My colleagues and I have devoted four decades to the important mission of showing people who care about parks, wildlife, wildlands, and water how to foster their conservation goals. We have explained the causes of problems with existing management. These manifold problems rarely result from corruption or gross incompetence of agency personnel. Rather, these problems […]
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Next year is FREE’s thirtieth anniversary. I founded it to combine ecology with responsible prosperity and liberty. Much of our work has been with federal judges and academic, business, and environmental leaders. It is a rare privilege to combine political economy with practical ranch and wildlife work. Ramona and I are indeed lucky. I hope […]
Read MoreBoth Ramona and I have been traveling for several weeks and are home for Thanksgiving. She was in Cuba marveling at how a socialized economy operates (poorly). Meanwhile I was in DC and the Research Triangle of North Carolina meeting with economists, friends, and relatives. I wanted to better understand how to flip the Green […]
Read MoreIntroduction by John A. Baden This week’s FREE Insight features an essay by economist, Ray Rasker a principal in the Bozeman-based organization Headwaters Economics. Ray is an expert on the economy of the emerging West. His essay celebrates the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Wilderness Act of 1964. I wrote my comments to […]
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Introduction and commentary by John A. Baden Bozeman, the Gallatin Valley and the surrounding area offer many high quality jobs. Some involve analyzing, arranging, and moving material stuff. The stuff includes people and the furniture of the world. Others work with electrons and symbols. Most of those who create good new jobs are entrepreneurs. Artists […]
Read MoreTwo Seats at Public Lands Tables John Baden’s introduction to Scott McMillion and the Montana Quarterly The Montana Quarterly is high on my list of quality magazines. Its publisher, Scott McMillion, is an unambiguously good and talented guy who lives in the Paradise Valley, one drainage to the east of ours. Over the decades Scott […]
Read MoreTwo Kinds of “Climate Deniers” One of the most serious accusations “progressives” make against a person’s intelligence and character is labeling someone a “climate denier”. A “denier” is a person who rejects the media’s prevailing view on global warming and now, climate change. The tribe of deniers is insecure. It’s mainly comprised of “clingers”, those […]
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Culture, Community, and Civility: Code of the (New) West Living here is a great blessing for Ramona and me. We greatly appreciate the wonderful natural, cultural, and prosperous environment of the Gallatin Valley. Even these stellar qualities are sometimes trumped by seeing people care for one another. Our community has culture of civility and caring–even […]
Read More“Improving Federal Land Management: Ecology, Equity, and Economics” I recently learned that no Green/leftist/progressive leaders have confidence in large governmental organizations. Who is the source of this knowledge? It’s Gus diZerega, a political scientist/theorist with a PhD from UC Berkeley. He recently visited from California while traveling through Yellowstone. We enjoyed several dinner conversations, mainly about progressive Green […]
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Ramona and I have been here a long time. The old timers who saw us as newcomers in the 1960s and 70s are dead. For the others we are part of the landscape. We have seen huge changes in perceptions of the Bozeman area and the Gallatin Valley. When we arrived people outside our region seldom […]
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