The Appalachian Land Ownership Survey was launched by the Appalachian Land Ownership Task Force in 1978. The survey was created in order to understand the demographics of land ownership within the Appalachian mountain region. This survey spanned the area across 420 different counties from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

. The main focus of the survey was to identify patterns within land ownership, specifically absentee owners and the effects on regional development in the areas. It is mandatory for agricultural land owners in the United States to participate in these surveys to account for their production, financing and inputs within each state.

Absentee ownership

Absentee owners are considered to be private companies within the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

industries as well as some National and State parks. Private companies came to the Appalachian mountains to invest in the land with hopes to profit off of the resources. For example, 93 percent of the land owners in West Virginia were absentee owners by the year 1810. As of 1981, absentee owners in the Appalachian mountain regions own a total of 51 percent of the land. In 80 counties throughout Appalachia, these private companies own land in almost half of the surface area; 43 percent of the land is owned by private companies and 8 percent is owned by the Government.

Natural resource mining

The Appalachian region is well known for its abundance of

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

, and many other natural resources that have led to the extraction of these resources. In the mid 1800s, the demand for coal grew, which caused an abundance of coal companies to set up mine sites throughout the Appalachian Mountains. During this time, the Appalachian region was the top producer of coal for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Up until 1990, Appalachia was producing most of the counties coal with

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

being the top production states. West Virginia alone produces nearly half of the regions coal and holds the highest rate of coal employment.Hodge, Dan (March 2016)
"Appalachian Coal Industry, Power Generation and Supply Chain"
(PDF). Appalachian Regional Commission.

Taxation system failure

Corporations normally have large deductions on their

taxes A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

in comparison to the average land owner, so the land under possession of absentee owners is taxed significantly less. Companies mining in the Appalachians take up a large portion of land, which leaves a significantly smaller amount of

tax revenue Tax revenue is the income that is collected by governments through taxation. Taxation is the primary source of government revenue. Revenue may be extracted from sources such as individuals, public enterprises, trade, royalties on natural resour ...

than if the majority was owned by locals. Property taxes are a primary source for government supported projects managing everything from roads and education to

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

. Property values have gone up over 300 percent since 1977, dramatically increasing the cost of property taxes. Due to the low taxes the natural wealth of the area, there is a lack of monetary support for civil services.

Economic growth

The dramatic rise of coal brought many private companies into rural Appalachia. These private companies came to the Appalachia region with hope to invest in and profit from the beautiful, yet valuable resources. Railroad companies, steel mills, textiles factories, and steam boats were the biggest users of coal during the Industrial Revolution.

Cultural effects

In a study done by Dr. David Rouse in 1995, he concluded that the large amount of corporate land ownership in the

Appalachians The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

restricted the public access to land, allowed corporations to have more political influence, and decreased civic engagement within the area. Although the Appalachian mountains are filled with an abundance of resources, these areas are often notoriously poor. In 1981 it was found that absentee owners and corporations held up to 43% of the land in the Appalachian mountain region. While these corporations were benefitting from the land, proportionally they were putting very little back into the area in terms of taxes paid. Corporations take up a very large portion of flat land which would be useful to build houses on, and pay a far smaller percentage of tax on that land than the average homeowner would. Many Appalachian Mountain Communities cannot expand their population due to the lack of space to build homes and an inability to create new infrastructure with less tax revenue.

References

{{Reflist Appalachia