The Clinton administration signed off on the Roadless Rule [PDF] in 2001 to preserve 58.5 million acres of national forest land by preventing road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvest. The lands designated for roadless protection were inventoried in the 1970s to determine their merit for inclusion into the National Wilderness system. Some are now Wilderness; the restContinue reading “A Decade to Determine Nothing”
Author Archives: admin
Halloween fright, population fear are both fantasy
As our quality of life continues to improve, the world’s prevailing sentiment continues to be one of a disastrous future, all because the population has reached 7 billion. Are these worries real or just a scare tactic?
Namibia Has A Lesson For Migrating Yellowstone Bison
Last year’s massive winter bison migration from Yellowstone National Park caused significant damage to surrounding ranches. Says one landowner: “When we’ve got 30 to 40 [bison] coming through my place at one time, they want to go through the fences, rub on my house, destroy my irrigation pipes.” Federal and state authorities captured and returned asContinue reading “Namibia Has A Lesson For Migrating Yellowstone Bison”
Don’t Bother with “The Darwin Economy”
I purchased The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good by Robert Frank thinking I would learn something. I did. I learned that I should not have purchased it. Frank takes a very simple game theory used to explain the arms race (and naively applies it to elk antlers, arguing that one elk grows big antlers and getsContinue reading “Don’t Bother with “The Darwin Economy””
Fencing Fisheries in Namibia and Beyond: Lessons From the Developing World
The lessons from Namibia and other fisheries success stories discussed in this essay illustrate that property rights and environmental protection can happen anywhere.
Q&A with Bruce Pardy on Natural Law, Markets, and Ecosystems
A look at legal instrumentalism
Assessing Endangered Species Science
Last Thursday, at a congressional hearing, Assistant U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Gary Frazer said that the Interior Department’s Office of Science Integrity would conduct an independent evaluation of the work of FWS biologists accused by a federal judge of being dishonest with the court and acting in ’”bad faith.” As the Los Angeles Times reports, Frazer said theContinue reading “Assessing Endangered Species Science”
Endangered species and the roles of science and policy
Whether a given species is at risk of extinction may be a scientific question, but what to do about it is not. What conservation measures should be adopted to address such threats, and at what cost, are policy
questions, says Jonathan Adler
A model on a mission
Congrats to PERC enviropreneur, Summer Rayne Oakes, for winning the 2011 Cartier Women’s Initiative Award in Deauville, France for her new business Source4Style. On Wed, October 12th Benita and I gave our 30-minute oral presentation for Source4Style. Jury members deliberated that evening. And this past Friday, winners were announced for each region during the Women’s Forum. WhenContinue reading “A model on a mission”
Property Rights Saving Wildlife in Namibia
For an interesting example of how property rights can turn environmental liabilities into profitable assets, check out To Save Wildlife, Namibia’s Farmers Take Control by Christopher Joyce. The NPR article documents how local ownership of wildlife resources has created an incentive for stewardship in the Namibian bush. In 1996 the Namibian government granted the rightContinue reading “Property Rights Saving Wildlife in Namibia”