Continental Parlor 3 Hilton San Francisco and Towers Ballroom Level
Section on Natural Resources Jacqueline Lang Weaver, University of Houston, Chair
Public Lands at the Millennium: A Transformation in Progress, or Business as Usual?
Moderator:
Robert B. Keiter, University of Utah
Speakers:
Joseph M. Feller, Arizona State University [View Program Material] Jan G. Laitos, University of Denver Michael J. Pool, California State Director, Bureau of Land Management, Sacramento, California
This program will be a moderated debate about the future of our public lands in the new millennium. Will these lands increasingly become recreation meccas or biodiversity strongholds rather than an asset base for industrial development? The debate will be introduced and moderated by Professor Keiter, Director of the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment. Professors Laitos and Feller will exchange views about the extent of the shift from extractive uses to recreational/preservationists uses, particularly as reflected in the actual decisions made by the managing government agencies. They will also debate the wisdom of such a transformation. Mr. Pool will offer an "in the trenches" perspective on new and pending conflicts between public land users and how such conflicts are likely to be resolved in the future.