School of Public Policy

University of Maryland at College Park

PUAF 740 -- Public Policy and the Environment

Robert H. Nelson

Spring 2005

About 35 years ago, the quality of the environment became a leading concern of national policy makers in the United States. The National Environmental Policy Act, requiring the writing of environmental impact statements for major federal actions, was signed into law on New Years day, 1970. Congress subsequently enacted a series of major laws designed to protect and improve the quality of the air, water and other features of the environment. These laws included the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act) of 1972, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (better known as Superfund).

Other areas of United States environmental policy were subject to equally sweeping changes. The National Forest Management Act of 1976 and the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976 rewrote the foundations for the management of federal lands, representing 30 percent of the United States and containing much of the nation's wilderness and biodiversity. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the wetlands provisions of the Clean Water Act imposed new limits on the use of many private lands in the service of broader environmental goals. "Ecological management" became a guiding objective for many government agencies.

The environmental legislation of the past 35 years has had major impacts on American society. It has yielded significant improvements in the quality of the environment. Complying with environment regulation has become an important concern of businesses in many industries. The direct costs of meeting environmental requirements exceed $100 billion per year and the indirect costs may be just as great. The rules and regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency arguably have more impact on the American economy than those of any other federal agency.

Given its wide impacts, it should be no surprise that U.S. environmental policy has been controversial. There are debates about whether the gains to the environment are large enough to justify the costs. Have environmental laws encouraged government agencies and the private sector to find the least expensive way to achieve environmental goals? Have levels of risk to human health and to ecological systems been adequately limited? Have such risks been accurately understood before devising means to limit them? Have the costs of environmental improvement been distributed among workers, businesses, taxpayers, property owners, and others in American society in a fair and equitable way?

This course will examine these and other issues in U.S. environmental policy. It will cover the history of how the major environmental laws came to be enacted and the specific requirements of each law. Scientific, economic, legal and ethical issues relating to the development and implementation of environmental legislation over the past 35 years will be taken up. The course will explore a number of case studies in environmental policy, as well as the general policy problems and concerns that have emerged. Because a number of key environmental laws will be under review in the current session of Congress, it will be possible to relate these discussions to an ongoing public debate concerning the possible provisions of new laws.

Themes and issues that will run throughout the course will include:

1. Have environmental laws worked effectively to improve the quality of the environment?

2. How can society go about establishing environmental policies when there are large scientific uncertainties?

3. How useful are concepts and methods such as risk analysis, benefit-cost analysis, cost effectiveness, and others in addressing environmental policy problems?

4. To what degree is the making of environmental policy an exercise in deciding social values, perhaps even dependent on ethical beliefs of a cultural or quasi-religious character?

There will be a mid term and a final exam. Grading will be based on the following considerations and weights:

Mid-term Exam -- 20%

Term Paper -- 25%

Final Exam -- 35%

Class Discussion -- 20%

Term Paper

A term paper (about 15-20 pages double spaced) will be required of each student, analyzing a specific area of environmental controversy (e.g., the regulation of a particular chemical, the recovery plan for a particular species). A one-page proposal for a topic will be due on February 2. Final papers will be due May 11. A first draft of the paper should be turned in by March 30. Based on these drafts, and depending on class size and time available, some papers may be selected for presentation to the class. The instructor will respond with comments on the submitted draft and meetings to discuss the draft papers may be scheduled.

Readings

The readings will come from two books available for purchase at the book store and a diverse set of articles, government reports, newspaper columns and other materials. Many of these materials are available on the web. Materials not available on the web will be provided in a set of copies available in three locations: the School of Public Policy building (outside the elevator on the third floor); the conservation biology offices; and the EPA. Materials on the web can be obtained by using cross links set up at a Puaf 740 web site (www.puaf.umd.edu/puaf740) or at the syllabus for Puaf 740 contained under “faculty papers” and “Robert Nelson” at the School of Public Affairs web site (www.publicpolicy.umd.edu ).

The books to be purchased are:

James Salzman and Barton H. Thompson, Environmental Law and Policy (New York: Foundation Press, 2003).

Cass R. Sunstein, Risk and Reason: Safety, Law, and the Environment (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

Class Discussion

Class discussion will be an important part of the course. Students should read the assigned readings before class and come prepared to ask questions and discuss them. Each class will begin with presentation of a news item of interest from the previous week. Students will be assigned to specific class days for which they will be responsible for presenting the news item of the week. Following this discussion of current news, the class will explore a policy controversy relating to the syllabus readings assigned for that week. This exploration will include presentation of pros and cons for a particular policy position or action. Individual students again will be assigned to develop the pro position and the con position for specific class days. A list of policy issues to be discussed by class date will be distributed separately.

Contacting Me

I can be reached by telephone at my office at 301-405-6345 or at home at 301-656-3339 (I often work at home, so feel free to call there). My email address is nelsonr@umd.edu. Each student is encouraged to set up an appointment in my office (Van Munching, 3131) to discuss their paper topic or any other matters of concern.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND READINGS

Background to Environmental Policy

January 26 -- Setting the Stage

“The Rise of Modern Environmentalism,” in Richard N. L. Andrews, Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves; A History of American Environmental Policy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), Ch. 11, pp. 201-226. Richard Andrews is professor of environmental policy at the University of North Carolina.

“Nationalizing Pollution Control,” in Andrews, Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves, Ch. 12, pp. 227-254.

Salzman and Thompson, pp. 1-75.

Eric T. Freyfogle, “Five Paths of Environmental Scholarship,” University of Illinois Law Review (No. 1, 2000), pp. 115-134. Available on web at UMD Library Lexis.

February 2 – “Second-Generation” Environmental Policy

William D. Ruckelshaus, "Stopping the Pendulum," Environmental Forum (November/December 1995). Available on web (Ruckelshaus -- www.csis.org/e4e/pendulum.html ). William Ruckelshaus is the only person to have served twice (in the Nixon and Reagan administrations) as Administrator of EPA.

Oliver Houck, “Tales from a Troubled Marriage: Science and Law in Environmental Policy,” Science (December 12, 2003), pp. 1926-1929. Available on web at UMD Library “e-journals.”

Richard Stewart, “A New Generation of Environmental Regulation?,” Capital University Law Review (2001), pp. 21-182. Available on web at Lexis. Richard Steward is a professor of law at NYU law school, was formerly professor at Harvard law school, and served as Assistant Attorney General for the environment and natural resource division in the Reagan administration. He has been chairman of the Environmental Defense Fund.

Denise Scheberle, “Devolution,” in Robert F. Durant, Daniel J. Fiorino, and Rosemary O’Leary, eds., Environmental Governance Reconsidered: Challenges, Choices, and Opportunities (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), Ch. 10, pp. 361-388.

February 9 – Environmental Policy from an Economic Perspective

Sheila M. Cavanaugh, Robert W. Hahn, and Robert N. Stavins, National Environmental Policy During the Clinton Years, Discussion Paper 01-38, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC (September 2001), pp. 1-43. Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-01-38.pdf ). Robert Hahn (American Enterprise Institute) and Robert Stavins (Kennedy School at Harvard) are prominent U.S. advocates of using the “market mechanism” in environmental policy. Resources for the Future is the leading economic/policy-analysis think tank in the area of environment and natural resource management in the U.S. It was founded in 1952 and for many years was heavily supported by the Ford Foundation.

Richard L. Revesz and Robert N. Stavins, Environmental Law and Policy, Discussion Paper 04-30, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC (June 2004), pp. 1-24. Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-04-30.pdf ). Richard Revesz is dean of NYU law school. This paper includes several mathematical equations. If you are not comfortable with the math, the equations can be safely ignored (basically the same thing is also said in words in the text).

Barton H. Thompson, Jr., “What Good is Economics?,” Environs: Environmental Law and Policy Journal (Fall 2003), pp. 176-201. Available on web at Lexis.

Robert E. Litan, et. al., Amici Curiae of AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies (with other economists), in the U.S. Supreme Court case of American Trucking Associations v. Carol Browner, July 21, 2000, pp. 1-12. Available on the web at AEI-Brookings Joint Center site. (http://www.aei-brookings.org/admin/authorpdfs/page.php?id=138 ).

“Economics in Crisis,” in Paul Ormerod, The Death of Economics (New York, NY: John Wiley, 1997), Ch. 1, pp. 3-21.

Regulating Air and Water Quality

February 16 -- The Clean Air Act

Salzman and Thompson, pp. 77-102.

“The Rise and Fall of Transportation Controls,” in R. Shep Melnick, Regulation and the Courts: The Case of the Clean Air Act (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1983), Ch. 9, pp. 299-342.

“From the Clean Air Act of 1970 to the 1990 Amendments,” in Gary C. Bryner, Blue Skies, Green Politics: The Clean Air Act of 1990 and Its Implementation (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1995), Ch. 3, pp. 96-135.

“Issues in Formulating Clean Air Policy,” in Bryner, Blue Skies, Green Politics, Ch. 4, pp. 141-152.

“Designing and Implementing Control Strategies Through the SIP Process,” in National Academy of Sciences, Air Quality Management in the United States (Washington, DC: NAS, 2004), Ch. 3, pp. 88-132.

February 23 – Rethinking Air Pollution Policy – Towards More Efficient Regulation

“Implementing Emission Controls on Mobile Sources,” in National Academy of Sciences, Air Quality Management in the United States, Ch. 4, pp. 133-173.

“Implementing Emission Controls on Stationary Sources,” in National Academy of Sciences, Air Quality Management in the United States, Ch. 5, pp. 174-215.

Dallas Burtraw and Karen Palmer, The Paparazzi Take a Look at a Living Legend: The SO2 Cap-and-Trade Program for Power Plants in the United States, Discussion Paper 03-15, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC (April 2003), pp. 1-28. Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-03-15.pdf ).

Dallas Burtraw and David A. Evans, The Evolution of NOx Control Policy for Coal-Fired Power Plants in the United States, Discussion Paper 03-23, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC (December 2003). Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-03-23.pdf ).

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Clear Skies, Basic Information (July 2003), pp. 1-4. Available on web (Clear Skies -- http://www.epa.gov/air/clearskies/basic.html#mechanism ).

David G. Hawkins, Director, Climate Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, “Testimony at Hearings on S. 385, ‘Clear Skies Act of 2003,” U. S. Senate, April 8, 2003, pp. 1-15. Available on web at (Hawkins -- http://epw.senate.gov/108th/Hawkins_040803.htm ). As an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, David Hawkins has long been among the most influential figures in the making of U.S. air pollution policy. He was Assistant Administrator of EPA for Air and Radiation in the Carter administration.

Jeffery Holmstead, Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Testimony at Hearings on The Clear Skies Initiative,” U.S. House of Representatives, July 8, 2003, pp. 1-9. Available at web at (Holmstead -- http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/07082003hearing1009/Holmstead1566print.htm

March 2 – The Clean Water Act

“Public Health and Urban Sanitation,” in Richard N. L. Andrews, Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), Ch. 11, pp. 201-226.

Robert McClure, Lisa Stiffler, and Lise Olsen, “Area’s Defining Waterway is a Cesspool of Pollution,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (November 18, 2002), pp. 1-10.

Salzman and Thompson, pp. 123-147.

Environmental Protection Agency , A Retrospective Assessment of the Costs of the Clean Water Act, 1972 to 1997, Washington, DC, October 2000, “Executive Summary,” pp. ES-1 to ES -6. Available on web at EPA site. (http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eermfile.nsf/vwAN/EE-0434-01.pdf/$file/EE-0434-01.pdf ).

Winston Harrington, Regulating Industrial Water Pollution in the United States, Discussion Paper 03-03 (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2003), pp. 1-30. Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-03-03.pdf ).

David E. Ervin, et. al., "Agriculture and the Environment: A New Strategic Vision," Environment (July/August 1998), pp. 9-15, 35-39. Available on web at UMD Library “e-journals”

Howard R. Ernst, Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and the Struggle to Save the Bay (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), pp. 69-86. Howard Ernst is in the political science department at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Chesapeake Bay Blues has received considerable media attention in the past year.

March 9 -- Rethinking Clean Water Policy – New Policy Instruments

Shelley H. Metzenbaum, “Measurement That Matters: Cleaning Up the Charles River,” in Donald Kettl, ed., Environmental Governance: A Report on the Next Generation of Environmental Policy (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2002), Ch. 3, pp. 58-77, 104-108. Shelley Metzenbaum is visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. She was Associate Administrator of EPA during the Clinton administration.

Environmental Defense, Bringing Dead Zones Back to Life: How Congress, Farmers and Feedlot Operations Can Save America’s Most Polluted Bays (Washington, DC, August 2001), pp. 3-12. Available at ED web site. (http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/817_DeadZone.PDF ).

James W. Woodworth, Jr., Out of the Gutter: Reducing Runoff in the District of Columbia (Washington, DC: Natural Resources Defense Council, July 2002), Executive Summary, pp. iv-viii; Ch. 1, pp – 1-12. Available at NRDC web site. (http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/gutter/gutter.pdf ).

Suzie Greenhalgh and Amanda Sauer, Awakening the Dead Zone: An Investment for Agriculture, Water Quality, and Climate Change, World Resources Institute Issue Brief (Washington, DC, February 2003), pp. 1-20. Available at WRI web site. (http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_description.cfm?PubID=3803 ).

James Boyd, Water Pollution Taxes: A Good Idea Doomed to Failure?,” Discussion Paper 03-20, Resources for the Future (Washington, DC: May 2003), pp. 4-13. Available at RFF web site (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-03-20.pdf ).

Jim Boyd, “Unleashing the Clean Water Act: The Promise and Challenge of the TMDL Approach to Water Quality,” Resources (Resources for the Future, Spring 2000), pp. 7-10. Available on web (Boyd -- http://www.rff.org/Documents/RFF-Resources-139-unleashing.pdf

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, Water Quality Trading Policy, January 13, 2003. Available on web (EPA Water -- http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/trading/finalpolicy2003.html ).

Eric Schiller, "The Oregon Water Trust," Center for Private Conservation, Competitive Enterprise Institute (Washington, D.C., November 1998), pp. 1-12. Available on web (Schiller -- http://www.cei.org/utils/printer.cfm?AID=1354 ). The Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC is a leading advocate of “free-market” environmental policies.

March 16 -- Mid Term Exam (first half of class)

Management of Hazardous Substances

March 16 (second half of class) – RCRA and TSCA

Salzman and Thompson, pp. 148-190.

Hillary Sigman, "Hazardous Waste and Toxic Substance Policies," in Paul R. Portney and Robert N. Stavins, Public Policies for Environmental Protection (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2000), pp. 215-251. Paul Portney is president of Resources for the Future.

Josh White and Maria Glod, "Cost of Replacing Underground Tanks Sinks Some Gas Stations," Washington Post (January 4, 1999), p. B1. Available at UMD Library Nexis.

March 30 – Superfund and Solid Wastes

Salzman and Thompson, pp. 197-212.

W. Kip Viscusi and James T. Hamilton, "Cleaning Up Superfund," The Public Interest , Summer 1996, pp. 52-60. Kip Viscusi is professor of law and economics at Harvard Law School. He has a Ph.D. in economics.

Sebastian Mallaby, “Saving Statistical Lives,” The Washington Post (March 5, 2001), p. A19.).

Tammy O. Tengs, et. al., "Five Hundred Life-Saving Interventions and their Cost-Effectiveness," Risk Analysis, No. 3 (1995), pp. 369-384.

Allan Mazur, A Hazardous Inquiry: The Rashomon Effect at Love Canal (Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 194-212. Allan Mazur is professor of public affairs at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Eric Lipton, "As Imported Garbage Piles Up, So Do Worries," Washington Post (November 12, 1998), p. A1. Available at Nexis.

Daniel K. Benjamin, Eight Great Myths of Recycling, PERC Policy Series Paper No. PS – 28, (Bozeman, MT: PERC, September 2003), pp. 1-26. Available at PERC web site. (http://www.perc.org/pdf/ps28.pdf ). PERC (the Political Economy Research Center) in Bozeman, Montana is a leading advocate of “free-market” environmental policies, especially involving western lands and resources.

Sunstein, pp. 10-52.

April 6 -- Issues in Risk Analysis and Management

Allan Mazur, True Warnings and False Alarms: Evaluating Fears about the Health Risks of Technology (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2004), pp. 1-9, 45-73.

Richard D. Pollak, “A Cancer Epidemic?: Perception versus Reality,” Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy (Fall 1995), pp. 16-20.

"Testing for Carcinogens with Rodents," editorial in Science (Summer 1990).

Bruce N. Ames and Lois Gold, Environmental Pollution and Cancer: Some Misconceptions," in Kenneth R. Foster, David E. Bernstein, and Peter W. Huber, eds., Phantom Risk (MIT Press, 1993), pp. 153-180. Bruce Ames is Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a leading US critic of animal testing procedures for cancer risk.

Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens in the Human Diet (National Academy Press, 1996), pp. 1-18.

*Sunstein, pp. 99-190.

Managing U.S. Land and Natural Resources

April 13 – Changing Social Values in Land Management: From Progressive Conservationism to Modern Environmentalism

Robert H. Nelson, “Ineffective Laws and Unexpected Consequences: A Brief Review of Public Land History,” in Robert H. Nelson, Public Lands and Private Rights: The Failure of Scientific Management (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995), pp. 5-35.

Samuel Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890-1920 (Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 261-276.

Stephen Fox, The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and his Legacy (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), pp. 138-147.

Mark Reissner, Cadillac Desert (Viking, 1986), pp. 151-176.

Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (Yale University Press, 1973), pp. 220-236. Nash’s Wilderness and the American Mind is the classic history of the American wilderness movement.

T.H. Watkins, "One Man's Recreation is Another's Desecration," Washington Post (December 13, 1998), Outlook Section, p. C1.

William Cronon, "Getting Back to the Wrong Nature," Utne Reader, May-June 1996, pp. 76-79. William Cronon is professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin and perhaps the leading environmental historian in the US.

Donald Worster, "John Muir and the Roots of American Environmentalism," in The Wealth of Nature (Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 184-202. John Muir was the founder of the Sierra Club in 1892 and the leading U.S. environmental advocate of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

April 20 – The Endangered Species Act of 1973

H. Josef Hebert, "Endangered Species Act: Praised, Despised as Conflicts Go On," The Washington Post (December 28, 1998), p. A14. Available on web at Nexis.

Brian Czech and Paul R. Krausman, The Endangered Species Act: History, Conservation Biology, and Public Policy (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), pp. 8-26.

Salzman and Thompson, pp. 254-273.

Ken Alvarez, “The Florida Panther Recovery Program: An Organizational Failure of the Endangered Species Act,” in Tim W. Clark, Richard P Reading, and Alice L. Clarke, Endangered Species Recovery: Finding the Lessons: Improving the Process (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1994), pp. 205-224. Island Press is a leading publisher of environmental management and policy books (containing easily the largest selection in this area of any publisher) and is partially subsidized by foundation funds for this purpose.

“All Hell Breaks Loose: 1989-1993,” in Steven Lewis Yaffee, The Wisdom of the Spotted Owl: Policy Lessons for a New Century (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1994), Ch. 5, pp. 115-151.

Letter from Ann W. Richards, Governor of Texas, to Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior, September 12, 1994, pp. 1-3. Ann Richards was the democratic governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. She lost her re-election bid to current President George W. Bush in 1994, partly reflecting the rise of “red state” values in Texas, including opposition to the exercise of federal authority under the Endangered Species Act.

Ike Sugg, “Reforming the Endangered Species Act: The Property Rights Perspective,” Statement to the Endangered Species Task Force, representing the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Committee on Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, May 18, 1995, pp. 1-16. Available at CEI web site. (http://www.cei.org/pdf/4360.pdf ).

Michael J. Bean and David S. Wilcove, “The Private-Land Problem,” Conservation Biology, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1997), pp. 1-2. Available on web at UMD Library “e-journals” Michael Bean directs the wildlife program of Environmental Defense and has long been a leading figure in U.S. Endangered Species Act policy debates.

John F. Turner and Jason C. Rylander, “The Private Lands Challenge: Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Private Property,” in Jason F. Shogren, ed., Private Property and the Endangered Species Act: Savings Habitats, Protecting Homes (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1998), pp. 92-133. John Turner is Assistant Secretary of State for International Environmental Affairs in the U.S. State Department and was Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which administers the ESA) in the first George Bush administration.

April 27 -- Endangered Species – Adaptive Management and Habitat Management Plans

Donald Ludwig, Marc Mangel, and Brent M. Haddad, “Ecology, Conservation, and Public Policy,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics (2001), pp. 481-506. Available at Annual Review web site. (http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.32.081501.114116?cookieSet=1 )

Holly Doremus, “Adaptive Management, the Endangered Species Act, and the Institutional Challenges of ‘New Age’ Environmental Protection,” Washburn Law Journal (Fall 2001), pp. 50-89. Available on web at Lexis.

Doug Honnold, Jerome A. Jackson, and Suellen Lowry, “Habitat Conservation Plans and the Projection of Habitat: Reply to Bean and Wilcove,” Conservation Biology, Vol. 11, No. 2 (April 1997), pp. 297-299. Available on web at UMD Library “e-journals.”

Karin P. Sheldon, “Habitat Conservation Planning: Addressing the Achilles Heel of the Endangered Species Act,” New York University Environmental Law Journal (1998), pp. 279-340. Available on web at Lexis.

Defenders of Wildlife, Sabotaging the Endangered Species Act (Washington, DC, December 2003), pp. 1-38. Available at Defenders of Wildlife web site. (http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/esa/report/report.pdf ).

May 4 -- Forest Management

Roger Sedjo, "Forest Resources: Resilient and Serviceable," in Kenneth D. Frederick and Roger A. Sedjo, America's Renewable Resources: Historic Trends and Current Challenges (Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 1991), pp. 81-115. Roger Sedjo is a leading US economic authority on forest and other natural resource management.

George Hoberg, Science, Politics and U.S. Forest Service law: The Battle over the Forest Service Planning Rule, Discussion Paper 03-19, Resources for the Future , Washington, DC, June 2003, pp. 1-26. Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-03-19.pdf ).

*General Accounting Office, Western National Forests – Catastrophic Wildfire Threaten Resources and Communities Statement of Barry T. Hill, Associate Director, Energy, Resources and Science Issues, September 28, 1998, pp. 1-12. Available on web (GAO -- http://www.gao.gov./ ).

“The View from Quincy Library or Civic Engagement in Environmental Problem Solving,” in Mark Sagoff, Price, Principle, and the Environment (New York: NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Ch. 9, pp. 201-231. Mark Sagoff is a philosopher in the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy in the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.

Second Century: Options for the Forest Service, A Report to the American People by the Forest Options Group, January 1999, pp. 1-22. Available at Thoreau Institute web site (http://www.ti.org/2cfinal.html#RTFToC1 ). The Thoreau Institute is directed by Randal O’Toole, a long time prominent critic of the U.S. Forest Service, and the author of Reforming the Forest Service (Island Press, 1988).

May 11 -- Rangeland Management

“The Ranchers Code,” in Charles F. Wilkinson, Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water and the Future of the West (Island Press, 1992), Ch. 3, pp. 75-101. Charles Wilkinson is a law professor at the University of Colorado and author of many widely read books on public resource management.

Sally K. Fairfax, “Coming of Age in the Bureau of Land Management,” Range Management in Search of a Gospel,” in National Academy of Sciences, Developing Strategies for Rangeland Management (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984), pp. 1715-1755. Sally Fairfax is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and perhaps the leading U.S. political scientist in the field of public land management who has written prolifically on this subject.

Frank Gregg, “Summary,” in Multiple Use and Sustained Yield: Changing Philosophies for Federal Land Management, Proceedings and Summary of a Workshop Convened on March 5 and 6, 1992, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC (December 1992), pp. 311-314. Frank Gregg was Director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management during the Carter administration.

Edward Abbey, "Even the Bad Guys Wear White Hats: Cowboys, Ranchers and the Ruin of the West," Harpers (January 1986), pp. 51-55. Edward Abbey was an environmental activist and author of Desert Solitaire, The Monkey Wrench Gang and other well known works of fiction.

Tom Kenworthy, "Grazing Laws Feed Demise of Rancher's Way of Life," Washington Post (November 29, 1998), p. A1. Available on web at Nexis.

*Robert H. Nelson, "How to Reform Grazing Policy: Creating Forage Rights on Federal Rangelands," Fordham Environmental Law Review (Symposium 1997), pp. 645-690. Available on web at Lexis.

Jacob Goldstein, "Bidding Wars Escalate Over Ranch Land: At Auctions, Environmental Activists Buy Leases on Public Lands to Keep Ranchers From Using the Acreage for Grazing," Christian Science Monitor (January 8, 2002). Available on web at Nexis.