Each year the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado grants the Wallace Stegner Award to a writer who has contributed to "the cultural identity of the American West". Stegner would no doubt be pleased by this year's recipient, Paul Schullery, a long term Park Service contractor and defender, and husband of a Yellowstone Park spokeswoman.

Stegner admonished us to build a "society equal to the scenery". But like most Western intellectuals he didn't understand how federal agencies collude with commodity groups to undercut this society. In his view, the agencies save us from ourselves. Without them Westerners, "...would already have reduced the West to a dessert as barren as Syria".

Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Angle of Repose, tells of the frustrations that spawned the Bureau of Reclamation, Stegner's demon bureaucracy. Created in 1902, the Bureau's political power and creative accounting soon guaranteed that the risks and failed expectations of irrigation pioneers would be smoothed over--and salmon runs dammed over. Uncle Sam's tax dollars would rush in where even the most foolish investors dared not tread. This process exemplifies the federal role in the destruction of Stegner's "noble habitat".

And yet, while vilifying the Bureau, Stegner generally supported federal solutions to the West's environmental problems. Today, he is the patron saint of those who still favor political/bureaucratic control of our environment and reject alternatives.

Writers often examine the pathological results of political management, for example, below cost timber sales and subsidized predator control. Unfortunately, they see these as anomalies, not the predictable consequences of sorry arrangements.

Otherwise intelligent people say, "If our guys and gals get into power, next time will be different". Mixing fond hopes with prudent expectations, they believe bureaucracies will be, if not perfected, at least competent and caring. They'll exercise power in a new, ecologically sensitive manner.

I agree that the agencies' cultures have become somewhat more sensitive to environmental concerns, if not to sensible economics. But politics still trumps ecology and economics.

It would be naive to count primarily on culture for sustained reform for that's not the way the world works. Next time, like the last time, those who rise to power in the agencies are those who first consider their self-interest. Like other ambitious people, they will act on the incentives they face.

The Progressives' of the early 1900's had high hope when creating the agencies. They thought well intended governmental officials would manage resources more efficiently than the private sector. Unfortunately, the results too often are alliances among big government, subsidized commodity interests, and the clientele of both. As the internationally distinguished ecologist Fred Wagner recurrently documents, even university research is besmirched by financial dependence upon federal bureaus such as the Park Service.

This was emphatically demonstrated when a former president of Montana State University used his position as chairman of the Yellowstone Institute to ban an important book critical of the Park Service from the "independent" Park visitor centers. Did he favor censorship as a matter of principle? Probably not. Rather, his university relied heavily on funding from federal agencies. He broke his academic vow to foster education and truth seeking and his responsibility to improve understanding of the Park and its problems. These are the predictable consequences of perverse incentives. It takes strong character to withstand them.

In the system Stegner favored such bosses are linked by mutual self-serving. This often afflicts communities, taxpayers, ecosystems, and the search for truth. When decisions are made in the political arena, political calculations trump ecological and ethical factors. Sadly, the results have disadvantaged or devastated many of the West's communities and ecosystems.

Stegner would agree we can't rely upon markets to create the West he wanted. They drive toward narrow efficiency while ignoring much that is intangible and destroying that which has neither price nor owner. Business, by its nature, is rapacious when not held accountable. That's why we need environmental regulations.

But all types of organizations, federal agencies, businesses, and universities, have limited sensitivity and competence. When we expect results they have no incentive to deliver, disappointment and disenchantment usually follow.

Here's a niche that Stegner neglected, that of environmental entrepreneurs. These are creators of the public, non-governmental organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, the Montana Land Reliance, and the Gallatin Valley Land Trust. Such organizations educate citizens and protect open space, habitat, and rural traditions. These entrepreneurial organizations make valuable contributions to the West favored by Stegner. They deserve recognition and support from those who want a West equal to the scenery.