All Research:
Public Lands and Outdoor Recreation
Why is the West Always Burning Down?
June 26, 2002 By Linda Platts and Holly Lippke Fretwell BOZEMAN, Mont. – A journalist from an eastern newspaper called our offices in Bozeman, Montana, last week to ask “Why is the West always burning down?” For those of us who live here, it is an exasperating question because we already know the answer. TheContinue reading “Why is the West Always Burning Down?”
The National Forests: For Whom and for What?
"The nation finds itself struggling with forest management systems that do not work," says Roger Sedjo, a Senior Fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based research organization Resources for the Future. "The future management of the national forests is unlikely to be smooth, because no political consensus exists."
Is No Use Good Use?
Americans are on the fast track to land preservation as more and more federal land is set aside at an increasingly rapid pace. Now is the time to pause and ask if locking up great expanses of land provides the good stewardship that we want for our public lands.
The Politics and Economics of Park Management
A study of national protected area systems in both developed and developing countries that have made a transformation from “fortress parks” to a sustainable use model.
Turning Wildlife Into An Asset
By J. Bishop Grewell To the Reader How to provide both quality wildlife habitat and hunting opportunities is an increasingly contentious issue in the West. In an effort to achieve these goals governments impose regulations that place restrictions on hunters, landowners, and recreationists. Yet, improvements in wildlife numbers and habitat have been scarce. As J.Continue reading “Turning Wildlife Into An Asset”
Farming Our Parks
Federal land management agencies are increasingly receptive to innovative partnerships that can help share the burden of managing millions of acres of public land. In the case of Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area, farmers are being sought to run about 35 small family farms. The legislation that created the 33,000-acre national park 25 yearsContinue reading “Farming Our Parks”
Federal Land Exchanges: Let’s End the Barter
It's time to let federal agencies buy and sell land, says Tim Fitzgerald in a new PERC Policy Series paper. Federal Land Exchanges: Let's End the Barter offers a practical way to reform the costly and time-wasting federal land exchange process.
Is Bigger Better?
“If we are to protect America’s most valued lands, federal land management policies must be reformed and private conservation efforts encouraged,” says PERC researcher Holly Lippke Fretwell.
No ‘Commercialization’ of Yellowstone
Tiny microbes living in the mud-pots and geysers of Yellowstone National Park have sparked a mammoth controversy. Scientists think the genetic materials of these microbes could lead to medical breakthroughs or, at the very least, improve consumer products. In 1997, park officials signed an agreement with a corporation that had previously been prospecting the microbesContinue reading “No ‘Commercialization’ of Yellowstone”