Economic conditions and tax policies affect land-use decisions everywhere, but their effects on the rate of change in land use are particularly large in the wildland-urban interface. Efforts to improve the southern economy as a whole have resulted in the rapid growth of urban and suburban areas and a corresponding loss of farms and forests as less expensive rural land becomes attractive for development. Land-use conversion leads to a cycle were property values increase and returns to rural land-use investments such as farming and forestry decrease. Additionally, Federal and State taxes affect every aspect of rural land ownership. The land itself is taxed annually, income derived from the land is taxed, the transfer of land and other assets from one generation to another is taxed, and in several States, the act of removing timber or minerals from the land is taxed. Taxes, in combination with high land prices, make it difficult for some owners to keep their land in rural uses or to transfer their land to the next generation. Despite numerous examples of the impact of these trends, as well as a general understanding of cause and effect, economic and tax relationships and their contribution to land use change at the urban wildland interface are poorly understood. Tools to help landowners maintain their land in a rural condition exist, but are either underutilized or of limited effectiveness without a concerted effort by policymakers to integrate and coordinate Federal and State tax codes and landowner assistance programs.