Public Lands and Private Rights:
The Failure of Scientific Management
By Robert H. Nelson
A leading expert on public lands and land rights issues, Robert H. Nelson shows why the existing public land system, grounded in a philosophy of scientific management, has failed. Using insights gained from nearly two decades at the U.S. Department of Interior, Nelson analyzes the past 25 years of public land policy and documents major failures in areas such as forest and rangeland management. He proposes basic changes in western land management, including the transfer of large areas of public land to the states and privatization of some existing public lands.
Robert H. Nelson is a professor of environmental policy at the University of Maryland and an adjunct scholar at PERC.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
4720 Boston Way
Lanham, MD 20706
800-462-6420
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
1995; 373 pp.

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