New Approaches to Managing Resources in the Rockies

By Bryan Hurlbutt, 4-24-06

Resource management in the Rocky Mountain West is often mired in bitter conflict between competing interest groups in the realm of law and politics. Today, however, ground is being broken in managing limited, highly valued resources through cooperative approaches that harness market incentives. “New Resource Management—Innovative Approaches in the Rockies,” a section of the 2006 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card, highlights several successful examples of creative collaboration in managing land, water, and wildlife around the region.

Are lawsuits and government regulations too divisive, or do they play an important role that the market can’t fill in managing limited resources? Should the examples in the report serve as models for resource conflicts around the West? Click here for the PDF of the New Resource Management section of the report.

Editor's Note: The writer is a co-author of the 2006 Report Card. Colorado College is releasing sections of the report here on New West for discussion. [End of article]