I’M home at the ranch for the holidays, recalling Christmas traditions. Both my family and my wife feed our animals special rations on Christmas morning. My grandmother would bake oatmeal biscuits with lots of meat trimmings for their dog and a warm corn mash for her chickens. Granddad would give the cows and sheep leafy, […]
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AT a conference last October, I listened to a speech by Gregory Benford, a respected biophysicist and acclaimed writer of science fiction. He noted that the 19th century had been dominated scientifically and culturally by chemistry, the 20th by physics, and predicted the 21st would be dominated by biology. Professor Benford is undoubtedly correct that […]
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PEOPLE who believe in the power of government to do good probably found it outrageous that the U.S. Senate squandered weeks debating higher grazing fees, a financially trivial issue. The Western Senators’ filibuster diverted the Senate from critically important issues like NAFTA and health care. But this posturing is a predictable consequence of political management […]
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I HAVE long held a vision of what a good society would include. Its most important elements are liberty, environmental quality and communities of people who value both. But only certain institutional arrangements foster these ends. History is unlikely to show that yesterday’s election moved us toward these goals. But elections do cause thoughtful people […]
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IS RANCHING on the federal range an environmentally destructive anachronism? Many environmentalists seem to think so. Less than 30,000 ranchers graze cattle on 350 million acres of federal lands, an area twice the size of Texas. Environmentalists hope the public lands will be, as the bumper sticker intones, “Cattle Free by ’93.” Grazing has also […]
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KILLING WOLVES is a dramatic and highly controversial wildlife management practice. Alaska has recently proposed this as a way to boost caribou, moose, and deer populations for tourists and hunters. But many people find gunning wolves from airplanes offensive and are outraged. The logic underlying the killing seems clear, but the issues are complex. Wolves […]
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The Montana chapter of Defenders of Wildlife has announced a new program to encourage wolf re-introduction. This is noteworthy because it seeks to do so with the help of ranchers, until now some of the wolves’ staunchest opponents. This approach could hold the key to fostering the recovery of endangered species nationwide and have implications […]
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Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, September, 1984, John Baden, contributing author and editor.Available through Amazon Books.
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