Deze studie is een verslag van een kwalitatief onderzoek naar het experiment Gaasterland. Het experiment Gaasterland is de specifieke manier waarop in Gaasterland het EHS-beleid wordt vormgegeven. De ontwikkelingen tussen 1995 en 2005 zijn beschreven.

Because most of Texas consists of privately owned land and the amount of brush cover on rangelands may affect off-site water yields, there has been increasing interest in publicly funded brush clearing programs aimed at increasing water yield. The Pedernales River was selected as 1 of 8 watersheds to determine the feasibility of implementing such a program.

Since 1994, urban-absentee landowners have dominated rural landownership in Texas. This landownership change has created potential environmental problems associated with natural resource management. Few of the new landowners have any formal training in the basics of the soil-plant-animal interface.