Explaining Sustainable Private-Land Stewardship Outcomes: Drivers of Social-Ecological Misalignment in Fragmented Lands

Amenity migration and associated land-use changes are transforming working rangelands as new landowners with diverse stewardship objectives increasingly manage smaller, fragmented properties. Explanations of stewardship outcomes often emphasize individual knowledge and capacity while giving less attention to the broader social–ecological conditions affecting private-land sustainability. This study examines whether landowners’ perceptions of wildlife stewardship align with size-adjusted native mammal richness and identifies processes associated with alignment and misalignment. We combined camera-trap observations and semi-structured interviews from 12 wildlife-oriented properties with findings from broader focus groups conducted with Land Steward Amenity Migrants in Texas rangelands. Perceptions and the ecological indicator were misaligned in 75% of cases, with overestimation occurring most frequently. Qualitative analysis associated these patterns with self-referential evaluation processes, limited ecological feedback, institutional guidance mismatched with property scale, and limited relational networks for learning and comparison. These findings indicate that variation in perceived and observed stewardship outcomes cannot be understood through individual capacity alone but reflects interacting individual, ecological, institutional, and relational processes operating across scales. Supporting the long-term sustainability and resilience of fragmented rangelands therefore requires guidance suited to smaller properties, cross-boundary ecological strategies, and stronger opportunities for relational learning and coordination.