Society faces difficult choices over whether to allow habitat conversion for economic gain versus conserving habitat to protect biodiversity. Because the conservation of biodiversity and the material well being of the human population are both important goals, it is important to set conservation...

A modified version of this article has been published in the May 2007 issue of the journal Ecological Economics. This paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of municipal-level open space referenda, both the decision to hold a referendum and referendum results, across the entire...