$0.00 – $6.50
Patrick Field, Ric Richardson, and John Harrison
Eight-person facilitated negotiation among seven landowners to develop voluntary private land-use plan to provide financial security while preserving open space and agricultural land
SCENARIO:
Home Valley is in the rural American West where ranching, hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreations are the norm. Many changes are threatening the valley's traditional life. Newcomers are buying up the land, forcing up real estate prices, and making it more difficult to keep the land in agricultural production. The new land development often does not respect the wide open spaces and privacy of traditional land uses. Many ranchers' children are moving away, not interested in the financial risk and endless hard work that ranching entails. Some say that elk, deer, antelope, and other game habitats are shrinking in the face of the boom.
This negotiation is among seven local landowners, aided by a facilitator, who have gathered to develop a private land use plan. This effort does not involve government intervention or regulation. It would be a strictly voluntary agreement aimed at providing financial security while preserving open space and agricultural land.
The two main issues are the location of potential development in the valley, and the number of developable parcels per owner. In addition, each of the parties has a number of "tradable" items that they either want to secure from, or trade to, another party. These include viewsheds, hunting rights, grazing/haying leases, conservation easements, money, developable units, and trusts and partnerships.
This simulation offers participants a low-stakes, non-personalized, experiential means to explore the notion of private land use planning. At the very least, participants should gain a heightened awareness of how private negotiation among landowners can be applied in the real-life situations that many Western landowners are facing today.
MAJOR LESSONS:
Participants should gain a heightened awareness of how private negotiation among landowners can be applied in the real-life situations that many Western landowners are facing today. Key learning topics include private land planning, brokering common as well as individual agreements, integrating numerous parties' multiple interests into a shared agreement, coalition formation, and facilitation.
MECHANICS:
Facilities needed:
Large room with table with seating for 8. Flipchart, marker, large scale map of home valley, calculator.
Space for private breakouts.
Estimated Time Requirements:
Reading and preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 120 minutes
Debrief: 50 minutes
Written evaluation: 10 minutes
Total: 4 hours
TEACHING MATERIALS:
Teacher's Package (65 pages total) includes:
- General Instructions
- Confidential Instructions for landowner neighbors: L. Wealth, R. Hunt, C. County, P. Rights, L. Eagle, E. Taxes, and M. Sell; and for facilitator L. Trust
- Teaching Note
KEYWORDS:
Land use dispute resolution; agricultural negotiations; regional policy disputes; mobilization of civil society
Open Lands Attributes
Time required: | 2-3 hours |
---|---|
Number of participants: | 8 |
Teams involved: | No |
Agent present: | None |
Neutral third party present: | Facilitator |
Scoreable: | Yes |
Teaching notes available: | Yes |