Monarch butterflies hit a record low in California this winter, reports Business Insider, citing an annual count by the Xerces Society. The western Monarchs migrate as much as 3000 miles a year, arriving in California from the Pacific Northwest, usually staying in the state until March and then moving to other parts of the country….
Search Results for: wildlife
Can Banks Refuse Oil and Gas Customers?
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has issued a regulation that would prevent banks from refusing to fund legal activities that they disapprove of, such as oil and gas drilling. During the past year, several major banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan, and others, announced they will not…
What Do Free Market Environmentalists Support?
This is a guest post by Shawn Regan, vice president of research at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana. He is also the executive editor of PERC Reports. By Shawn Regan Free market environmentalism used to involve academic study showing ways that private property rights can protect the environment, often when the government…
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,…
Where Are the Eco-tourists’ Dollars?
Reports from Africa confirm what I’ve written about the continuing criticality of hunting to wildlife conservation, along with the inability, unwillingness, or lack of awareness of the need for the eco-tourism industry to step up to the plate, replace hunters’ dollars, and protect wildlife. Domestic and international travel bans and internal economic shutdowns brought international…
How to Fund Conservation and Habitat Protection
Outdoor enthusiasts can fund wildlife conservation, say Tate Watkins and Jack Smith in their report “A Better Way to Fund Conservation and Recreation,” published by PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center. Already, taxes and fees on hunting and fishing provide nearly three times the funding for parks and public lands provided by the famed Land…