FREE is preparing for our August 25-29 seminar. We designed it for Article III federal judges and their clerks. This program will feature a field trip to Yellowstone Park. We will have presentations from the current Park Superintendent, a retired superintendent of Yellowstone, and natural scientists specializing in wildlands ecology. Ramona and I have been […]
Read MoreAdd one more potential victim to the catalog of high-profile species likely to be harmed by the Endangered Species Act. The sage grouse, a large ground-dwelling bird that inhabits 165 million acres in 11 Western states, including Montana, appears headed for listing under the act, much to the detriment of both the grouse and […]
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Federal bureaucracy gets in the way of complex ongoing relationships that serve civil society. If you want to see the case for limited government, consider that there’s a siege happening in some dusty corner of Nevada over tortoise welfare. Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher currently engaged in a standoff with the federal government over grazing […]
Read MoreOne of the great benefits of living here is the remarkable array of talented and interesting people one meets in the Bozeman area. For example, I’ve met three individuals who have recently worked in Antarctica. No surprise, such encounters are common here. Last Friday, Ramona and I were skiing in the Big Sky area and […]
Read MoreEconomics began as a branch of moral philosophy. Its founders, including Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, focused on social ethics. Economics gradually became more formal and mathematical. Physics became the ideal for economists to emulate, a systematic field divorced from moral content. Ever more abstract and divorced from the culture that guides and […]
Read MoreThis week’s FREE Insight is a summary of the talk that I gave yesterday (11/5/13) at Harvard and will also present at NYU Law tomorrow (11/7/13). The full paper can be found by clicking here. I find fiduciary trusts attractive arrangements for managing parks and wild lands, especially after October 1. National parks […]
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This is a story of thankfulness. This is a story that makes me proud to be an American. The West Yellowstone Economic Development Council celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the 1988 Fires on September 2nd 2013, the day 25 years ago when farmers from southern Idaho trucked their irrigation pipes to “West” and helped set […]
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Summer in Montana is a time to celebrate–and to share with visitors. We have many and nearly all are environmentally sensitive. None visit us by accident or advertisement. Most fish, hike, ride, or bike. The vast majority of our guests recycle. So do we. But not everything. That distinction poses the paradox. Pacific Steel and Recycling […]
Read MoreIntroduction by John Baden, Chairman, FREE My friend and colleague, professor Jerry Johnson of Montana State University, just returned from two inspiring trips. One was to Lake Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska. The other was the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s (GYC) first 400-mile bike trip through the Greater Yellowstone area. Jerry’s essay below focuses on the […]
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Introduction by John Baden, Chairman, FREE In last week’s FREE Insight Mary Roloff wrote of her family farm and the culture in which it is embedded. “My grandfather … carried a gun to protect himself from those that would do him harm, take what didn’t belong to them, hurt his family, or to kill […]
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