However, the remaining vast tracts of unsettled land were often used as a commons, or, in the American west, "open range." As degradation of habitat developed due to overgrazing and a tragedy of the commons situation arose, common areas began to either be allocated to individual landowners via mechanisms such as the Homestead Act and Desert Land Act and fenced in, or, if kept in public hands, leased to individual users for limited purposes, with fences built to separate tracts of public and private land.
Privacy fencing is the use of fences to protect privacy, usually by preventing outsiders from seeing onto a property. There are cultural differences with regards to the use of fences around properties. For instance, it is common in European countries to put a fence around the entire border of one's property, including the front border, with a gate to obtain access to the property. However, in many parts of North America, fences are commonly used only on the borders between properties that back onto each other (on the side away from the street) and along the sides of properties up to the point where the house begins. Such fences are often made of chainlink and do not prevent people from seeing into neighboring yards. They may be intended to mark property lines or to keep dogs in, or out of, yards. The front yards in such neighborhoods are often open to the street.
