Environmentalists Are Slow Learners

The Washington Post complains that the bad ol' Bush administration is making it easier for some big landowner to develop some of his property. What's most interesting to me is this reaction:

Environmentalists, to their surprise, found that timber and mining were easier on the countryside.

"Now that Plum Creek is getting out of the timber business, we're kind of missing the loggers," said Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit that studies land management in the West. "A clear-cut will grow back, but a subdivision of trophy homes, that's going to be that way forever.

"It's kind of the ugly face of the new economy."

Almost two years ago I wrote about a paper production company that was converting its tree-growing land into residential and commercial development. Development became more profitable for them than growing trees for paper. Perhaps that was partly due to environmentalist campaigns to reduce paper consumption.

My point was that quite often these feel-good activities end up producing the opposite of the desired results. Looks like they're discovering this to be true in Montana.

Comments

Make a comment: