New Models for Funding Public Lands Management: A Case Study of the Northern Arizona Forest Fund
Rebecca Davidson, Spencer Plumb & Marcus Selg. At the end of the twentieth century, scholars divided public land policy within the United States into three periods: disposition, reservation, and management. As we enter the twenty-first century, our public lands are declining in health and, from a financial standpoint, are less an asset and more a liability. To address the issues facing public lands management, the federal government is now more dependent on public-private partnerships as well as private investment in the health of our public lands. Begging the question— are we entering a new period for public land policy following the “period of management”—an era of public-private partnerships? Public-private partnerships, referred to as partnerships from here forward, are agreements between a federal public agency and a private individual, business, or…