| This year’s annual Public Land Law Conference will explore the challenges facing public lands and resources governance.
The conference will consider options and recommendations for a federal lands agenda for the next federal administration.
In preparation for the program, the National Advisory Board for the Public Land & Resources Law Review wrote a policy report identifying critical issues related to governance of federal public lands in the West. This report offers a set of options for how these issues might be addressed by the administration that takes office in January 2009.
The National Advisory Board recently met in Missoula to finalize a draft of the report. The first draft was submitted to all conference speakers in late July for their review prior to the conference. At the conference in September, the report will be a focal point for discussion.
Conference panels and discussion will focus on current law and policy perspectives and changes that need to be made, how to implement these changes, and foreseeable effects these proposed policy changes will have on public land managers and attorneys.
One critical issue identified in the report is an increase of recreation on public lands. The draft report recommended a couple of options to address this issue:
Review current practices and travel management plans with an emphasis on establishing baseline information on recreational uses and needs and identifying management approaches that are working well. The new Administration could use this review to document and transfer best practices, promising approaches, and lessons learned.
Consider changes to the user fee system that will make it more fair and cost-effective, which may include special consideration for local users and more transparency in the ways the fees are collected and used. While there is some continued controversy over the effectiveness of user fees, there is reason to reconsider user fees as a worthwhile approach, especially if there are ways for specific user groups to cover the additional costs of their activities that are currently being subsidized by taxpayers.
After the conference, the staff of the Public Policy Research Institute, along with the National Advisory Board, will incorporate ideas and comments generated at the conference into the report. The report will be revised and finalized and delivered to the new administration and Congress in December.
The 2008 Public Land Law Conference offers a wide range of opportunities for participants. Policy officials, resource managers, scholars, representatives of industry and environmental and community development groups interested in all aspects of law and policy will benefit from participating in this dialogue.
Additionally, attorneys may receive approximately 11 Continuing Legal Education credits. Attendees will participate in facilitated discussions with panel members and will have the chance to speak with them outside formal presentations. We also look forward to some speakers publishing their presentations as articles in the Public Land & Resources Law Review Journal.
Challenging as it has become to address public lands issues in a constructive way at the national level, we believe that the next few months provide a unique window of opportunity for progress.
A new administration will assume the reins in Washington , D.C. in January of 2009. A changing of the guard always presents an opportunity for new policy initiatives, but in this case the opportunity is enhanced by the fact that both political parties are paying more attention than they have for decades to the public lands states, particularly those of the Rocky Mountain West.
The goal of the 2008 Public Land Law conference is progress - to use the opportunity presented by a new administration as a catalyst for change.
To offer a policy report that not only addresses the challenges facing public lands in the 21 st century, but a report that has been written, reviewed, and discussed by the public who use these lands. In a new era, when public land uses are changing rapidly, inclusion of broader public commentary is meaningful and necessary to make appropriate policy changes.
Jennifer Forsyth is a native of Havre, Mont., and grew up enjoying the public lands of northern Montana. As her father is a longtime Bureau of Land Management employee, Jennifer worked on the Hi-Line for the BLM doing native plant and invasive weed inventories. She is now in her third year of law school, focusing her studies on environmental and natural resource law and is an editor on the Public Land & Resources Law Review.
Michael Wolfe is a native of Bozeman. Michael learned to love what public lands in Montana have to offer from a young age, growing up hunting and fishing on those lands. Michael appreciates the integral role public lands play in the lives of all Montanans, and plans to stay in Montana to work towards resolution of public-land related issues. He is also in his third year of law school, pursuing his certificate in environmental law, and is also an editor on the Public Land & Resources Law Review.
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