It is important to understand the connection between the creation of corridors which lead to connectivity and land use planning because that is the ultimate goal, controlling land use. Once connectivity is achieved the remaining goal is to impose regulations that tell landowners and communities how private land is used.
The article, Land use planning: A potential force for retaining habitat connectivity in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Beyond, details some of the regulations that should be integrated into comprehensive plans, usually created by counties. That means commissioners, who you elect to represent you, might not be listening to you if outside organizations influence them to incorporate regulations they design into your plan. In Section 6. Other Governance and Coordination Options, 6.1 states, "Another approach is to allow a non-governmental organization (NGO) to coordinate land use planning activities. This already occurs for the Yellowstone-to-Yukon (Y2Y) initiative...". In Section 7. Private Property Rights, it states "Integrating private land into preservation oriented regional land use planning remains our “stiffest challenge”...". And why wouldn't it be, private property owners retain the right to determine how their community is developed and use their property accordingly. But the NGOs don't believe it should be that way. Section 9.2 outlines some of the options for land use planning goals: 1) GYE counties could plan together (Gude et al., 2006) in the best interest of park and national forest biota. If they wished to do so, counties could exert more power in controlling private land development. 2) Some authors have discussed other systems of governance. 3) High value private lands in the GYE and beyond have been identified by the Heart of the Rockies Initiative. In Section 10. Conclusion, some other observations include (1) the need for regional planning for protected areas is a given. (4) various more effective county regulations and zoning could be imposed to preserve open space. "...positive things might occur using existing DOI “Large Landscape Cooperatives” providing some potentially voluntary members like county governments could then exert some of their land use planning authority in the best interest of wide ranging national park and national forest biota." Note that first reference to regional planning, no longer would it be local municipal or county planning, where you live would be dumped into the same regulations as an entire region. One more jurisdictional boundary removed. These conservation NGOs have one thing in mind, how the landscape should be and how you should comply with their idea of how it should be used. But, they need the first stepping stones with overpasses and corridor creation to "connect" the land together, which in turn will justify how that "connected" land will be regulated.
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