Buffalo
(linked from one of my favorite blog sites, kottke.org)
Alex Tabarrok proposes that now is a good time for the US government to form the Buffalo Commons, a huge nature preserve in the western US.
The western Great Plains are emptying of people. Some 322 of the 443 Plains counties have lost population since 1930 and a majority have lost population since 1990. Now is the time for the Federal government to sell high-priced land in the West, use some of the proceeds to deal with current problems and use some of the proceeds to buy low-priced land in the Plains creating the world’s largest nature park, The Buffalo Commons.
According to this map, the US government owns more than 50% of the land in some western states (Nevada 84.5%, Utah 57.4%, Oregon 53.1%, Arizona 48.1%, California 45.3%).
What a crackpot idea. Sure, sell off the public lands. While you’re at it, rent out the Army and Navy. Sell the Air Force, too. Think of the savings!
Comment by Ed Darrell — November 16, 2008 @ 9:03 pm
Anyone interested in the Buffalo Commons idea should look at my website, policy.rutgers.edu/faculty.popper. The idea originated with me and my wife Deborah Popper, a geographer at the City University of New York/College of Staten Island and Princeton University. The Buffalo Commons idea has no necessary link to the Sagebrush Rebellion idea of selling off the federal lands from the Rockies westward. Best wishes,
Frank Popper
Rutgers and Princeton Universities
fpopper@rci.rutgers.edu, fpopper@princeton.edu
Comment by Frank Popper — November 17, 2008 @ 3:24 pm