Crossing boundaries on the ground through partnerships

The implications of ownership When you own the land, things are different. In the “bundle of sticks ” analogy widely used to describe ownership rights, “fee simple ” ownership means you get the whole bundle, the right to decide what happens on that piece of ground. While this control is not absolute, as society places certain restrictions on private landowners in the form of zoning, environmental protection standards, and other community stan-dards that protect public health and safety, landowners are able to decide who can use the land, or not, and whether to sell off or lease some of those rights conveyed by ownership to others. Lands that become our parks and preserves are generally acquired by govern-ments through purchase or donation. This fee-simple ownership of public parks and other conservation lands provides the clear and unambiguous authority needed to manage lands effectively. If we had to manage parks that were mosaics of privately owned lands, we would have to collect the owners of each parcel every time some management decision had to be made and get the owners to agree to allow that actio