front cover of Holding Our Ground
Holding Our Ground
Protecting America's Farms And Farmland
Tom Daniels and Deborah Bowers
Island Press, 1997

Farmers, who own or rent most of the private land in America, hold the key not only to the nation's food supply, but also to managing community growth, maintaining an attractive landscape, and protecting water and wildlife resources.

While the issue of protecting farmland and open space is not new, the intensity of the challenge has increased. Farmers are harder pressed to make a living, and rural and suburban communities are struggling to accommodate increasing populations and the development that comes with them. Holding Our Ground can help landowners and communities devise and implement effective strategies for protecting farmland. The book:

  • discusses the reasons for protecting farmland and how to make those reasons widely known and understood
  • describes the business of farming, federal government farm programs, and the role of land in farmers's decisions
  • analyzes federal, state, and local farmland protection efforts and techniques
  • explores a variety of land protection options including purchase of development rights; transfer of development rights; private land trusts; and financial, tax, and estate planning
  • reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the farmland protection tools available
The authors describe the many challenges involved in protecting farmland and explain how to create a package of techniques that can meet those challenges. In addition, they offer appendixes with model zoning ordinances, nuisance disclaimers, conservation easements, and other documents that individuals and communities need to carry out the programs discussed.

Holding Our Ground provides citizens, elected officials, planners, and landowners with a solid basis for understanding the issues behind farmland protection, and will be an invaluable resource in developing techniques and programs for achieving long-term protection goals.

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front cover of When City and Country Collide
When City and Country Collide
Managing Growth In The Metropolitan Fringe
Tom Daniels
Island Press, 1999

Strips of urban and suburban "fabric" have extended into the countryside, creating a ragged settlement pattern that blurs the distinction between rural, urban, and suburban. As traditional rural industries like farming, forestry, and mining rapidly give way to residential and commercial development, the land at the edges of developed areas -- the rural-urban fringe -- is becoming the middle landscape between city and countryside that the suburbs once were.

When City and Country Collide examines the fringe phenomenon and presents a workable approach to fostering more compact development and better, more sustainable communities in those areas. It provides viable alternatives to traditional land use and development practices, and offers a solid framework and rational perspective for wider adoption of growth management techniques.

The author:

  • reviews growth management techniques and obstacles to growth management
  • examines the impact of federal spending programs and regulations on growth management
  • presents a comprehensive planning process for communities and counties
  • discusses state-level spending programs and regulations
  • illustrates design principles for new development
  • looks at regional planning efforts and regional governments
  • discusses ways to protect farmland, forestland, and natural areas to help control sprawl

The book also features a series of case studies -- including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Larimer County, Colorado; Chittenden County, Vermont; and others -- that evaluate the success of efforts to control both the size of the fringe and growth within the fringe. It ends with a discussion of possible futures for fringe areas.

When City and Country Collide is an important guide for planners and students of planning, policymakers, elected officials, and citizens working to minimize sprawl.

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