PUBLIC LANDS IN THE AMERICAN WEST

Catalog description

The course fulfills the “complex problems” major requirement for the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development (UPSD). The American West is perhaps best known for the dramatic landscapes managed through a web of federal land management agencies. Indeed, western states have a land base that is at least 35％ public, and competing interests vie for limited resources and navigate a complex bureaucracy. Less well understood are the dynamics that arise from the interactions among different land ownership categories: federal, state, and private. Working landscapes are essential pieces of the cultural heartbeat of the region. This course will focus on: 1) the history of western settlement, highlighting the ways in which early Westerners divided up the land base and allocated resources; 2) the agencies in charge of managing federal public land including the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Park Service; and 3) state and private land, with a particular interest in the State Land Board. We will explore the legal and regulatory framework that guides land-use decisions, and study enduring resource access conflicts. Pulling from both academic scholarship and the gray literature in political science, environmental sciences, law, and organizational behavior, this course provides an interdisciplinary overview of governance challenges in the American West. Academic Schedule The course will start on Tuesday, May 31st and meet on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays on Zoom (likely from 2-5 pm EST each day). The week of June 12th-19th the course will take place in the field in Colorado. The final week will be on Zoom on Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday, again likely from 2-5 pm EST each day. The course ends on Thursday, June 23rd. Modality The course will be offered in a hybrid format. The first two weeks and final (fourth) week of the class will be held entirely…