Lands

• Conflicts can arise
• when dealing with the
  management of federal lands
• Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act -1960
• - Federal land must be
• managed for multiple use
• Timber, grazing and mining
• vs. conservation and recreation

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Federal Restrictions on Public and Private Land
Use

• Government Regulations
• Endangered Species Act
• Clean Water Act
• Conservation Easements
• Wetlands Reserve Program
• Federal Tax Codes
• Conservation Contracts
• Conservation Reserve Program

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Urbanization

• Land converted to urban use comes from several
  different land uses
• Conversion to urban use is mainly irreversible
• Urbanization impacts many facets
• food and fiber production
• open spaces
• rural lifestyles
• local rural economies
• unique farmlands
• infrastructure costs
• watershed protection

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Urbanization

• Most urban areas are surrounded by prime farmland
  and expansion must occur on the surrounding land
• The main concern is that all prime farmland will
  be converted into urban use areas

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Wetlands

• Wetlands provide
• Wildlife habitat
• Storm-water storage
• Groundwater recharge
• Pollution control
• Recreation
• 1780 221 million acres of wetlands
• Currently - 124 million acres of wetlands
• 80 of wetlands lost were converted to
  agricultural lands.
• 90 of current wetlands are on non-federal rural
  lands

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Protection of Wetlands

• Agriculture policies are increasingly emphasizing
  wetland conservation
• 1990 1996 Farm Acts
• Swampbuster
• any conversion of wetlands means loss of
  eligibility for all farm program benefits
• Wetlands Reserve Program
• encourages wetland restoration with payments and
  cost shares to farmers

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Farm Land

• Farm real estate is the main source for
  collateral for farm loans
• In 2000, 54 of total farm sector debt was real
  estate debt
• Avg. farmland values have increased from
  599/acre to 1,130/acre

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Cash Rents

• Cash rent
• amount of cash paid by a tenant to a landowner
  for the use of a parcel of farmland
• Approximately 41 of farmland is operated under
  some form of lease
• To tenants, cash rents represent a major expense
• High value crops tend to bring high cash rents
  (ex. California, Midwest)

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Land Tenure

• Rental Advantages
• Access to more land without capital
• Avoid risk of asset depreciation
• Flexibility of size and types of land use

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Grazing Fees

• Grazing fee
• the use of pasture or rangeland where payments
  are based on grazing units instead of acres
• Grazing unit ? Animal Unit Month
• One cow or cow-calf pair OR seven goats/sheep
• Avg. 12.60 per AUM in 2000
• Fees have been rising over the last decade

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Agricultural Real Estate Taxes

• Property taxes are a direct cost to landowners
• But when landowners rent farmland, those taxes
  are passed on to the tenant ? cost of production
  for all operators

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Encouraging Farming

• All 50 states have laws on preferential land-use
  assessment
• These laws permit farmland devoted to farming be
  assessed based on its use as farmland
• Extremely beneficial to farmland owners near
  urban areas
• Reward farms and ranches for providing open
  space, habitat for wildlife, and environmental
  amenities

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Determining Farmland Value

• Intrinsic value to farmers
• Recreational purposes
• Fee-hunting/fee-recreation
• Wildlife viewing
• Interest rates
• Higher interest rates ? lower land values (mid to
  late 1970s)
• Lower interest rates ? higher land values
  (1981-1985)

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Determining Farmland Value

• Conversion of farmland to non-farm uses
• Biggest influence on farmland values
• Non-farm influence 25 of the market value of
  US farmland
• Happens near urban area
• Government policies
• Federal commodity support programs
• Farm credit programs
• Habitat protection laws
• Environmental regulations
• Infrastructure development (roads, dams)

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Non-market Public Goods of Farmland

• Farmland provides non-monetary benefits
• rural amenities like recreation, aesthetic
  enjoyment
• Areas high in amenities grow much quicker than
  other areas
• Amenities cant be bought or sold
• Need social actions (i.e. legislation) to offset
  the markets inability to account for these
  valued non-market goods

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Non-market Public Goods of Farmland

• State and local land use policies primary means
  of preserving rural amenities
• Encourage the retention of private land as
  undeveloped or open space land
• Federal role is limited but expanding
• Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act
  (FAIR) protects prime/unique farmland from
  non-agricultural uses
• Farmland Protection Program (FPP) matches funds
  from state and local farmland protection programs

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U.S. Land Ownership Farm Structure
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Privately Owned Land

• Farm Numbers
• Maximum 7 Million 1935
• Major decline between 1940 1960
• Numbers of farms decreased but the amount of
  farmland did not

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• Farm Types
• According to USDAs Economic Research Service
  (ERS)
• Small Family
• - limited resource
• - retirement
• - residential / lifestyle
• - farming occupation low sales
• - farming occupation high sales
• Large Family
• Very Large Family
• Non-Family

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Distribution of Conservation Program Payments

• Farming occupation High sales small farms,
  large family farms, and very large family farms
• 75 of WRP CRP commodity payments
• Farming occupation Low sales small farms,
  residential / lifestyle, and retirement farms
• 25 of WRP CRP commodity payments

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• Land Use

• Retirement
• Residential / lifestyle
• Farm-occup. low sales
• Non-family

• 50 grazing land
• 25 33 cropland

• Large
• Very Large

• 50 60 cropland
• 30 40 grazing land

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Three Keys to the Tenure / Conservation
Relationship

• Tenures impact depends on timing magnitude of
  costs/returns from the conservation practice
  under study
• Different lease arrangements influence renters
  conservation decisions
• Land characteristics vary between land operated
  by renters and owners

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Concentration of Production

• Concentration of Production more livestock on
  fewer farms
• 1997 50 of farm sales came from 2 of U.S.
  farms only 15 of the land
• Higher concentrations raise environmental
  concerns
• Large livestock farms
• Land absorption ability 23 nitrogen and
  phosphorous
• Overgrazing

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