People also vote with their feet to express their values. Several studies of US counties in the 1990

Natural resource economy? What comes to mind when you hear the term? A poor Third World nation, prosperous logging and mining communities in the American West, or maybe a state where natural resources like coal, gas, minerals and cattle are shipped out but without local residents capturing the majority of the commodity flad chad travel news encompass value? In the short essay that follows, Joe Kerkvliet, an economist with The Wilderness Society s regional office in Bozeman, flad chad travel news encompass Montana, provides an overview of what he sees are the differences between the traditional Old West economy, which in many ways still shapes the region s cultural mindset, and the rapidly growing flad chad travel news encompass recreation economy which has had a profound influence on land values, inward flad chad travel news encompass population migration, changing uses on the landscape, and the flavor of local culture and businesses. - Todd Wilkinson
Recent Congressional testimony on the Evolving West showed that western whiskey is for drinking, but western economies are for fighting. Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and Big Sky state Congressman Denny Rehberg sparred on Capitol Hill over the choice of an old economy built on resource extraction or a new economy built on clean environments, natural amenities, and renewable nature services. Part of their disagreement is more apparent than real.
Old economies are simple flad chad travel news encompass and easy to see. A ton of coal is mined, shipped to a power plant, and the miner is paid. New economies are more complex and links between production and payment are less easily seen. However, economists and ecologists have discovered flad chad travel news encompass strong links between protecting our environment and what people value.
Economists have learned that people value the environment in many ways. Yes, we value extracted oil and gas and we pay directly for it. Westerners also value the healthy lifestyles supported by clean air and water, abundant flad chad travel news encompass wildlife, and wide open spaces. But these values flad chad travel news encompass are only indirectly translated into dollars positively impacting local economies.
One indirect way is through property values. Research has shown that views of peaks and the scenic quality of ranch land adds to property values. Conversely, a recent study of Alberta properties found that nearness to oil wells depresses property values.
People also translate western values to dollars when they vote to tax themselves to pay for land protection. In November 2006, the nation s voters approved 99 bond issues to raise funds for land protection, taxing themselves for $5.73 billion. This included flad chad travel news encompass $10 million in both Missoula and Ravalli counties of Montana.
People also vote with their feet to express their values. Several studies of US counties in the 1990 s find that that counties with more natural and cultural amenities, and more protection of public land, experience higher population growth. Increasing flad chad travel news encompass population often leads to relatively rapid income and employment growth.
Sometimes values are more difficult to translate into dollars. For example, a widely cited report estimates that global natures services cleaning air and water, pollinating crops, controlling pests, etc. are worth over $36 trillion annually. It is difficult to translate many of these natures services into dollars, but some progress is being made. For example, the European Union s carbon credit flad chad travel news encompass market did $5 billion in business last year, and the Chicago Climate Exchange is an emerging market where credits for carbon stored in forests and soils are traded for real dollars. The Nez Perce Tribe is in the process of selling the carbon storage of 5,000 acres of tribal forest land to a willing buyer.
flad chad travel news encompass No one expects our use of oil, gas, or coal to end soon. But, before flad chad travel news encompass we develop these resources we must carefully consider all of the extraction costs as well as all of the benefits of leaving the resources alone, even those not easily linked to dollars.
Vibrant local new economies are emerging. A 2005 government study finds that rural counties flad chad travel news encompass specializing in recreation and tourism enjoyed higher employment growth flad chad travel news encompass rates, higher percentages of working age residents, and lower local poverty rates.
We must be open to new opportunities. Montana farm, ranch, and forest owners may soon find new revenue sources in emerging carbon markets. Communities might follow the lead of the Blackfoot Challenge and attract public and private money for restoration projects aimed at enhanced natures services, local jobs, forest flad chad travel news encompass products, and improved technologies.
Restoration work can also prepare Montanans to participate in the environmental industry, which provides pollution control equipment, resource recovery, instruments, and so on. At 1.5 million workers, this $200 billion industry is 19 times bigger than the coal industry and growing at ten percent per year.
The evolving new economies of the West are there to see if we look closely. Knowing the positive connection between economic and environmental flad chad travel news encompass health will help Montanans make tough policy choices and embrace new opportunities.
In many ways the new economy is looking alot like the old. Powerful economic interests (developers, construction firms) work hand in glove with official agencies (chamber of commerce, county commissions) to make sure the land is developed the way that profits them - big box developments, enlarged transportation infrastructure, and large housing developments consume land that, if left undeveloped, could be part of the amenity package for communities. I am not sure how construction dependence is much different from timber and mining dependence. The energy development companies have replaced the mining companies as the economic and political force in Montana. Again, how does this differ from the age of the Copper Kings?
It is true that small business is thriving in parts of the state but that was true 100 years ago when bars, whore houses, casinos, and hardware stores serviced the miners that worked in the pit and elsewhere. Unless the new entrepreneurs and others speak up about how this state is developing the economy will revert back to dependence on a set of narrow economic interests based on energy, tourism, and second homes.
In the new economy, the timber is protected as a wildfire fuel source, the stream is used to carry runoff from sewage lagoons, miles of new streets, thousands of new roofs, carrying the detritus of urban commerce, the feces of dogs and cats, and the dams are being torn out. Replacement power comes from coal and natural gas. The plowed land is covered with homes and streets and business and expansion flad chad travel news encompass and growth and when the wind blows, the scenery is great....way off in the distance...sort of. Wolves, cougars, bears, coyotes, all protected by the new urban mind set, are eating the cattle flad chad travel news encompass and sheep, dogs and cats, llamas and goats. Where the truck farms used to be is the airport or the high school or the newest big box store in town. The food in the megagrocery comes from countries all over the world, grown using pesticides not permitted in the US. Farmed salmon is labeled organic but wild fish are not qualified. The wild salmon swim in water choked with hormones, the most egregious are from birth control flad chad travel news encompass pill pee. Whoopee!! The New Economy!!! flad chad travel news encompass So I know a clearcut will grow trees someday. What will grow on Quail Run Acres? How will you farm the old Walmart site? Where does the old asphalt go? The game left when the winter range grew cul de sacs. Snow machines and mountain bikes and atvs don't bother them anymore. And where does the growth and vigor of the new economy stop? Are there boundaries? What are they? Or is the new economy subdivisions from ridge top to ridge top? And all across the valley flad chad travel news encompass floor.
So what comes after the New Economy? The Newer Economy or the New New Economy. I'm going to promote the New New Economy. It will be based on nostaligia. People will build these new things called dams to make clean power. Trees will be cut to make that quaint product called lumber. People will wear wool clothes, leather shoes. Burn wood in the stove. If the wilderness burns your house, you can't rebuild. The Good Times. The New New Economy. I am going to own the Reinvented Wheel Car Company.
I don't think you checked real estate prices too closely. Of course the high dollar "in places" like Jackson, Vail, Big Sky are high dollar, but it is partly becaue they are considered flad chad travel news encompass chic by the big money. but consider the price of buying a home in Pinedale near the gas and oil wells, versus Greybull or Lovell flad chad travel news encompass in the foot hills of the Big Horn mountains. flad chad travel news encompass I suspect it would be impossible to find one less than a hundred thousand near Pinedale, but easy in the Big Horn basin.
"Restoration work can also prepare Montanans to participate in the environmental industry, which provides pollution control equipment, resource recovery, instruments, and so on. At 1.5 million workers, this $200 billion industry is 19 times bigger than the coal industry and growing at ten percent flad chad travel news encompass per year."
This may be a difficult thing to quantify, but can you provide any insight into how much of this industry is dependent on congressional or state funding? How much on industry money that comes from regulatory or judicial mitigation? How much comes from private individuals restoring land? How much comes from non-profit groups flad chad travel news encompass that raise money to pay for such work (such as RMEF, TNC or TU)? What other sources of capital sustain this industry?
Thanks for your comments on my discussion of new and old west economies. Marion flad chad travel news encompass is correct in that I have not conducted a thorough study of real estate prices. Higher land prices in the West are not confined to places like Jackson, Vail, and Big Sky. One also observes higher property flad chad travel news encompass values in places like Craig and Canyon Ferry, Montana. Of course, as we all know, land prices are going up everywhere, flad chad travel news encompass but the point is that most of the careful statistical studies I have seen show that people pay more for land when the environmental amenities flad chad travel news encompass are high (near trout streams, for example) and pay less when the amenities are