Urban Sprawl Affecting Ag
Use In More Ways Than One

STILLWATER, Okla. — Though a decade or two behind Texas, urban sprawl is slowly but surely engulfing parts of Oklahoma, and this university town is right in the middle.

"Oklahoma has less of a problem than, say, Texas," says Oklahoma State University range scientist Dr. Dave Engle.

"What’s happening here is almost an exact replication of what happened between San Antonio and Austin 20 or so years ago. We have a corridor from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, and Stillwater is right in the middle of it."

Extension personnel recently conducted a survey of Payne County producers which showed that they viewed urban sprawl as their number one problem, in part because it has skewed the price of land in the area. Rangeland generally sells for a couple of hundred dollars an acre. That same land, if sold for development purposes, will fetch $1000 an acre on the low end to $3000 an acre on areas with more trees.

"The difference between good ag land and good recreation land is night and day," Engle says. "The best thing if you want to develop an area is let it grow up. The more the trees, the more it’s worth."

An economic brush study conducted at OSU indicated herbicide control actually devalued land because it did what it was supposed to do, kill trees, and in turn lowered the aesthetic value of the property.

Oftentimes, ranchers are forced to sell their land just to keep from declaring bankruptcy.

"Ranchers can’t afford to lease the land, much less buy it," Engle says. "When they look at their options — keeping their land in production for $300 an acre as opposed to selling it for development for $3000 an acre — well, there’s only one real option."

He also notes that most metropolitan areas are in the eastern part of the U.S., where the most productive land is located.

A few years ago, OSU built a $4.3 million golf course which was actually under budget. When it opened, it became the number one public golf course in the nation.

Today, $500,000 homes are being built around Karsten Creek. Builders are required to adhere to certain buffer zones. For example, a house can’t be built in view of the golf course. Buyers seem to have little appreciation for the danger that goes with this so-called aesthetic beauty, experts caution. The practice in many of these new housing additions is just to cut enough trees out of the "forest" to build a house.

"People have cedar trees growing into the eaves of their homes," OSU experimental ranch manager John Weir remarks. "When it burns, their house is gone."

Despite that danger, Engle and Weir say it’s still hard for fire departments and citizens alike to understand the importance and value of conducting prescribed burns. Areas managed with periodic prescribed fires, Engle notes, are at less risk from wildfires.

"Unfortunately, the best education for some is a catastrophic fire," Engle says.

Urban sprawl not only affects landowners who are trying to make a living off their land, it also has an indirect impact on scientists trying to conduct various kinds of range related research. The golf course and new housing addition are just a mile or two from OSU’s Cross Timbers Experimental Ranch. Engle says within five years houses will border their research lands. Scientists involved with prescribed burning research at the experimental Ranch, in particular, are worried that sooner than later, urban sprawl will prevent them from conducting any kind of prescribed burns, whether for management or research purposes.

There are all kinds of moral and ethical issues dealing with urban sprawl, Engle says. For example, the state recently passed a $300 million transportation bill which means the state now has funding to build new roads in previously inaccessible areas. All taxpayers, rich and poor, pay for the impact of urban sprawl.

"Now they want to take sewer water from Stillwater to Karsten creek some 15 miles away. Who pays for that?" Engle asks. "Every resident who lives in Stillwater. The guys with middle to low income are paying for high income affluent citizens to have water and police and fire and paved roads in these newly accessible areas."
Conservation easements, experts say, are the only way lands can be kept from being subdivided. A conservation easement essentially means that the owner of the land signs away his development rights.

"With a conservation easement, at least the rangeland would be retained," Engle says. "Once it’s in concrete and houses, it’s over. You can’t go back."

Research conducted by OSU Extension range specialist Dr. Terry Bidwell and others shows that one of the most negative things done to land is to break it up into small ownerships.

"Payne County was settled during the land run, and every ownership is 160 acres," Bidwell explains. "That is a non-sustainable agriculture operation. That’s nothing more than a hobby. It might return about three percent. It does not make a payment. A big cow herd in this part of the state would be 100 head. Most are 25 head."

There are some on the east and west coasts who have tried to prevent development through legislation, but Bidwell is of the opinion that legislating such things is not a successful way to handle problems. Some of the national and statewide organizations interested in private property rights and agricultural interests alike now believe conservation easements might be a viable option.

In the end, Bidwell says everyone in society must realize that "every right also has a responsibility."

Engle fears that with continued urban sprawl, the future of range management and the role that range scientists play in managing and educating the public about natural resources and the ecosystem will be forever changed.

"Range scientists will be managing smaller and smaller tracts of land," Engle remarks. "The kind of stuff that we do, the applied research, is an endangered species all its own," he adds, "because it’s getting harder and harder to get funding to do this kind of research."

The specialist says he isn’t banking on the growth of urban sprawl slowing anytime soon, but instead is preparing for the changes that will affect his profession.

"The cost of gasoline will have to go sky high before people will quit commuting," Engle remarks. "It will have to get so high, though, that it will likely never happen."