Montana, Clean and Healthful

A Campaign to Protect Montana’s Environment through Property Rights

Introduction

Montana’s nickname of “Big Sky Country” is testimony to its expansive views and abundant open spaces, but that’s not all. Both citizens and visitors know it has some of the richest wildlife populations and cleanest water of any place in the world. Even the state constitution guarantees the inalienable right of citizens to a “clean and healthful environment.”

The question is how to maintain and improve this clean and healthful environment given that much of the state’s open space, wildlife populations and water resources depend upon private ranch and farmland. PERC’s answer has been to get the incentives right by rewarding private resource owners for good environmental stewardship. As the conservationist Aldo Leopold put it, “Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest.”

The Campaign

PERC launched the Montana, Clean and Healthful Campaign to educate Montana citizens and policy makers about the important link between private resource ownership and environmental stewardship. Our goal is to show how much the public benefits from private resource ownership and  to show how unlimited access reduces these public benefits.

Through discussion forums, research, and reading materials, the Montana, Clean and Healthful Campaign will foster support for the the clean and healthful environment provided through private property rights.

• Discussion Forums
• Information and Media Presentations
  
• Research