Are western wildfires larger and more frequent? What’s the difference between wildfire prevention and suppression? How has wildfire policy evolved in the past century? How do land managers determine when to fight a fire and when to let it burn? Dean Lueck, a former smokejumper and co-author of Clearing the Smoke from Wildfire Policy, talks to John Batchelor about the economics and policy of wildfire.
Wildfire Policy From Mann Gulch To Today
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Dean Lueck
- Julian Simon Fellow
Dean Lueck is a professor of economics and director of the Program on Governance of Natural Resources at the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University and an Affiliated Professor at the Maurer School of Law. He is the author of several academic articles on the economics of wildfire management and a contributing co-editor (with Karen Bradshaw) of Wildfire Policy: Law and Economics Perspectives (Resources for the Future Press, 2012). In 2015, he was a PERC Julian Simon Fellow.
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PERC Reports Magazine, Summer 2026
A special issue exploring American conservation history as the nation turns 250.
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Thomas Jefferson: The Lost Founding Father of American Conservation
Two years before he authored the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson set out on the lifelong project of conserving Virginia’s Natural Bridge. Michaelle Browers has described the effort as “perhaps the first major act of nature preservation in the new republic.” The man who would be Governor of Virginia and President of the United StatesContinue reading "Wildfire Policy From Mann Gulch To Today"
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How the Eagle Came Back
As we celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, it is heartening that America’s national symbol, the bald eagle, is no longer imperiled. Although once at risk of extinction throughout much of its historical range, this majestic species rebounded in the late 20th century, and populations are now in good health. At the time of the nation’sContinue reading "Wildfire Policy From Mann Gulch To Today"