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Our Common Ground: America’s Public Lands as a Political and Conservation Success Story
March 14, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Join professor and author John Leshy at the Tower Theater in Bend for our second event in the High Desert Speaker Series as he discusses his new book, Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands. Professor Leshy will offer some lessons that history suggests for future public land policy, such as how, as he writes, “decision making about public lands demonstrates our ability as a people to work together and find genuine common good.” He will explore contemporary challenges such as climate change, the biodiversity crisis and escalating visitation, sharing insights and perspectives important to ONDA’s conservation work across Oregon’s high desert.
Our Common Ground: America’s Public Lands as a Political and Conservation Success Story took place at the Tower Theatre in Bend on March 14.
Check out the full 2023 High Desert Speaker Series lineup including events in Bend and Portland
About the Presenter:
Professor Leshy became deeply involved with America’s public lands soon after his graduation from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He was solicitor (head lawyer) for the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1993 to 2001, and has written and lectured widely on public lands, including co-authoring the standard textbook Federal Public Land and Resources Law, now in its eighth edition. He is emeritus professor, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and a long-time supporter/member of ONDA.
His recent book, Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands (Yale University Press), is the first comprehensive history of America’s public lands – those managed by the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management – in more than a half-century. It recounts the political decisions that led to the U.S. government stewarding this nearly one-third of the nation’s real estate primarily for conservation, recreation, and other broad public purposes.
Thank you to First Interstate Bank for sponsoring the 2023 High Desert Speaker Series.
