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High and Dry

[…] constituent-group objectives, including those of agency staffs. Motivated by political agendas that may or may not overlap with overall welfare, politicians, bureaucrats, and administrative judges proceed without reliable information on relative values of water uses and conservation options across time and locations. Serious misallocation can result. The process is crisis-driven, which assists lobby-group mobilization; […]

Published on: September 29, 2022

Engaging Irrigation Districts in Water Markets

[…] will pass by the farms of upstream landowners first, which gives these irrigators little incentive to maintain the delivery network for downstream farms. Irrigation districts overcome this free-rider problem by mandating compulsory water fees paid by all water users to cover the costs of canal maintenance. Despite the innovation and creativity embodied in the original […]

Published on: September 27, 2022

Without Reforms to the Environmental Review Process, Wildfires Will Grow Worse

[…] known as the Trestle Forest Health Project. But increasing the pace and scale of that work proved impossible. Three decades after its initial warning, the Forest Service planned to complete its forest restoration work to protect the community of Grizzly Flats by 2032. The Caldor Fire would destroy the community long before the work […]

Published on: September 12, 2022

Public Comment on Mining Regulations, Laws, and Permitting

[…] hardrock mines. Any system for acquiring rights to mine federal land should allow conservationists to also acquire them for conservation purposes. Introduction Historically, federal lands were “ free and open” to mining. The settlement of the West was shaped by hundreds of thousands of prospectors who rushed from the East hoping to strike it […]

Published on: August 31, 2022

Permitting Reform Push Should Include Forest Restoration

[…] excess fuels, can make fires less catastrophic when they occur. These techniques have proven effective but are difficult to apply on federal land. Earlier this year, my organization released a study finding that it takes an average of five and seven years, respectively, from the time the Forest Service initiates a formal environmental review to when it begins […]

Published on: August 19, 2022