I OFTEN defend the habitat of species I care for deeply: grizzly bears, wild trout and birds of all kinds. But, like most people, I care even more about preserving the quality of my own habitat, my neighborhood and community. Within that habitat, we not only worry about pollution and disease, we are concerned with […]
Read More
ECONOMIES are like ecosystems in that everything is tied to everything else. We cannot do only one thing. Protecting owls by limiting timber harvest has multiple consequences, mostly unintended. People anticipate outcomes, estimate how regulations affect their security and livelihood, and often change their behavior accordingly. Regulations that ignore this interconnectedness can make matters worse, […]
Read More
I HAVE long held a vision of what a good society would include. Its most important elements are liberty, environmental quality and communities of people who value both. But only certain institutional arrangements foster these ends. History is unlikely to show that yesterday’s election moved us toward these goals. But elections do cause thoughtful people […]
Read More
DEFENDERS of Wildlife is a national environmental group devoted to the protection of wildlife and the restoration of habitat. For years, Defenders strongly advocated the regulatory approach to species protection. But they now realize the limitations of regulations, particularly when dealing with private landowners. This October, they published a collection of essays titled “Building Economic […]
Read More
WHEN considering the proposed “Ancient Forest Summit” or “Timber Summit” (word choice is significant), we should carefully segregate our hopes from our expectations. Yet I’m hopeful that the summit will increase understanding and improve policy. Here’s why. Twenty years ago my colleagues and I at Montana State University advocated market incentives and property rights as […]
Read More
THE Shoshone National Forest near Dubois, Wyo., is an important part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. But the forest has maintained a money-losing logging program. In any rational system, the ecological, recreation, watershed and wildlife values would easily trump logging in the Shoshone. Even the purely economic cost of logging the Shoshone exceed the benefits. […]
Read More
KILLING WOLVES is a dramatic and highly controversial wildlife management practice. Alaska has recently proposed this as a way to boost caribou, moose, and deer populations for tourists and hunters. But many people find gunning wolves from airplanes offensive and are outraged. The logic underlying the killing seems clear, but the issues are complex. Wolves […]
Read More
The Montana chapter of Defenders of Wildlife has announced a new program to encourage wolf re-introduction. This is noteworthy because it seeks to do so with the help of ranchers, until now some of the wolves’ staunchest opponents. This approach could hold the key to fostering the recovery of endangered species nationwide and have implications […]
Read More
The federal Endangered Species Act itself may soon be endangered. Throughout the American West, the law now threatens to devastate entire economies based upon altering nature – logging, mining, damming rivers. And many environmentalists are gloating. They are using the grizzly, the wolf and the salmon – symbolically some of America’s most important creatures – […]
Read More