hello tweets,

here is more information about land degradation of our western
prairies, courtesy of stan moore, who gave me permission to
forward his email to you all.

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson, Girl Scientist nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
<><><>Graduate School: it's not just a job, it's an indenture!<><><>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 22:01:36 -0500
From: stan moore <hawkman11 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Policy Roots of Land Degradation in the Arid West

Many ornithologists are aware of the tremendous loss, fragmentation, and
degradation of wildlife habitat (the public range) all over the arid western
United States. Among several consequences are the severe decline of many
bird species, including prairie grouse.

Recently, I came across a lengthy paper on how public lands policies and
institutions have contributed to land degradation in the arid west in a
variety of ways. This paper sounds almost as if it were written by
"extremist" environmentalists, but in fact, it was written by a range
management professor at New Mexico State University (Jerry Holechek) and a
conservative think tank particant with the Cato Institute in Washington,
D.C. (Karl Hess, Jr.).

I found this paper to be extremely revealing and unsettling at the same
time. I felt it is such valuable information that I have retyped it from my
photocopies and offer the accompanying files for your consideration. I
apologize in advance for any typographic errors, but this was a long, long
paper. It is entitled "Policy Roots of Land Degradation in the Arid Region
of the United States: An Overview", and was published in Environmental
Monitoring and Assessment 37: 123-141, 1995.

I believe this information is well worth taking the time to read and ponder.

To view the document, you can click on the following URL:

http://www.geocities.com/stanhawkman/policyrootsoflanddegradation.txt


Stan Moore San Geronimo, CA hawkman11 at hotmail.com