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Conservation value of clustered housing developments.

Buffy A Lenth1, Richard L Knight, Wendell C Gilgert

  • 1Department of Forest, Rangeland & Watershed Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1472, USA. buffy.lenth@gmail.com

Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
|September 28, 2006
PubMed
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Clustered housing developments offer no ecological benefits over traditional dispersed housing. Both development types negatively impact native species and favor non-native ones compared to undeveloped areas.

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Conservation Biology
  • Urban Planning

Background:

  • Exurban lands in Colorado are typically divided into large parcels (2-16 ha), creating dispersed housing patterns.
  • Clustered housing developments aim to conserve open space but lack empirical evidence of ecological benefits.
  • Rural land-use planning needs data to support conservation-focused development strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the conservation value of clustered housing developments.
  • To compare clustered developments with dispersed housing and undeveloped areas in Boulder County, Colorado.
  • To inform rural land-use planning with ecological data.

Main Methods:

  • Compared spatial patterns of clustered and dispersed housing developments.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Assessed conservation value using four indicators: songbird densities, ground-nesting bird nest density and survival, mammal presence, and plant species composition (native vs. non-native).
  • Evaluated developments against undeveloped areas in Boulder County.

    • Main Results:

    • Clustered and dispersed housing developments showed no significant differences across most examined ecological variables.
    • Both housing development types exhibited higher densities of non-native and human-commensal species compared to undeveloped areas.
    • Both housing development types showed lower densities of native and human-sensitive species than undeveloped areas.

    Conclusions:

    • Current clustered housing developments do not provide superior conservation benefits compared to dispersed housing.
    • Both development types negatively impact native biodiversity and favor species associated with human presence.
    • Implementing rigorous ecological guidelines and regional-scale planning is crucial for enhancing the conservation value of clustered developments.