Karen, the plains depopulation trend and the associated "Buffalo Commons" idea have been kicking around for a while. I think I probably first read about in the Sunday paper 10 years ago:
Title: The Poppers and the plains.
New York Times Magazine, 6/24/90, Vol. 139 Issue 4827, p24, 7p, 5c
Matthews, A.
Abstract:
Describes Frank and Deborah Popper's proposal for Buffalo Commons, a huge wildlife reserve in the Great Plains. Mixed reactions; Land use of economically depressed areas; Lecturing in the Great Plains states.
No text from my source for that citation, though. The Economist and Time did articles soon after. The original Popper article can be seen at gprc.org . A more recent article I remember reading when it came out: theatlantic.com .
The Buffalo Commons idea, as the current NYT article states, is not exactly popular on the Plains. Bruce Babbitt tried to do a little nibbling on the edge of reform on BLM policies, I think he was pretty totally shot down. Couple more links, in case you were wondering why:
theatlantic.com
apnm.org |
