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The Ruckus on the Range

by Holly Fretwell Bison continue to raise a ruckus on the range in Wyoming and Montana. The bison that leave Yellowstone National Park eat forage on private land and are suspected of carrying brucellosis, a disease known to cause cows to abort their calves. Should the bison be free to roam the range beyond […]

Published on: January 20, 2011

Romance in the parks

[…] more tax dollars to be poured into parks, the harsh truth is that it will not increase stewardship. To care for the American Buffalo and wolves in Yellowstone, the vistas in Yosemite, and the artifacts in Mesa Verde national parks and others like them, we need to take the romance out as so aptly […]

Published on: November 15, 2010

New in PERC Reports: The Accidental Environmentalist

[…] The 13,000-acre ranch sits in the middle of the Madison Valley amidst a one million-acre corridor that runs from the small town of Ennis, Montana, south to Yellowstone National Park. The valley is channeled by the Madison River and framed by the Madison and Gravelly mountain ranges. Most of the valley is privately owned, […]

Published on: November 2, 2010

Sharing

By Lexi Feinberg 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 […]

Published on: October 26, 2010
Perc

Should We Take State Parks Off the State’s Books?

[…] example, private concessionaires currently operate the commercial activities (e.g., lodging, retail, and food) in the “crown jewels” of the national parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone. However, this is a more limited type of concession than discussed above. In the “whole park” context, a concession would essentially be a long-term (10–20 year) […]

Published on: October 24, 2010
Perc

Market Solutions for National Parks

[…] that do research in the parks with an eye on commercial opportunities. As for benefits sharing, the National Park Service has granted thousands of research permits. In Yellowstone alone, there are about 40 research studies being conducted at any given time. Commercial firms studying microbes that flourish in Yellowstone’s geysers stand to earn billions, […]

Published on: October 21, 2010

From the Editor

[…] was inspired by a PERC workshop on “New Frontiers in Western Land Institutions” and was made possible by a generous grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. And special thanks to Trey Ratcliff for the cover image, The Morning Steam Through the Forest in Yellowstone, you can see more of his work at www. StuckInCustoms.com.

Published on: October 18, 2010

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 […]

Published on: October 13, 2010
Perc

Federal Land Non-Management

[…] For the latest example, consider the recent federal court decision in Montana to relist the wolf as an endangered species. When the Canadian immigrants were brought to Yellowstone in the mid 1990s, they were an “experimental population” that would be delisted if the numbers grew to 30 breeding pairs or 300 wolves. With wolf […]

Published on: October 7, 2010

The Accidental Environmentalist

[…] The 13,000-acre ranch sits in the middle of the Madison Valley amidst a one million-acre corridor that runs from the small town of Ennis, Montana, south to Yellowstone National Park. The valley is channeled by the Madison River and framed by the Madison and Gravelly mountain ranges. Most of the valley is privately owned, […]

Published on: October 4, 2010