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Land Fragmentation and Heirs Property: Current Issues and Policy Responses

Author

Listed:
  • Kurt Smith

    (Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA)

  • Frederick Cubbage

    (Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA)

Abstract

Land fragmentation continues to be a challenge throughout the world, the United States, and particularly in the rapidly growing Southeast, as well as every state with a metropolitan area that abuts rural lands. With a United States population expected to grow to more than 500 million by 2060, it will present exceptional challenges for planners and policy makers to preserve important agricultural lands for farms and forests to provide both food and fiber, as well as to provide a host of ecosystem services and enhance the quality of life for our growing population. These issues of fragmentation are extremely substantial for African American, other minority, and limited-income landowners in the U.S. South, who often lack wills and have lands that are broken up into small parcels, or have divided ownership rights in one parcel, when passed on to heirs. Existing efforts can be expanded to provide tools and incentives for the owners of hiers property and other working lands to preserve them, and state and municipal planners will need to promote development plans and practices thoughtfully and strategically in order to prevent the projected loss of nearly 18 million acres of working lands by the year 2040.

Suggested Citation

  • Kurt Smith & Frederick Cubbage, 2024. "Land Fragmentation and Heirs Property: Current Issues and Policy Responses," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:4:p:459-:d:1370394
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yanhua Xie & Mitch Hunter & Ann Sorensen & Theresa Nogeire-McRae & Ryan Murphy & Justin P. Suraci & Stacy Lischka & Tyler J. Lark, 2023. "U.S. Farmland under Threat of Urbanization: Future Development Scenarios to 2040," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Narducci, Jenna & Quintas-Soriano, Cristina & Castro, Antonio & Som-Castellano, Rebecca & Brandt, Jodi S., 2019. "Implications of urban growth and farmland loss for ecosystem services in the western United States," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-11.
    3. Gilbert, Jess & Wood, Spencer D. & Sharp, Gwen, 2002. "Who Owns the Land? Agricultural Land Ownership by Race/Ethnicity," Rural America/ Rural Development Perspectives, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 17(4), December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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