Enjoy a selection of my commentaries below. To see the full listing of commentaries, please click here.
Buffalo chips to microchips
Ten years ago, in the December 1987 issue of Planning, the journal of the American Planning Association, Rutgers University researchers, Frank and Deborah Popper published a widely cited paper calling for massive federal intervention in the Great Plains. Their words: “The federal government’s commanding task on the Plains for next century will be to recreate the…
‘Big Sky’ primary would shift power
If the 10 states of the Intermountain West (including the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest states) can agree on a common date for a year 2000 Western regional presidential primary — what my colleague Rick O’Donnell and I call the “Big Sky” primary — then a new and more influential role for the New West…
Grazing fees are federal smokescreen
The initiative to raise grazing fees on federal lands may be decided in Congress this week. Unfortunately, grazing fees are simply a smokescreen for three hidden agendas ruthlessly pursued by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt: First, Babbitt would eliminate marginal ranchers in favor of West coast developers. If marginal ranchers can be denied access to public…