Two 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 MoreAdd one more potential victim to the catalog of high-profile species likely to be harmed by the Endangered Species Act. The sage grouse, a large ground-dwelling bird that inhabits 165 million acres in 11 Western states, including Montana, appears headed for listing under the act, much to the detriment of both the grouse and […]
Read MoreA Pleasant Surprise – Intro by John Baden, Chairman, FREE The Christmas season is surely a time to share good things. Here’s a letter to the Bozeman Chronicle posted on Monday, December 9th. It is one I enjoyed and from which I learned. One of the pleasures was to discover the clear thinking of […]
Read MoreIn her report on Judge Holly Brown’s dismissal of a challenge to the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks agreement with Ted Turner on the management of Yellowstone Park bison (May 12, 2013), the Chronicle article states the following: “Under the public trust doctrine, which applies nationwide, the state has the responsibility to manage and […]
Read MoreHere’s a true, empirical, universal generalization; issues involving environmental policy are both scientifically complex and highly emotional. These are ingredients for error and acrimony. The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park offers a dramatic illustration of my point. It is the most contentious environmental subject I have observed in 50-plus years of involvement. This […]
Read MoreCharles Murray’s latest book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, is an extraordinarily important study of the process implied by his title. Charles has a penchant for writing books that challenge, and sometimes change, America’s policy environment. Murray’s Losing Ground was published in 1984 and fundamentally transformed America’s thinking on the causes of […]
Read MoreBozeman is nationally recognized for being first on many dimensions, best retirement town for active people, best ski town, exemplar of civic culture, and more. It’s also the founding epicenter of “Free Market Environmentalism” (FME). This disciplined, analytic approach to conservation and environmental management has captured the intellectual high ground. However, despite its success […]
Read MoreEach January, my colleagues and I design FREE’s summer seminars. We select and refine topics, then identify speakers, and finally invite participants. These tasks are easy when creating programs explicitly for federal judges. There are only a thousand and we know exactly who they are. All know us directly or have colleagues who have attended […]
Read MoreHere’s a sketch of America’s economic prospects. Essentially, we’re seeing the consequences of 50 plus years of near libertarian tax rates and socialist benefits. Federal taxes were 17.8 percent of GNP in 1960. By 2007 they had risen less than one percent to 18.5 percent. However, there was a great deal of fraud and abuse […]
Read MoreExactly five years ago I wrote a column “Let’s Resolve to Reward Our Wounded Warriors.” This appeal developed from discussions with Volney Steele. Vol is a retired physician who volunteered when Eagle Mount brought children to our place to fish. Volney proposed that people in Bozeman develop a fly-fishing program for severely injured American troops. He helped make the original […]
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