ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of land ethics research, some findings and some of the potential problems associated with land ethics research as it pertains to the issues of culture, ethnicity, and the wildland-urban interface. The concept of land ethics has received increasing emphasis as the pressures and impacts upon the natural resource base have grown. Implicit in the increase has been the realization that land ethics are neither simple nor easy to investigate. Any comprehensive understanding of a concept as complex as land ethics involves a cognizance of the "community of life" from which the individual is a member. Moreover, much of the development of a land ethic is influenced by the culture and ethnicity of the individual. Ethnicity would disappear in most urban and industrial societies, including the United States. A number of scholars believe that cultural and ethnic differences will become more evident and apparent.
