Human interactions with ecological systems are typically described as impacts. Thinking of culture not only as the source of impacts but also as the source of clues to what motivates human behavior may help us integrate human effects into landscape ecological research and action. We can simulate and model the landscape ecological effects not only of current trends but also of distinctly different futures. Motivations may be difficult to change, but the particular behaviors that disturb, pollute, and consume landscapes may be malleable to the extent that human needs, including cultural preferences and desires, continue to be met (Bailly et al., 2000).

For example, two very different land-use behaviors, sprawl and urban habitat restoration, may be motivated by similar needs. Both sprawl, the large-lot development pattern that has spread from metropolitan farmland to scenic rangeland and wildlands, and habitat restoration of abandoned urban industrial sites may fulfill the desire to live close to nature (Strong, 1965; Grove and Cresswell, 1983; Nelessen, 1994; Hough, 1995; Nassauer, 1995; Romme, 1997; Nasar, 1998). Sprawl disturbs habitats, pollutes water and air, and consumes agricultural land. Urban habitat restoration establishes small patches that may have aggregative effects across the larger landscape matrix (Collinge, 1996; Corry and Nassauer, 2002). If we understand the desire to live close to nature as part of what motivates people to choose to live on large lots far from traditional centers of cities and towns, we can propose different ways to meet the same perceived need.