PULLMAN, Wash. — An expert on the American West in the 21st Century will discuss “Rethinking Public Land Governance,” at 3:30 p.m., April 9, in Washington State University’s Todd Hall, Room 216.
The expert, Daniel Kemmis, is the former mayor of Missoula and a former speaker and minority leader of the Montana House of Representatives. He is the director of the Center for Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana.
Policymakers should consider that the public land management structure may be so seriously flawed that it requires a new governing framework, Kemmis says. He will examine the Bush administration’s Charter Forest Proposal as one possible framework for governing public land.
Kemmis has written articles and books on public policy in the West, democratic theory and practice, community and community-building, and bioregionalism. His books include “Community and the Politics of Place,” “The Good City and the Good Life,” and “This Sovereign Land: A New Vision for Governing the West.”
Kemmis is the recipient of the 1997 Charles Frankel Prize for outstanding contribution to the field of humanities, the 1997 Distinguished Achievement Award for Social, Economic and Political Work from the Society for Conservation Biology, and the 1998 Wallace Stegner Prize for sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West from the Center of the American West. He was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics in 1998.
The Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at WSU is sponsoring the event.
