Articles

New report shows the conservation benefits of regulating endangered and threatened species differently

April 26, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

This week, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) published The Road to Recovery: How restoring the Endangered Species Act’s two-step process can prevent extinction and promote recovery. In that report, I explain how returning to Congress’ original design for the Endangered Species Act—according to which the statute&# ...

Articles

A postscript to the Utah prairie dog case : federal agency embraces state-led reform

April 13, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

For decades, a federal agency had forbidden people in southwestern Utah from doing things that most of us take for granted in our own communities, like building homes, starting businesses, or protecting their airport, playgrounds, and cemetery from disruption, all ostensibly to protect the Utah prairie dog. Thanks to a lawsuit PLF filed on behalf ...

Articles

Secure property rights are the key to conservation

August 04, 2017 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Too often, property rights and conservation are treated as if they are in tension. But, in reality, property rights are a proven means to encourage responsible stewardship, resolve conflicts over limited resources, and empower environmentalists to protect resources they value. To achieve these positive environmental ends, however, property rights m ...

Articles

Lesser prairie chicken delisted

July 19, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Today, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service formally removed the lesser prairie chicken — a species widely distributed across Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, including key areas for energy development — from the Endangered Species Act’s threatened list. The delisting was the result of a lawsuit against the agency ...