Keywords

property rights, agricultural economics, oak trees

Abstract

Once again our country is caught on the horns of a serious dilemma. Natural resources, such as land and water, are becoming increasingly scarce and therefore valuable. Concomitantly, and perhaps more importantly, these resources are recognized as having attributes or characteristics in the form of amenities that are coveted by non owners of these resources. A cheap and effective way of acquiring these amenities is to assert that the legal owners of the resources do not have the right to exclude those who want the amenities from consuming them. Or, almost equivalently, the resources must be used in certain ways that guarantee the availability of the amenities regardless of the preferences of the resource owner of the profitability of the primary uses. The upshot is that the resource owners are deprived of valuable property rights that have previously been theirs.