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The Mining Law of 1872: Digging a Little Deeper

[…] out claim rights if it wants the use of the land for some other reason. This accounts for the celebrated Crown Butte case in an area near Yellowstone Park. Crown Butte has established discovery for a number of claims that had been mined periodically from the 1890s through the 1950s. (Often technological innovations will […]

Published on: December 1, 1997

Nature’s Entrepreneurs

[…] local entrepreneur in the sprinkler irrigation business, found that something – paddlefish eggs. Crisafulli knew that many people came to Glendive each spring to fish the lower Yellowstone River for paddlefish, a large prehistoric fish with a long, paddle-like snout. Anglers prize the fish for their delicious white meat and their size; they grow […]

Published on: August 1, 1997
Perc

Don Leal on Self-Supporting National Parks

July 10, 1997 Statement for the Subcommittee on Parks and Public Lands By Donald R. Leal PERC Senior Associate “I believe the time will come when Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, Sequoia, and General Grant national parks and probably one or more members of the system will yield sufficient revenue to cover costs of administration […]

Published on: July 1, 1997

Back to the Future to Save Our Parks

[…] sewer systems are falling apart. The Park Service says it has a $4.5 billion backlog of construction improvements and an $800 million backlog of major maintenance.(1) Even Yellowstone Park, the crown jewel of the national park system, is crumbling. Cost estimates to fix its pothole-ridden roads run as high as $340 million (Wilkinson 1991). […]

Published on: June 1, 1997
Perc

Winter Kill in Yellowstone

Wall Street Journal January 28, 1997 By Holly Lippke Fretwell and Linda Platts BOZEMAN, Mont. – So far this winter more than 700 Yellowstone National Park bison have been shot on sight or shipped to slaughterhouses as they searched for food outside the park. The purpose of this bloodletting is to prevent the spread […]

Published on: January 28, 1997
Perc

Parks in Transition

Parks in Transition: A Look at State Parks RS-97-1  1997 By Donald R. Leal and Holly Lippke Fretwell Table of Contents Introduction Nevada Michigan Overview Utah South: State Park Systems Colorado Alabama West: New Mexico South Carolina Texas Arizona Kentucky California Midwest: Arkansas Washington North Dakota East: Oregon South Dakota West Virginia Idaho Oklahoma New Hampshire […]

Published on: January 1, 1997

Economics:

[…] Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. Water Rights: Scarce Resource Allocation, Bureaucracy, and the Environment, edited by Terry L. Anderson. San Francisco: Pacific Institute for Public Policy Research, 1983. The Yellowstone Primer: Land and Resource Management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, edited by JohnBaden and Donald R. Leal. San Francisco: Pacific ResearchInstitute for Public Policy, 1990.

Published on: January 1, 1997

National Parks

[…] percent of the additional revenues they earn. And in 1994, parks were granted permission to charge for special use permits and keep the fees. With this incentive, Yellowstone introduced a modest fishing fee of $5 for a seven-day permit. This single fee raised more than $400,000 in one year. The new fee programs have […]

Published on: January 1, 1997

Environmental Federalism: Thinking Smaller

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT Introduction Change is in the air. After a century of growing national control, Americans are rethinking the role of the federal government vis-à-vis the states. This reconsideration has led to welfare reform and to a nationwide debate over education. Now it is beginning to focus on environmental policy, too. Dissatisfaction with […]

Published on: December 1, 1996
Perc

National Parks Can Pay Their Way

[…] charge higher fees and, more important, each park will keep 80 percent of the additional revenues it earns. This change could transform the major parks such as Yellowstone. The “crown jewel” of our national park system has been tarnished by money problems. This spring, the park service delayed the opening of the Beartooth Highway, […]

Published on: September 3, 1996