Land-use reformers redefined private land as a public resource warranting protection

Evidence

“Basically,” Bosselman and Callies explained in The Quiet Revolution, “we are drawing away from the 19th century idea that land’s only function is to enable its owner to make money.” In the debate about land-use legislation, the advocates of regulation argued repeatedly that land was not merely a commodity. Land – even privately owned land – was also a public resource. The Use of Land made that argument succinctly. “It is time to change the view that land is little more than a commodity to be exploited and traded,” the report argued. “We need a land ethic that regards land as a resource which, improperly used, can have the same ill effects as the pollution of air and water, and which therefore warrants similar protection.” — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 964

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Builds directly on my land ethic threads from the trees article and relates to the property-ownership turn documented in this book.
• XREF: connects to: 1970s resource laws shifted federal oversight of western public lands toward conservation. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 428; Republican leaders endorsed a land ethic treating misuse as pollution by 1973 — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 535; State land-use laws redefined land development as a public rather than strictly private matter — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 939 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Entrenched property-ownership ideals defeated the effort to treat land as a social resource #contradicts (0.90) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1077
• Forests changed from common subsistence resources to private monetized assets via land reform. #exemplifies (0.80) — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 34
• Land reforms privatized forest commons to boost farming incentives #expands (0.80) — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 38
• Abuse of land stems from regarding it as owned commodity rather than community #expands (0.75) — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 10