Whose Sense of Place? A Political Ecology of Amenity Development

Using a political ecology framework, this chapter examines the ways in which sense of place and amenity migration contribute to alternative residential development, which relies on uneven use of conservation subdivision features in the American West. Using case studies from Central Oregon, this chapter demonstrates how senses of place and developer decision-making are tied to wider political economic changes. It highlights the roles that amenity migrants and developers, two groups that are sometimes identical, play in landscape transformations that simultaneously draw on a particular sense of place and commodify landscapes in new ways

Modeling the effects of population growth on water resources: a CGE analysis of the South Platte River Basin in Colorado

R11, R15, Q25,

Recreational Amenities, Rural Migration Patterns, and the Great Recession

Natural and recreational amenities have played an important role in drawing migrants to rural areas in the USA over the past 40 years. However, less is known about the independent role of desirable recreational amenities in recent migration patterns, whether these patterns vary by age, and how the most recent economic recession affected them. I find that counties with desirable recreational amenities experienced net in-migration from 2000 to 2010 regardless of other county-level attributes, although the direction and magnitude of the effect varied when taking the age group of migrants into account. The recreation status of a county was a predictor of out-migration among emerging adults and in-migration for all other age groups. The Great Recession had a significant impact on migration trends in rural areas, including reducing the effect of recreational amenities in migration. These findings highlight the importance of refining the definition of “amenities,” how broader economic trends impact growth patterns in rural places, and the age-specific nature of the amenity migration trend. Knowledge about the current drivers of population patterns in rural places can help stakeholders better plan for future population trends and accommodate new or existing residents in rural recreation destinations. This study builds on existing amenity growth literature by providing a more contextual analysis of this demographic trend