Public Lands. Early History Flashcards
Referring to European enclosure and game laws, explain why early European settlers in the US valued the institution of private property, but also viewed certain natural resources, (e.g. fish and wild game), as open access common property.
1) valued private property because their experiences with the European Enclosure Movement had left them with a deep desire for land ownership and security.
2)However, also viewed certain natural resources as open access because they believed in the right of everyone to freely access these resources, a belief influenced by their experiences with common pasture lands in feudal Europe.
Explain the constitutional basis of Federal (not State) control over the national public lands today
Article 4: Property Clause: Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations
Significance: Grants Congress authority to manage and regulate federal lands and territories. Federal control over national public lands. Congress has the power to decide how these lands are used, sold, or protected, and can establish regulations governing their management.
Article 6: Supremacy of federal laws over state laws in cases which they conflict(fed always wins)
Characterize Jefferson visions for American society, and explain how wanted to use the process of land distribution to meet their goals
1) nation of small, independent farmers would promote democratic values,
2) strong state government that would facilitate the privatization
3) land in small plots and at affordable prices
society would promote democratic values, and support a diverse and self-sufficient society/ economy.
Characterize Hamilton’s visions for American society, and explain how wanted to use the process of land distribution to meet their goals
Type of business: manufactures, resource extraction
Scale: Large
Strong Fed or State?: Strong Fed
Privatize plots at large or small scale?: Large
sell land in large plots, to the highest bidder, particularly large scale big investors, to get mass amounts of money into our coffers, in order to create a society and economy made from diversified manufacturing large scale corporations who develop, and access resources. He also wanted a Stronger federal government.
economy driven by
1)large-scale manufacturing and 2)selling land in large plots to wealthy investors and corporations, generating substantial revenue for the federal government.
3)strong federal government to coordinate and support these efforts, ensuring that America could become a leading economic power through industrial growth and resource management.
Explain what is meant by “split estates” and why that situation is fairly common in the U.S.
Property is thought of as a bundle of sticks that can be separated.
The sticks are:
- Surface Rights (grazing, agriculture, forest)
-Water rights (with land or separate from land)
- Mineral Rights
Sometimes you can bet surface rights but not mineral rights
Split estates: The idea that you can have some of these rights, sticks in the bundles, but not others
The Four main components of a ranch settlement system:
1) Stick: Surface Rights Private Land (Base Ranch)
2 Stick: Water rights on Private land (Base Ranch)
3) Stick: Grazing “Privilege’ on Public lands
4) Stick: Water rights on Public Lands
why and how ranch families integrated those main ranch components into a single grazing system
1)Surface Rights on Private Land (Base Ranch): Ownership and control of the land’s surface for ranching activities.
2)Water Rights on Private Land (Base Ranch): Rights to utilize water resources (steams, lakes) on the privately owned land.
3)Grazing “Privilege” on Public Lands: Permission to graze livestock on public lands, regulated by government permits.
4) Water Rights on Public Lands: Permission to access and use water resources on public lands, also regulated by permits.
Clarify why US Grazing lands were a common pool, open access resource in the 1800’s – speaking directly to the two key attributes of a common pool resource
In the 1800s there was no federal official telling people where they could or could not place their cows. Additionally, there were no rules on how many cows you can put on the land and where, everything was all open access.
Open Access: Subtracable bc as you put animal there, you take away the resources in that land.
NE bc anyone was able to put a cow on land
In Open Access, why it is rational for an individual herder to add more cows to the pasture – beyond its carrying capacity
Even though there are more cows and they’re now eating less the herder who adds more cows is still above the others when it comes to how much total meat those cows can produce over the others and sell, meaning a larger profi
In open access- it is not rational for an individual herder to cut back on using the pasture (reduce pressure on the resource)
Not rational because they’ll hurt economically and another herder will see that they’re gone and they’ll take over or just add more of their own herd
Identify at what point it is no longer rational for a herder to add more cows to the pasture in an open access situation
zero profit
Explain why open access is an 1) economic tragedy; 2) environmental tragedy; and 3) social tragedy
When ranchers have reached zero profits, land is also degraded.
Economic tragedy: zero profitability, farmers have nothing left and can’t provide
Environmental tragedy: degraded the resources ability to regenerate, there’s no return
Social tragedy: consumers are getting a declining amount of meat and it is more expensive, these are our lands that are now degraded and we have to support the ranchers (welfare queens) and we have to fix the lands, essentially a burden on society
