Gas. Crickets. Fishin' worms. Fax.

Lately the American Dream seems to resemble 40 acres of forest instead of white picket fences. But when urbanites start to call the countryside home, more changes than just the menu at the local diner. The advent of telecommuting and the national lust for country living can have disturbing side effects on the long-term maintenance of open lands and the rural cultures that sustain them.

Consider New Hampshire, where an influx of telecommuters is fragmenting wildlife habitat, making it difficult to maintain traditional forestry and farming practices. The best scenario, says Richard Ober of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, would involve small, vibrant communities scattered throughout the landscape. "But that is what is not happening," he says. "We have incremental destruction: Two or three or four acres go at a time. It's just chewing up New Hampshire's forests. The next crop will be streets and houses."

And it's not just the land that changes but the fabric of rural culture itself. In a recent study of long-time residents and newcomers to the inland West, social scientists with the U.S. Forest Service and several universities uncovered unsettling attitudes. "The majority of the newcomers are not civic-minded," reports Pam Case, regional social scientist for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain district. "In fact they have extremely insular attitudes." A small percentage do become politically involved, but often the upshot is escalating clashes between traditional customs and urban aesthetics. Newcomers have filled the game and fish boards of Colorado and other Western states, Case reports, with the result being a harder line taken against traditional outdoor recreational venues.

It's rocky ground for consensus building, but communities are meeting the challenge with educational initiatives such as the Catskills forestry workshops for absentee landowners and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests' field trips to its own carefully managed woodlands. Such forums spread the word that the long-term health of natural resources-based industries can play a major role in maintaining the characteristics of a landscape that proved attractive to outsiders in the first place.

"But the onus is on those that are importing a lifestyle and livelihood that comes from an urban perspective," says Ober. "These newcomers don't need the land to make a living, but their neighbors do. Newcomers need to take time to learn the culture."