Land Use and Landscape Change in the Colorado Mountains I: Theory, Scale, and Pattern

Abstract

Residential and commercial land development quickened during the 1990s throughout the U.S. Rocky Mountains, especially in Colorado, increasing the pace and extent of regional land use and landscape change. Unlike previous booms in mining, cattle, or energy, the current development wave is driven by growth in the secondary and tertiary economies--services, recreation, and information businesses-instead of commodity production. The result is sprawling land-use conversion, mostly from agricultural to residential, in even the most rural areas. This development pattern is examined in light of mountain and rural land-use theory, and its effects are evaluated at three scales in the Colorado mountains-regional, landscape, and site. The social and ecological impacts cited in previous rural development literature are evident, but also documented are landscape effects associated with the particular affluence of Colorado mountain development and the emergence of far-reaching rural sprawl and gentrification. Current development tends more than in the past to fragment land ownership, steepen land-use gradients at public/private boundaries, and increase human presence and disturbance in the urban/wildland interface. The paper concludes with suggestions for planning focused at the landscape scale.