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Urbanization has increasingly encroached upon many rural landscapes. The increased demand for development, and associated increase in land prices and property taxes has forced many rural landowners to subdivide or sell their property and led to adverse impacts on important ecosystem functions supported by rural landscapes. However, there has been limited research on how, in the face of such changes, landowners’ attachment to their property may affect their intention to retain their property, and effort invested to sustain important ecosystem features and enhance their land management capacity. Our study examined how landowners’ evaluation of change interacted with three dimensions of place attachment (place functions/features, place emotion/identity, and social bonding) to influence their intention to retain their rural property and engage in property-protective behaviors. The study was conducted with …