Americans are increasingly concerned about our wildlands. Historically we looked toward federal custodians. But, if you believe that Congress will respond with large appropriations, read no further. The federal government has made promises it cannot afford to keep. The implications preclude an expanded federal wildlands system. What will happen when actual spending cuts become unavoidable? […]
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There is a strong tendancy for such organizations to be run for the benefit of those in charge. This has profound implications for those in the agency and for those they are to serve. A bureaucracy is a formal organization that derives all or a substantial portion of its budget from transfers. When the bureaucracy […]
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BOZEMAN, MONT.- Snow is still ten feet deep on the Spanish Peaks just south of town, but summer is coming to the Gallatin Valley. Greening fields and the sudden emergence of kayaks and mountain bikes tells us the annual crush of tourists will soon arrive in the region’s national parks and forests. Recreation is serious […]
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New demographics and cultures are defining the next American West. Newcomers, urban and affluent, are escaping cities to build better lives. They work with information and manipulate symbols rather than stuff, and bring with them an utterly different value system for the land. A value system based on a romantic notion of the West’s ecosystems […]
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Our Stolen Future, Vice President Al Gore writes in the book’s Foreward, discusses “compelling and urgent questions that must be answered.” He calls it the sequel to the first enviromental benchmark, Silent Spring. He’s wrong. Our Stolen Future marks the end of an era of public susceptibility to ill-founded hysteria and crisis entrepreneurship. Unlike Al […]
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I just returned from the other Washington, the one on the Potomac. I met with people in think tanks, universities, the federal judiciary, and intellectuals from the Reagan Administration. A common question was, “are the Republicans in the 104th Congress brain damaged or just cowards?” We all wondered what could possess Republicans to blatantly attack […]
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Water is precious to life on earth. Healthy organisms, ecosystems, and weather cycles depend on it. A sufficient supply of clean water is the critical first step to improving public health in every society. Just because everyone needs water, however, doesn’t make managing it easy. Developing countries are struggling for water. The World Bank says […]
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Economic analysis can promote environmental quality. By identifying subsidies, inefficiencies, and new opportunities, economists apply their powerful analytical tools to environmental ends. Yet despite its great potential, economic analysis has failed to improve environmental policy in many areas. Environmental regulators often ignore the importance of secure property rights and advocate regulatory “takings” of property with […]
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Beneath Greater Yellowstone, powerful thermal energies relentlessly shift tectonic plates. The subsurface motion creates rifts and faults, occasionally volcanoes and earthquakes. The fundamental tensions are always there. The tectonic plates of culture and political economy are also shifting and generating profound tensions in the new American West. In Oregon and Idaho, hi-tech industries now provide […]
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“Don’t Gore us with new taxes”, picketters in Miami shouted last week. They opposed Vice President Gore’s plan to “tax” the sugar industry in Florida. A sugar “tax” would be used by the federal government to purchase Everglades land for ecosystem restoration. In addition to the penny-per-pound “tax”, Gore announced a $1.5 billion environmental cleanup […]
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