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.
Supporting Property Rights for Conservation Nonprofits
Hannah DowneyBut there is no reason for believers in individual liberty, property rights, and free markets to abandon the defense of those values when a conservation group’s rights are at stake.
California’s Wildfire Crisis
Shawn ReganBad forest management is at the root of the conflagrations.
Improving America’s Ecological Security Requires Public-Private Partnerships
Catherine E. SemcerEfforts like the 30 by 30 initiative have the best chance of delivering the kind of conservation America needs when the government engages with the private sector as an equal partner.
Property Rights are Fundamental to a Free Society—and to Conservation
Jonathan Wood, Brian YablonskiAn attack on conservationists’ rights threaten protections for all of us and to further politicize the environment.
How Economics Can be Applied to the Environment
Holly FretwellA podcast on the many economic lessons that can be applied to improve conservation outcomes.
President Biden’s Eco-Moonshot Should Use Markets, Not Mandates
Brian YablonskiThe Biden administration should come out strongly against the use of regulations or restrictive designations on private lands to reach its target of 30 by 30.
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
Free Market Environmentalism and the Tragedy of the Commons
A podcast on the role of markets in producing good environmental outcomes.
Free Market Environmentalism vs. Political Environmentalism
A podcast comparing the merits and shortcomings of different approaches to addressing environmental challenges.
Fee Increases Are Good for the Custer Gallatin
Through user fees we have the opportunity to directly support our local cabins and campgrounds, boat launches, and trail systems.
Wildlife
Free Market Environmentalism and the Tragedy of the Commons
A podcast on the role of markets in producing good environmental outcomes.
Creating Incentives to Increase Landowner Tolerance for Elk
Expanding landowner hunting tag opportunities is one potential tool that would help offset the costs of elk, make them less of a liability, and promote tolerance and habitat conservation.
Free Market Environmentalism vs. Political Environmentalism
A podcast comparing the merits and shortcomings of different approaches to addressing environmental challenges.
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
Free Market Environmentalism and the Tragedy of the Commons
A podcast on the role of markets in producing good environmental outcomes.
Regulations Won’t Save America’s Favorite Butterfly
The 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.
The Key to Recovering the Monarch is to Reward Private Landowners
While the monarch’s plight is cause for alarm, that the species has not been formally listed may not be.
Hunters and Anglers
Misinformation About Trophy Hunting Threatens Conservation
Banning trophy hunting without viable alternatives would imperil biodiversity and undermine local communities.
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.
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
Volume 39, No.2, Winter 2020
A Better Way to Fund Conservation and Recreation
Enhancing the Public Lands Recreation Fee System
Fixing National Park Maintenance For the Long Haul
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
