A Better Way to Fund Conservation and Recreation
Tate Watkins, Jack SmithFederal oil and gas revenues have generated funding for the great outdoors for decades, but the model warrants reconsideration.
Enhancing the Public Lands Recreation Fee System
Tate WatkinsVisitors are already helping public lands flourish by contributing revenues that support recreation. Reforms could improve management and benefit visitors even more.
Fixing National Park Maintenance For the Long Haul
Tate WatkinsAddressing overdue maintenance is vital, but the root of the problem is a lack of attention to routine maintenance.
Will Parks Receive Full Maintenance Funding From GAOA?
Tate Watkins, Jack SmithAnother drop in energy revenues could threaten park maintenance funding.
Regulations Won’t Save America’s Favorite Butterfly
Shawn Regan, Tate WatkinsThe default approach to endangered-species policy should be to reward—or at the very least, to avoid punishing—people who provide important and hospitable habitats.
Biden’s ‘100% Clean Energy Economy’ Will Require Huge Trade-Offs
Tate WatkinsAll energy sources come with environmental tradeoffs and extractive activities. Even when it comes to wind and solar, there is no free energy lunch.
The Key to Recovering the Monarch is to Reward Private Landowners
Jonathan WoodWhile the monarch’s plight is cause for alarm, that the species has not been formally listed may not be.
To Recover Endangered Species, Reduce Conflict and Reward Landowners Who Restore Habitat
Jonathan WoodRecovering endangered and threatened species ultimately depends on broader reforms that respect property rights and provide the right incentives to private landowners.
40 Years of Free Market Environmentalism
For the past four decades, PERC has been sharing the ideas of free market environmentalism around the world.
About PERC
Founded in 1980 in Bozeman, Montana, PERC—the Property and Environment Research Center—is the home of free market environmentalism. Our research is dedicated to harnessing the power of markets and property rights to improve environmental quality.
Research Areas
Public Lands
It’s Time to Unshackle Recreation From Oil and Gas
If Democrats want to unshackle outdoor recreation programs from fossil fuel money, then it’s time to consider alternatives.
Harnessing Visitors’ Enthusiasm for National Parks to Fund Cooperative Large-Landscape Conservation
How national park visitors in the United States could help address the need for wildlife conservation efforts beyond park boundaries, using a case study of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Why Don’t Environmentalists Just Buy What They Want to Protect?
Because it’s often against the rules.
Wildlife
Harnessing Visitors’ Enthusiasm for National Parks to Fund Cooperative Large-Landscape Conservation
How national park visitors in the United States could help address the need for wildlife conservation efforts beyond park boundaries, using a case study of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Property Rights, Not Politics
Conservation pursued through markets and property rights is protected from shifting political winds.
Critical Habitat’s Unique “Private Land Problem”
Critical habitat designations that penalize private citizens for essential features found on their land discourage them from maintaining or restoring habitat, benefiting neither property owners nor rare species.
Water
Protecting Wetlands: Environmental Federalism and Grassroots Conservation in the Prairie Pothole Region
Scaling back federal regulation over isolated wetlands reduces conflict between regulators and private landowners, aligning economic incentives with voluntary conservation objectives.
Water Markets Can Rescue the Great Salt Lake
By recognizing water conservation as a beneficial use, Utah can promote cooperation that can help restore the Great Salt Lake.
The Clean Water Act’s Permitting Process is Mired in Red Tape
The federal Clean Water Act is a notoriously complex statute, imposing federal permitting on a wide variety of land uses, industrial activity, and conservation projects based on turbid regulatory standards.
Private Lands
Property Rights, Not Politics
Conservation pursued through markets and property rights is protected from shifting political winds.
Fire Insurance Regs Hurt California Homeowners
The unintended consequences of California’s price restrictions on insurance rates leave insurers unable to cover losses after catastrophic wildfire damage.
Addressing Brucellosis Will Help Ranchers and Wildlife
In order to conserve migration corridors, we must reduce the liability of elk borne by landowners by addressing the risk of brucellosis.
Hunters and Anglers
Thank a Hunter
It’s incredibly important that we actively support hunting and angling not only because they’re a part of Montana’s identity, but because our wild places need the resources.
PERC Research Fellow Testifies on Wildlife Conservation and Zoonotic Disease Risks
Catherine Semcer testifies before the U.S. Senate on the importance of habitat conservation in preventing disease transmission from wildlife to humans.
A Pirate Looks at 40
Reflections on PERC’s milestone anniversary.
Fisheries
Markets, Not Ill-Fitting Regulatory Mandates, Are the Solution to Bycatch
Markets can overcome the technological challenge by giving fishers and others the incentive to develop new ways to reduce bycatch.
Markets and Property Rights are Improving the Environment
A podcast on free market environmentalism and its track record around the world.
A Different Shade of Green
Markets and property rights are working to solve a variety of environmental problems.
Publications
A Better Way to Fund Conservation and Recreation
Enhancing the Public Lands Recreation Fee System
Fixing National Park Maintenance For the Long Haul
Volume 39, No.1, Summer 2020
Elk in Paradise: Conserving Migratory Wildlife and Working Lands in Montana's Paradise Valley
Volume 38, No.2, Winter 2019
Prospecting for Pollution: The Need for Better Incentives to Clean Up Abandoned Mines
Volume 38, No.1, Summer 2019
The Road to Recovery
Volume 37, No.1, Summer 2018
Mobilizing Markets to Reduce Bycatch in Marine Fisheries
