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Stewardship of Public Lands

Project Summary
Throughout the United States, but especially in the West, the question of who will control public lands is a hotly debated topic. The public lands of the west…national parks, national forests, grazing and prairie lands… all are sites of controversy. Who owns these lands? Who has the greatest say in their use? Does the national or the state government have the primary interest? Is it local citizens or citizens of the nation as a whole whose interests must be recognized? Timber, mining, oil and gas producers, developers, farmers, ranchers, hunters, business owners, recreational users, environmentalists…all of these groups assert claims to influence and use. Yet whose interests have primacy? And in a democracy, how do the interests of all of these groups get addressed and resolved? Is the process simply one in which the winner takes all, or are there ways to find common ground, identifying processes and solutions that create more participation and greater satisfaction? Most importantly, what is the role of individual citizens in the formulation and execution of public policy? How can individual citizens have a meaningful role in these debates?

For the past two years, campus representatives have spent a week in Yellowstone National Park with our partners, the Yellowstone Association and The New York Times, studying controversies over wolves, bison, snowmobiles, and grizzlies. Participants then return to their campuses to design programs for students, some focused on the controversies in the Yellowstone ecosystem, while others are focused on local public land and resource issues.




Participants
Black Hills State University
Bluefield State College
California State University Fresno
California State University, San Marcos
Castleton State College
Dakota State University
Northern Arizona University
Northern State College
Salisbury University
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Towson University
University of South Dakota
University of West Alabama
Weber State University
Western Kentucky University



Partner Organizations
New York Times
Yellowstone Association Institute