ISIL Freedom Network: United States > Scholarly and In-Depth Studies > Land Rights and Takings

State Lands and Resources
Source: Thoreau Institute
Country: United States

"[T]he fifty states own hundreds of millions of acres of land, including 57 million acres of state forests, 12 million acres of state parks, and at least 20 million acres of state wildlife areas or refuges." While the states are better fiscal managers than the federal government, they're just as susceptible to pork barrel and special interests as the feds. (2/98)

Tarnished jewels: The case for reforming the Park Service
Source: Thoreau Institute
Country: United States

(1/00)

Reinventing the Forest Service
Source: Thoreau Institute
Country: United States

A detailed look at the trials and tribulations of the Forest Service. (2/98)

The second century report
Source: Thoreau Institute
Country: United States

"Today, Forest Service management of the national forests is besieged by conflict from without and beset by uncertainty from within." This report offers recommendations for reform. (1/99)

Inside the Bureau of Land Management
Source: Thoreau Institute
Country: United States

Largely unknown, "the BLM manages about 264 million acres of land -- the lands 'left over' after homesteaders, timber companies, land developers, states, the Forest Service, Park Service, and other private parties and agencies took the lands they wanted." (1998)

GOP continues attack on property rights?
Source: Competitive Enterprise Institute
Author: Robert J. Smith
Country: United States

Read the October 26, 1999 Congressional testimony of CEI's Robert J. Smith on the National Heritage Areas Policy Act of 1999. (10/26/99)

Is urban planning creeping socialism?
Source: Independent Institute
Author: Randall O'Toole
Country: United States

Land-use planning started with zoning in the United States and has escalated into centrally planned, supposedly smarter communities. What next, full blown socialism? Adobe PDF. (5/00)

How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands
Source: The Cato Institute
Author: Terry L. Anderson, Vernon L. Smith, and Emily Simmons
Country: United States

"[T]he failure of socialism is as evident in the realm of resource economics as it is in other areas of the economy." This study gives recommendations on how the federal government should go about returning public land back to private citizens. The report is in Adobe PDF. (12/9/99)

Run them like businesses: Reforming federal resource agencies
Source: Thoreau Institute
Author: Randal O'Toole
Country: United States

"A research paper showing how national forests, parks, and BLM lands would be better off if agency managers had an incentive to earn profits instead of losses." (1/00)

Should Congress transfer federal lands to the states?
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Randal O'Toole
Country: United States

"Examination of state land management policies indicates that state governments are no better managers than are federal bureaucrats. They are just as economically inefficient, ecologically short-sighted, and politically driven as their federal counterparts." The solution is privatization or public land trusts. (7/3/97)

Beyond the grazing fee: An agenda for rangeland reform
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Karl Hess Jr. and Jerry L. Holechek
Country: United States

"The results of more than a century of grazing on public land are testimony to the failure of land-use socialism." The authors recommend market pricing for land uses, competitive bidding, and discussion of partial or full divestiture of public lands. (7/13/95)

Reforming the 1872 Mining Law
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Richard L. Gordon
Country: United States

Congressional testimony. While the 1872 Mining Law is in need of alteration, changes may make the system worse. "For that reason, it is probably best to leave the 1872 Mining Law alone and press for public land privatization outside the context of this debate." (8/3/99)

Two cheers for the 1872 Mining Law
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Richard L. Gordon and Peter VanDoren
Country: United States

The flaws of the 1872 Mining Law are vastly overstated. "We would never accept public ownership as a solution to whatever market failures existed in food markets. We also should not accept public ownership in land markets." (4/9/99)

How and why to privatize federal lands
Source: Cato Institute
Author: Terry L. Anderson, Vernon L. Smith, and Emily Simmons
Country: United States

Analysts agree that the federal government has done an exceedingly poor job of stewarding the one-third of the nation's land area that it controls. "Accordingly, we offer a blueprint for auctioning off all public lands over 20 to 40 years. Both environmental quality and economic efficiency would be enhanced by private rather than public ownership." (12/9/99)

Land trust proposed for Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument
Source: Political Economy Research Center
Country: United States

Proposes that the controversial 1.9 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument be managed as a self-supporting land trust. (1999)

The price we pay
Source: Political Economy Research Center
Author: Holly Lippke Fretwell
Country: United States

"Each year from 1994 to 1996, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management lost an average of $290 million on timber, $66 million on grazing, and $355 million on recreation." The author "suggests that federal land managers be allowed ... to set fees, create new programs and retain revenues. And most importantly, they must fund their operations from their earnings." (8/98)

Forests: Do we get what we pay for?
Source: Political Economy Research Center
Author: Holly Lippke Fretwell
Country: United States

"If forest managers were freed from burdensome regulations and forced to pay their own costs, they could create new revenue opportunities that are compatible with forest health." (1999)

Preserving open space: The private alternative
Source: Goldwater Institute
Country: United States

"There is a long tradition, in [Arizona] and nationwide, of private citizens using private resources to conserve nature. This report looks at one of the means of private conservation: the land trust." (2/99)

Special interest politics threatens property rights
Source: The National Center for Public Policy Research
Author: John Carlisle
Country: United States

In its Conservation and Reinvestment Act, Congress has found a way to respond to American's demands for nonregulatory conservation without abandoning their usual pork barrel spending habits. (7/00)

Protecting artifacts by protecting property rights
Source: Political Economy Research Center
Author: Richard Stroup
Country: United States

Preservationists truly concerned about recovering artifacts on private land should be advocating protection of private property. There's no greater incentive to protect than an economic incentive. (8/00)

An economic guide to state wildlife management
Source: Political Economy Research Center
Author: Dean Lueck
Country: United States

"PERC's newest research paper ... provides valuable background for evaluating the prospects for state wildlife agencies in an era of shifting funding, changing constituents, and the growing role of private landowners." Available in Adobe PDF format.(12/00)

Special interests trump civil rights
Source: Heartland Institute
Author: Amy Ridenour
Country: United States

A federal judge recently compared EPA to the mafia in their actions to take land from private citizens in Texas. (7/00)

Top ten abuses of eminent domain
Source: Institute for Justice
Country: United States

"The worst abuses were found in 10 states... In each instance, the government, often acting in concert with a private development corporation or other private interests, condemned homes or small businesses so they could be transferred to another party for its purely private benefit." (Adobe Acrobat) (03/04/02)

Public power, private gain
Source: Institute for Justice
Author: Dana Berliner
Country: United States

Report documenting the frequency with which the state takes private property, then hands it over to private developers -- a clear distortion of eminent domain. (PDF file) (4/03)

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