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PERC Reports

The Magazine of Free Market Environmentalism

PERC Reports: Winter 2017

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Volume 36, No.2, Winter 2017

What if federal regulations designed to protect endangered species actually hindered state-led efforts to enhance their recovery? Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is happening in Utah, where U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations are preventing states from taking actions to protect the threatened Utah prairie dog.

The Endangered Species Act has long pitted property owners in southwestern Utah against the prairie dogs. As Jonathan Wood writes, federal regulations broadly prohibit any activity that affects a single member of the species, even on private property. The result is that residents are prevented from doing basic activities such as building homes, starting small businesses, or making use of community parks, playgrounds, and cemeteries.

The Utah prairie dog case, like many other environmental issues, illustrates how federal policies often have perverse effects that undermine the very goals they aim to promote. This issue explores several other examples—from wildfire policy to public land stewardship—including much more.

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Money to Burn

Shawn Regan

As wildfires get bigger and more costly, federal policies aren’t helping.

A Prairie Home Invasion

Jonathan Wood

The federal government should embrace state experimentation to protect the Utah prairie dog and other endangered species.

How (Not) to Buy Property in Nigeria

G. Pascal Zachary

While formal land rights are on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa, customary rights cannot be ignored.

Leave No Trace?

Tate Watkins

It’s time for outdoor recreationists to put their money where their footprints are.

How Capitalism Saved the Bees

Shawn Regan

A decade after colony collapse disorder began, pollination entrepreneurs have staved off the beepocalypse.

PERC Reports: Winter 2017

Shawn Regan

What if federal regulations designed to protect endangered species actually hindered state-led efforts to enhance their recovery?

Timeless and Timely

Reed Watson

In a word, PERC is special.

Keep Calm and Frack On

Daniel Benjamin

The benefits of fracking may be even greater than we thought.

Peer-to-Peer Anti-Poaching

Catherine E. Semcer

How DNA indexing and blockchain technologies could help conserve rhinos.

Murky Water

Tiffany Dowell Lashmet

An update on the ongoing quest to define the “waters of the United States.“

The Latest

Volume 41, No.2, Winter 2022

Volume 41, No.1, Summer 2022

Volume 40, No.2, Winter 2021

Volume 40, No.1, Summer 2021

Volume 39, No.2, Winter 2020

Volume 39, No.1, Summer 2020

Volume 38, No.2, Winter 2019

Volume 38, No.1, Summer 2019

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