Providing an ecologically sound community landscape at the urban–rural fringe: a conceptual, integrated model

The United States has been experiencing extensive rural land conversion associated with suburbanization and urban sprawl in many local areas. Among the social and economic issues associated with urban sprawl is the potential negative impact of rural land conversion and low-density development on local environmental amenities. With effectively irreversible residential growth, how could land managers maintain local ecosystem health while accommodating residential development? In this paper, we propose a landscape planning framework that integrates market-based land conservation programs, conservation subdivision, and landscape-level ecosystem management. We use an empirical example to illustrate the possibility of organization and application of conservation biology, urban planning, and market-based approaches to provide an ecologically sound community landscape at the urban–rural fringe.