IN addition to their disappointment with the elections, major environmental groups are learning the pain of limits to growth. From 1990 to 1993, membership fell 33 percent for Greenpeace and 35 percent for the Wilderness Society. The Sierra Club has lost 130,000 members and has accumulated deficits of nearly $3 million. Although groups such as […]
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EACH summer I’m reminded why John Steinbeck thought that Montana would be heaven if it only had an ocean. This summer, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) again hosted conferences for federal judges, seminars for environmental writers, bike trips, and research on environmental economics and policy. But I see changes in […]
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MANY people share my deep concern with improving and protecting the wildlife, watersheds, and recreation values of forests. Good policy links these goods with sound economic practices. All require landowners’ confidence in the future. The proposed export ban on raw logs from private lands subverts this confidence and undermines the management required to reach these […]
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IT is easy to understand why some people find banning private log exports an attractive idea. Superficially, it appears to save jobs, reduce domestic timber prices and slow environmental degradation caused by logging. But there are good, ethical reasons why a ban makes little sense. In later columns, I will discuss the likely economic and […]
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TWICE I’ve cried in a movie. The first time I was 4 years old and saw Bambi. The second was in 1970, when I saw a tear-provoking “documentary” of a polar bear hunt. The few polar bears I’ve seen in the wild inspired awe and admiration. But during this film, a faux-sportsman was flown onto […]
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IN every language the term “bureaucracy” bears a crust of derision. This is no accident, for bureaucratic incentives invariably produce problems. Bureaucracies tend to replace the goals that justified their creation with actions that protect their budgets. The good news is that we can harness this fatal propensity in a way that will improve government […]
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THERE is much talk today about “reinventing government.” The goal is to both improve outcomes and save dollars. The Forest Service is an excellent candidate for such reforms. The Forest Service’s creators are credited with high ideals, but America’s sylvan socialism has suffered the liabilities of socialism elsewhere. The Forest Service was created because of […]
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MANY recreationalists bristle at the prospect of recreation fees on our national forests. Why should we pay to hike on “our” land? They are outraged, however, when they encounter clear-cuts near timberline on these same lands. But if they could choose between recreation fees and timber cutting, might fees then be accepted as the lesser […]
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First of a series of articles on the Forest Service and the economics of the timber industry. IN the fifth grade I started a conservation club for my school. To me, the U.S. Forest Service epitomized conservation and stewardship. Rangers maintained trails, practiced ecology, and found lost hikers while Smokey the Bear admonished us to […]
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AS PRESIDENT-ELECT Clinton and Vice President-elect Gore look toward Jan. 20, they must confront the problem of reconciling their environmental rhetoric with economic reality. Much is promised: Al Gore’s environmental commitment is unprecedented for a vice president and adds to pent-up pressures to address environmental concerns. But this pressure comes during a flat economy and, […]
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