Guest author Randal O’Toole has a degree in forestry from Oregon State University and has spent several decades studying forest policy. He is the author of six books, including Reforming the Forest Service, and author of The Perfect Firestorm: Bringing Forest Service Wildfire Costs under Control, a Cato Institute Policy Analysis. Every summer, smoke from…
Search Results for: environmental management
Prosperity Improves the Environment (We Knew That but Many Don’t)
The 2020 Environmental Performance Index shows a close relationship between environmental success and a country’s GDP. This annual index, developed jointly by the Yale Center for Environmental Policy and Law and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University, ranks 180 countries. Writing on HumanProgress.org, Ethan Yang finds that wealth and environmental…
Wisconsin’s Controversial Wolf Hunt—Still an Issue
After the gray wolf was delisted as endangered and hunters brought a lawsuit, the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources allowed a wolf hunt in Wisconsin in February—the first since 2014. Its impact is still reverberating, says Field & Stream. The hunt was called off after three days (it was supposed to extend a week) because…
Recycling Is in a Tumult as 2020 Ends
Covid-19 is adding to the turmoil in recycling, especially curbside recycling. Curbside recycling was already struggling because of China’s 2017 prohibitions and restrictions on recycled material. Covid-19 has further reduced the ability of towns and cities to pay the costs of recycling. School closures and online classes have dried up both sources and markets for…
The Troubled Art of Restoration Ecology
Liam Heneghan is a restoration ecologist, whose professional field—only forty years old, if that—is full of uncertainties. Its goal is to reverse environmental damage and restore land to a more pristine past. He explains: “Where ecosystems have been degraded because of human activity—including an overexploitation of useful species, invasion by exotic pests, erosion of soils,…
Going Against the Grain
In 1973, John Baden and Richard Stroup proposed selling off the U. S. Forest Service to private owners, some nonprofit and some for-profit. In an article in the Journal of Law and Economics, they argued that commercial timber would be better managed by private companies, and non-profit organizations like the Sierra Club could protect the…