All Research:
Healthy Public and Private Lands
Swiss Christmas gift comes with a price tag
The Federal Government continues to acquire more land, much of it is donated, but the cost of land maintenance at this scale is immense and the feds do not have the funds to do the job.
Romance in the parks
At the annual meeting of the Society for Enviromental Journalists, PERC researcher Holly Fretwell suggested that the national parks would benefit most from earning their own funds from entrance fees rather than depending on politicians to hand over more tax dollars. Meanwhile, the parks continue to deteriorate.
The Yellowstone Bison: Separating fact from fear
Once an icon of the American west, bison are now hazed through costly government-driven efforts and killed in droves around Yellowstone National Park during the winter. Their crime: migrating outside of the park’s borders onto public and private land in Montana, searching for food. Fueling the slaughters is ranchers’ fear of brucellosis, a bacterial diseaseContinue reading “The Yellowstone Bison: Separating fact from fear”
A Tale of Two Ranches
Why some ranchers see wildlife as a nuisance while others see it as an asset
Federal Land Non-Management
In 1962, Congressman Wayne Aspinall wrote to President Kennedy asking him to establish a commission to review public land laws.
Taking State Parks Off the State’s Books
In the grand scheme, state parks are an amenity that generally falls lower on the state’s priority list than education, health care, and corrections. Hence, parks often become political footballs in fights over spending reductions, which tends to result in parks being left alive but far from fiscally healthy or properly maintained. A recent proposalContinue reading “Taking State Parks Off the State’s Books”
The Great Plains: Tragedy or Triumph?
Entrepreneurs are capitalizing on ecotourism and environmental amenities to transform an agricultural economy into a nature-based economy.
Obama pushes TR’s top-down land management style
Obama’s Great Outdoor Initiative is not a bottom-up approach, but once again a top-down effort that will create more government programs and reduce local control.
Reflections on “Saving the Wilderness”
“Saving the Wilderness” explained how the managers of the Rainey Preserve used market relationships to enhance private land management and how they and similar managers could, if allowed, improve the management of government land, too.