Managing our national resources

Years ago (after the 1950s drought broke him) my father had a business helping other ranchers get rid of invasive saguaro cactus.

It was set up so the government helped with the cost, although I don’t know the details. He had two tractors and other equipment. They dug the plants up. Since the government was involved, a government fellow accompanied Dad as he analyzed one particular ranch. Dad came up with a per/acre count of cactus plants, and based his fee on that.

A couple of months later, the count and fee for that ranch had become the government rule for ALL cactus eradication projects, with no consideration of terrain, numbers of plants or any other variable. Dad couldn’t believe it.

I can see agriculturists reading this nodding their heads, because it’s such a common story.

I, therefore, have a request. Could the politicians supposedly in charge please read the scientific literature regarding natural resource management?

An ideal place to begin is with the writing/research by Elinor Ostrom (n