I recently visited the National Conservation Training Center near Shepherdstown, WV. My goal was to find an eastern site for our seminar series for federal judges. It is an excellent facility run by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the U.S. Department of Interior. (Its creation and operation exemplify political entrepreneurship, but that’s another column.) […]
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Some of my favorite summer days are those with Eagle Mount, especially their program for children who have cancer. We all enjoy warm weather and outdoor activities but few appreciate them more than Eagle Mount participants. Fortunately, spring creek-fed ponds on our ranch are ideal for Eagle Mount’s “Camp Brave Heart” for local, national, and […]
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The Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment and Montana State University are the beneficiaries of a curious but important trend. Many highly successful, extraordinarily well-educated people are attracted to Montana, the most remote of the contiguous 48 states. Concurrently, to our mutual benefit, MSU is gaining national recognition and respect. When I came […]
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Does the Bush administration care about the environment or the sensitivities of conservation-minded voters? On western public lands issues environmental groups have successfully portrayed the Bush administration as pandering to the old Sagebrush Rebels and Wise Use constituencies. And although Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey is a former lobbyist for the timber industry, his plan to […]
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The tourist’s observation: “Montana would be heaven if it only had an ocean” is a slight exaggeration. However, we live in an increasingly competitive and congested world and our treasures are at risk. Specifically, our natural vistas and resources and our rural cultures are under siege. We can do little to arrest the persistent and […]
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The Greater Yellowstone Coalition held their 18TH annual meeting in West Yellowstone on June 8 – 9. Outgoing superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, Mike Finley, spoke outlining the Park’s major problems. Key threats include inadequate budgets, habitat fragmentation, and invasive species. One of his most important observations has profound implications: “In my 32 year career […]
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Here’s a fundamental truth of ecological and economic systems: Not all good things go together. A neighboring rancher, an old timer I’ve liked and admired for over 30 years, called my attention to a Bozeman Chronicle article of May 26, “Canadians consider wolf kill to save caribou.” I’m a guy who, with my wife Ramona, […]
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I’m writing this column in support of environmental quality prior to the election. I hope voters purge two types of politicians; troglodytes who confuse conservative with exploitative, and watermelons, those green on the outside and pink within. Remember Jim Watt? When appointed Secretary of Interior in 1981, he led the “Sagebrush Rebellion”. He promised to […]
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The U.S. Forest Service continues to throw money and timber away, but don’t expect the Republican-led Congress to call a halt to this long-running story of government waste. The GOP is brain-dead when it comes to sparing live trees. Last week , Louisiana-Pacific Corp. placed the winning bid of $155,190 for 1.8 million board feet […]
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Let’s celebrate our most creative laborers — the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have been neglected by economists and ignored or derided by environmentalists. Environmentalist Al Gore sees entrepreneurial innovation as “alchemy of a very dangerous form”. Economist Mark Casson notes that economic modelling “leaves no role for the entrepreneur.” The economics discipline has become ever more abstract […]
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