John Baden’s Intro to Insight by Christian Nasulea Many people who elect to live here enjoy outdoor places they’ve discovered. Most move here in anticipation of doing so, no one comes to mine or log. Rather, people are attracted to our romance lands and our comfortable civic culture. Parks, wildlands, forests, range, ranches, and wild waters […]
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Helping Hunters Succeed: An Experiment in Economic Anthropology I can tell when hunting season approaches—and not only by seeing leaves changing color and hearing elk bugling while I’m in the quiet of our hot tub. How? I get phone calls and visits from ‘friends” I’ve not heard from since last hunting season. “Hey John, can […]
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The U. S. Park Service in the Department of Interior celebrates its centennial this year. It manages over 400 national parks and monument units. The creation of these protected areas is often labeled as “America’s best idea”.* America’s first national park, Yellowstone, was established in 1872. It has become the world’s model for park management.** […]
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How Mining Externalities Affect Liberty, Ecology, and Prosperity Introduction by John Baden FREE works in the intellectual policy arena, never in partisan politics. We stress the critical importance of responsible liberty. Such liberty includes liability for the consequences of actions that harm others. Economists have an awkward word for imposition of costs on others, externalities. […]
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Yellowstone Wolves in 2015 Tuesday morning a neighbor reported a wolf sighting just south of our home near the spring pasture where our steers graze. Our neighbor advised Ramona to carry a gun on her morning walks on ranch roads. At times she is more than a mile from our buildings and far out of […]
Read MoreWhat If Environmentalists Own Oil and Gas Lands? Introduction by John Baden In the 1980s I was one of three academic members of the National Petroleum Council. President Harry S. Truman created this federal advisory committee in 1946 to advise the executive branch on oil and gas topics. The other two academics from universities were […]
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People observe their surroundings with an implicit model of how the world works. Very few however, even alert individuals, appreciate the scope of ecological entrepreneurship. It’s easy to understand those seeking profits: They produce a new product or service and sell it in the market. Motivating incentives are obvious. Nonprofit entrepreneurs are more illusive and […]
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 […]
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