PERC (the Property and Environment Research Center) is pioneering a virtual boundary that will allow elk and other wild species to follow their traditional migration patterns. PERC’s announcement calls it “a virtual fence network that allows the rancher to remotely map and manage livestock through a series of signal towers and GPS collars worn by…
Tag: PERC
Are Conservation Leases the Key to Resolving Competing Demands on Public Lands?
This guest post by Shawn Regan is a substantive analysis of the recent proposal by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management to allow leasing of public land for conservation purposes. Regan is vice president of research at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Mont.
Most conservation issues involve balancing competing uses of natural resources. Should a parcel of land be developed for energy production, harvested for timber, grazed by livestock, managed as wildlife habitat, or set aside as open space? In a world of scarce resources, the main question is: How do people best resolve these competing demands?
‘Paradise Valley, Montana: A Study in Free Market Land Conservation’
Dusty Wunderlich explains how he discovered the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and how its efforts to protect the environment resonate with his Misesian principles. (Wunderlich’s article was originally published by the Mises Institute.) He discusses the Paradise Valley Brucellosis Compensation Fund. Image of Paradise Valley, Montana, is from Holtzter of Pixabay.
How to Stop the Devastation of the Sierra Nevada Forests: The LA Times Gets on Board
The need for active management of western forests has a new champion: The Los Angeles Times. Hayley Smith reports that a third of the forests in California’s southern Sierra Nevada Mountains have been devastated over the past decade. And she recognizes that to prevent further incursions by fire and blight, active management is needed, including prescribed…
Forest Service Halts Prescribed Burns. More Fire Danger Will Follow
The U.S. Forest Service has halted prescribed burns (fires deliberately started to reduce trees and brush that could fuel dangerous wildfires) for 90 days—that is, for most of the summer. The reason is that a prescribed burn in April led to the Hermits Peak Fire in New Mexico—which, by joining with the Calf Canyon fire—became…
Trophy Hunting: Controversial Again
Catherine Semcer, a research fellow with the Property and Environment Research Center, explained why trophy hunting actually helps preserve lions and other endangered species.