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Public Lands and Private Rights: The Failure of Scientific Management

  • Robert 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.

    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
    4720 Boston Way
    Lanham, MD 20706
    800-462-6420
    www.rowmanlittlefield.com
    1995; 373 pp.

    Written By
    • Robert Nelson

      Robert H. Nelson is a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland and a 2010 Lone Mountain Fellow at PERC. From 1975 to 1993, he worked as a senior economist in the Office of Policy Analysis of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior.

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