Explores ways to "unlock the gridlock" over federal land use, by taking a property rights approach to management decisions. The fundamental premise underlying this approach is that incentives matter. The book shows how incentives may be changed within the implicit status quo distribution of power.
The Political Economy Research Center has been at the forefront of debates over public land management for more than a decade. Under the banner of free market environmentalism, PERC scholars have advocated more reliance on market processes to allocate amenities and commodities on the federal estate. This volume examines the prospects for reducing conflicts over public land management by substituting markets for bureaucracies. The chapters deal with recreation, timber, grazing, mining, and oil, and gas development. In each case, a list of feasible and effective policy recommendations is presented. The conclusion is that a healthy dose of free market environmentalism is the best way to eliminate the "multiple conflicts over multiple uses", to reduce the drain on the federal treasury and to promote cooperation.
