A FREE Policy Salon* FREE supports three values: sustainable ecology, responsible liberty, and modest prosperity.  Policy salons are one tool we use to explore and promote these values.  The salons involve readings, brief presentations by knowledgeable individuals, and occasional recordings.  The key element is discussion before, during and after a lengthy meal.   Our most […]

FREE began 2017 with a ten-day visit by Romanian economist Prof. Christian Nasulea and Ph. D. student Diana Spinu. They are classical liberals who work on environmental and information technology topics.  They share our interest in explaining why “romance lands” attract creative, active individuals with high human capital. This migration of talented, successful individuals is […]

Jim Posewitz is a conservation hero and not just in Montana.  He received the National Wildlife Federation “Conservationist of the Year” award in 2015.  Jim came to MSU to play football and graduated with a degree in wildlife management.  After nearly 40 years of good service, he retired as Director of Montana Fish Wildlife and […]

FREE’s latest Yellowstone Park project is a course, “Yellowstone and the Second Century of Our National Parks”.  It is offered in MSU’s Wonderlust program, a part of its Extended University. The University created the Wonderlust program for adults interested in exploring intriguing topics ranging from art to zoology. While open to all, the majority of […]

Bozeman’s Montana State University created the Wonderlust program for adults interested in exploring intriguing topics. While open to all, the majority of “students” are accomplished retirees with intellectual and historical interests. Retired professor John Baden is offering a Wonderlust course, “Yellowstone and the Second Century of Our National Parks,” beginning September 12th. It will meet […]

The natural resource reforms surrounding the Progressive Era, 1890 through WWI, were surely positive experiments in resource management.  They did a great deal to preserve today’s lands of romance.  The creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 is the best example.  Their greatest reform contributions were protecting common pools and constraining the unlawful exploitation of […]

Veronica Harrison of the Heartland Institute asked me to describe seasons living on our Montana ranch. It’s a great blessing to live with Ramona on productive land lying between Bozeman and Big Sky, Montana and an hour north of Yellowstone Park. Together, and we’ve been together over 40 years, we represent nine generations in American […]

It’s snowing hard at our Gallatin Valley ranch at noon on May 17, 2017. I’m writing to correct today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article listing FREE as skeptical about climate change. No, we aren’t. The data is clear: Average temperatures in Montana have warmed up by 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 1900’s. Here is the back-story. […]

Introduction by John Baden FREE has recently received a substantial gift.  It enables us to expand our work to conserve important values linked to America’s parks, wildlands, forests, range, wildlife, and waters.  The focus of the project is Greater Yellowstone.  This continues work begun at MSU four decades ago in its Center for Political Economy […]