Entrepreneurs are chefs who provide society with free lunches. They take known resources and arrangements and discover new ways to employ them. By doing so they increase wellbeing. Environmental entrepreneurs serve society and preserve ecology by increasing the efficiency of resource use. These environmental entrepreneurs create exceptions to the famous TANSTAAFL principle of simplistic economics. […]
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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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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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President Bush has just proposed a “healthy forests initiative” aimed at reducing the fire hazard on national forest lands. This calls for thinning 2.5 million acres of national forests a year for the next ten years. The total cost could exceed $100 billion. Mr. Bush proposes to expedite this process by exempting it from environmental […]
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Eight of the ten fastest-growing US states are in the West. Much new residential development is occurring in fire-prone areas close to federal public lands. This is known as the “wildland-urban interface.” These new residential areas are popular due to their proximity to the environmental quality and natural amenities offered by national forests, parks, and […]
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Forestry, one of Montana’s traditional industries faces rough times. With continued demands for environmental quality and rejection of the negative consequences of resource extraction, what is the future of our state’s timber economy and the communities which rely upon it? Unfortunately for this industry, the future ain’t what it was. Here are six reasons why. […]
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This summer’s fires kindled examinations of federal fire policy-but most folks failed. The problems bequeathed by a century of poor forest management have no easy solution such as more logging and road building. And Smokey the Bear’s “Only you can prevent forest fires,” mantra, the world’s most successful public relations campaign, exacerbates the problem. Western […]
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Today’s wilderness preservation movement exemplifies a remarkable convergence of radically different ideas. Here¹s an example, one of many. It features the ideas of libertarian economists and green activists. Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman is the champion of those who envision a minimalist government. Among his radical proposals is to sell the National Forests. His 1962 […]
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Forest conservationists have a love-hate relationship with the Forest Service. Created to protect Western forests from the dangers of irresponsible private sector management, the Forest Service promised an efficient, responsive, and scientific approach. But things didn’t turn out that way. Despite the rhetoric of “multiple use”, political planning prevailed. That process encouraged, and often forced, […]
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Forest conservationists have a love-hate relationship with the Forest Service. Created to protect Western forests from the dangers of irresponsible private sector management, the Forest Service promised an efficient, responsive, and scientific approach. But things didn’t turn out that way. Despite the rhetoric of “multiple use”, political planning prevailed. That process encouraged, and often forced, […]
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