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Abstract The need to better understand landlord involvement in decision‐making related to pesticide use and water quality issues is evidenced by several trends. These trends include the increasing documentation of water pollution by farm pesticides, the changing characteristics of farm ownership and operator tenure, and evolutions in resource policy and protection planning. This paper utilizes a theoretical approach to the sociology of land tenure to interpret results from an investigation of landlord involvement in environmental decision making regarding pesticide selection on rented land. Eight counties with high susceptibility of water contamination by pesticides were selected for study. Structured, in‐person interviews were administered to in‐county landlords, and a mail survey was used to poll out‐of‐county landlords. Results indicate that participation is generally low with very little difference between landlord groups. Renters make most of the organizational and operational decisions on rented farmland. Landlord participation is predominantly based on economic, rather than on social or environmental, factors. Furthermore, while economic variables are important predictors of participation for both groups, gender and social ties to the renter tend to increase local landlord involvement, but not absentee involvement These results have important implications for both federal programs and further research on land tenure and environmental stewardship.