We protect the environment because we care about clean air and preserving other species, not mainly for financial reasons. But we also value inexpensive supplies of power and fast and convenient transportation. All interesting and important policy questions involve choosing among competing values. Consider climate change. How does human action influence future climates? How willing […]
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The Bush administration has authored a proposal that will, for the first time, give Western governors authority to formally propose development in our wildest public lands. This overturns President Clinton’s decision to set aside 40 million acres of National Forest as roadless areas. Although the initiative was criticized as part of the Clinton administration’s “War […]
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Montana’s current governor, Republican Judy Martz, as well as four Republican gubernatorial candidates favor a return of cyanide leach mining. (One, Ken Miller, flippantly told an audience, “You had some cyanide for lunch” because there were almonds on their chicken.) I object to cyanide on ethical, economic, and ecological grounds. This process violates the most […]
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Lava Lake in the Madison Range just south of Bozeman is a favorite destination for participants in our summer programs for federal judges and law professors. Most years the lake trail is clogged with snow until early July. But that’s changing. Shorter, warmer winters and drier summers are here. Warmer spring temperatures cause our rivers […]
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Here’s a neat summer project: Let’s fix the snowmobile controversy in Yellowstone. It illustrates how a distorted market and bureaucratic pathologies constrain creative thinking. The solution lies in going outside the traditional business practices of the snowmobile renters and the vested interests of local, regional, and national political groups. West Yellowstone describes itself as the […]
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Early in my career I had the immense good fortune to work with Garrett Hardin, a distinguished ecologist. He was an extraordinarily fine and brave gentleman and scholar. Garrett was also sufficiently honest to admit his occasional errors and modify his analysis accordingly. Together, we produced a book that remained in print for nearly 20 […]
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Thirty-plus years ago I chose Montana rather than accept offers elsewhere. My Ph.D. committee was appalled. They claimed I would disappear into an academic wilderness. I would forgo opportunities to work with prominent scholars; I couldn’t inform national decision makers and opinion leaders; I’d be stranded outside the national environmental policy debate. My professors didn’t […]
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“Unfortunately for everyone who cares about Yellowstone Park, [federal judge] Brimmer’s decision further entangles the park in a legal quagmire: The opponents of recreational snowmobiling sue. The government responds. The proponents of snowmobiling sue. The government responds. Then the cycle starts all over again. What will the rule be next winter? Where will this all […]
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Ramona and I created Gallatin Writers more than a decade ago. Our goal was to foster sensitive but analytically sound analysis of problems and opportunities in our emerging West. With generous support from the Fanwood Foundation and in cooperation with Yellowstone Public Radio, Gallatin Writers and FREE are again sponsoring the Wallace Stegner Essay Contest […]
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Here’s my proposed New Year’s resolution for well-fed Greens in wealthy countries: Quit starving or condemning people to malnutrition. Let me explain. I don’t fault those who choose to die for their religion…provided they harm no one else in the process. Thomas Moore, Joan of Arc, and others who preferred death to deviation from their […]
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