The Effects of Environmental Amenities on Agricultural Land Values

Ascribing agricultural land values solely to productive capacity does not accurately capture the impact of environmental amenities on western land prices. We analyze rural land prices in Wyoming using a hedonic price model. Geographic information systems data includes on-parcel wildlife and fish habitat, scenic view attributes, and distance to protected federal lands. Feasible generalized least squares is used to address spatial autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity. Results indicate that environmental amenities contribute to land values. Examination of the marginal effects of amenities on parcel price furthers these conclusions. Environmental amenities contributions to land prices may guide resource allocation decisions across diverse demands.