Disapearing Ranchers

We have discussed various aspects of grazing, mostly involved with the use of the land and a little on the effects of the cattle. However, there are other sides of the issue. It is common knowledge that there are concerns about traditions and ways of life being lost, usually centered around cultures, but there are also traditions being lost from areas that cenered around that one thing. In Montana that way of life consisted greatly of ranches. Due to various reasons that way of life is slowly dissapearing. There are now fewer and fewer individual ranches, the rest of the land is getting turned into "absentee land owner" retreats. I am sure that some of those lands are still being run as ranches, but rather than the family based traditions, I could see how easily it would turn into a kind of movie set vacation area. There are always people who try to do their best to keep together and hold the traditions, is it enough or even needed though? I just wonder what is going to happen later, what kind of world are we building through our actions and the things that we allow to happen? Right now the ranchers are responding to the pressures and imputs they have. For many their response has been to do something different, for others it has been a restiring of traditional means to try to hold things together, such as the neighborhood branding example.
The next question that occurs to me is, is it right that people are allowed to buy up what ever they want to have a vacation home? I know that we can't and shouldn't stop free trade, but what does it do to the areas where it happens. Sun Valley ID has become sort of the place where you would expect to see the "rich and famous" people. It has obviously done wonders for the economy there due to tourism, but is it really desirable. I know that the impression that I have always had is of an area that is stuffy and stiff, one that I personally don't even like to drive through. That kind of thing does not have the same kind of appeal as neighbors getting together to work hard to protect their way of life. I have no idea what kind of political etc. implications this has or even if it is something that should even have been raised, but here it is.