3 Ways Markets Are Protecting Our Environment

Entrepreneurs are utilizing markets and property rights to improve conservation. These three examples are protecting our environment and making an impact that has proven beneficial.

The first example is conserving water. The West is familiar with drought, and with growing populations water is scarce in areas.

Trout Unlimited (TU) is one innovator who is harnessing water markets for conservation. Ranchers and farmers have water rights for their agricultural needs, and TU works with them to temporarily divert it to support fish populations. In exchange, TU financially compensates the water right holders.

The instream that is being diverted is legally considered a beneficial use, and water rights holders can enter into an agreement with conservation groups to leave some of their water instream with no risk of forfeiting their water rights.

The second example is sustaining wildlife habitat. Western states have experienced a surge in population and urban development. This increased pressure and growth threatens habitat integrity of the western region’s large and private working lands. These lands provide essential winter range for a variety of wildlife. Private partners are working towards agreements to conserve these ecosystems and habitats.

In the Paradise Valley of Montana, the Property and Environment Research Center and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition have partnered with a ranching family to conserve 500 acres of their ranch for elk winter range. This agreement is voluntary, privately funded, and does not require government oversight.

In many cases, a landowner is willing to manage and conserve their land when there is no government involvement.

The last example is improving forest health. Wildfires in the West have grown larger and hotter due to a build- up fuels like dead trees and overgrown vegetation.

The Forest Service has flagged 63 million acres at extreme risk of wildfire and in need of restoration. At the current pace and scale, this would take decades. But, innovators have discovered a way to access the private sector to get some of this restoration done.

Blue Forest is a conservation group that has pioneered the Forest Resilience Bond, with the help and partnership of World Resources Institute. Private investors, like an impact-investment firm or insurance company, fund the bond, and stakeholders pay the investors back plus a rate of return as restoration benefits are achieved.

The first Forest Resilience Bond was in Tahoe National Forest, where the tool is estimated to shorten to project time to 4 years rather than over a decade. This model provides the financial assistance needed to increase the scale and pace of critical restoration projects. This benefits forest health as well as western communities.

Many environmental challenges still remain, but market tools like property rights, price signals, and incentives are working to conserve crucial ecosystems, habitats, and the environment.

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About Daniel Schwab Wyoming

Based in Afton, Wyoming, Daniel Schwab is an incredibly talented businessman, passionate about his community and the environment around him. Having lived in Wyoming's Star Valley for most of his life, Daniel Schwab is someone who knows the ins-and-outs of the land. As a child, he spent his hime fly-fishing and adventuring in spring creeks, which gave him a foundation of his passion for the environment. He takes these memories with him on every professional venture he makes.

More recently, Daniel Schwab Wyoming is the Founder and Director of TerraWest Conservancy. TerraWest is a company specializing in helping private landowners protect the habitats that endangered or threatened species call home. Not only that, But Daniel also owns Feathered Hook of Jackson Hole, a private fly-fishing club with over 100 miles of premier water. In 2019, Daniel opened a conservation-based property in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Renegade Wyoming.

When he's not working in the environment, Daniel Schwab Wyoming takes his love of the environment a step further, photographing wildlife and the environment. One thing he truly believes is that the photographs he takes are a gift from God. He has never and will never sell any of the photographs he's taken for profit. Instead, he donates the photos to charities or gifts them to family and friends. One of his main reasons for taking these photos is to help show other people the beauty of the world that God gave us.

To learn more about Daniel Schwab Wyoming and the environment, be sure to visit his websites!