The buffalo commons, then and now. (land use in the Midwestern states: includes samples of...

The land-use distressed counties of the Great Plains are good areas to try the buffalo commons concept. These areas suffer from low populations, lack of investments, and poverty. Some farmers already raise buffalo for the market, and others rent facilities for outdoor recreational uses.

In 1987 we wrote in Planning Magazine about the development of the Great Plains and were surprised that anyone cared. We described Plains history in quite conventional terms as a series of boom-and-bust cycles, each largely the result of government and private incentives that stimulated profuse