At the local level, the agricultural-based economy is less viable. Dividing up the land also threatens the viability of ecosystems. As a result of development, pasture and grasslands are destroyed, wetlands are filled in, and riparian areas are lost as springs are diverted. Many federal government policies, like the death tax, encourage land fragmentation. The net result of the death tax is that land which once provided nutritious beef as well as wildlife habitat instead is used to grow houses, shopping malls and roads.
Wildlife knows no boundaries.
Many big-game animals spend their summers in the mountainous U.S. Forest Service lands, spring and fall on Bureau of Land Management lands, and winters on the lower, more productive, private land. Thus, private landowners supply habitat for wildlife. If private land that is critical winter range is converted from ranching and open space to development, it will result in loss of the winter habitat base and big-game populations will be reduced. As the rural West becomes more suburban, pressures against traditional uses of the land such as ranching and hunting have grown. The recently transplanted urbanite may refuse to allow livestock and hunters on his land.