Pete Geddes is the General Director of the American Prairie Reserve. This is an entrepreneurial foundation dedicated to restoring 3,000,000 acres of grassland and its wildlife and ranches. It’s their “American Serengeti”. Pete came to Bozeman from Missoula nearly 17 years ago after earning his graduate degree in forestry from the U of M. One […]
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Romanticism and nostalgia; everyone who lives in the Gallatin Valley seems to develop one or both. In the face of dramatic growth, residents lament that the area can’t be frozen at some point in time. For some, that point would recall a farming and ranching population to a place where the cultural center was a […]
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On February 18 the Montana Policy Institute and the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) co-sponsored an environmental policy conference in Bozeman. The title, “Your Land is My Land: Property Rights in Montana,” suggests this was not a typical Green gathering. And it surely wasn’t. The introduction to the program agenda provided the orientation, noting […]
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Controversy over the location and operation of gravel pits illustrates an exceedingly important, widely neglected, and oft misunderstood principle of economics: clear and enforceable property rights minimize conflict. Their absence or ambiguity fosters all manner of negative feelings and behavior, sometimes even violence. The Indian Wars of the 1800s, Israeli-Palestinian conflicts over settlements, and the […]
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Have you noticed the huge new billboards on U.S. 191, a major gateway to Yellowstone Park? They seem to be sprouting like mushrooms after a spring rain, but the probable cause is different. I suspect this furor anticipates regulatory control on more billboards. It is certainly not due to increased traffic and, hence, more viewers. […]
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I’ve just finished “Mountains Beyond Mountains” the selection for One Book-One Bozeman, a worthy effort to promote community and literacy through a common book reading. A schedule of events can be found on the web. The book tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard trained physician and anthropologist. Dr. Farmer’s calling is to […]
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Here’s why we should be worried about running out of fresh water—in most places around the world it’s free—priced at zero. Any resource priced at zero will be wasted. Environmental and social problems follow. Here’s one example. The Ogallala Aquifer underlies 225,000 square miles in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. Use of […]
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I find the Gallatin Gateway community immensely attractive on multiple dimensions. Its location is grand; an easy ten miles to Bozeman on paved back roads, a near perfect bike commute. It enjoys a spectacular setting with the Spanish Peaks to the south, the 100,000-acre Flying D ranch to the west, and the Gallatin River running […]
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It’s easy to be modest when our neighbor is Ted Turner, owner of the historic Flying D Ranch. The ranch spreads from the Gallatin to the Madison Rivers covering some 113,000 acres, and carries a variety of wildlife, including about 3,500 buffalo. For several years I told Ramona we too needed buffalo. After all, they […]
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Montana ballot initiative I-154, which protects property rights and requires compensation for “regulatory takings,” is in judicial limbo. It arose from the blowback from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo decision allowing cities to seize private property and turn it over to private developers. This strong reaction to Kelo should alert “progressives” to the importance […]
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