The public is invited to the 2012 Speaker Series on the Interface of Natural Resource Law and Public Policy, hosted by the University of Montana Environmental Law Group, in partnership with the University of Montana Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy. All events begin at noon in Room 101 in the UM School of Law on the Missoula campus.
The series begins on Thursday, Oct. 18, with a presentation on Natural Resource Policy and the Law: Know the Rules and Play the Game, by Martha Williams, Deputy Solicitor for Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Dept. of Interior, Solicitor’s Office, Washington DC
Williams will speak about the interface of environmental and natural resources law and public policy from a national perspective. Her work as an attorney-adviser on parks and wildlife issues advising the Secretary of the Interior highlights the complex dynamics of near-constant litigation and the day-to-day decisions that must be made regarding the nation's natural resources.
Those decisions establish policy direction for land and water conservation, environmental protection, fish and wildlife, national parks, national wildlife refuges, and recreation. Litigation shapes policy decisions even as policy decisions triggers litigation. Martha will highlight the cross-cutting facets of the law, such as where water law intersects with tribal issues or where endangered species intersect with energy development related laws.
Martha Williams is the Deputy Solicitor for Parks and Wildlife at the Department of Interior where she advises the Secretary of the Interior on issues arising in parks and recreation, fish and wildlife, environmental protection, and land and water conservation law.
Before joining the Solicitor's Office, Martha served as Agency Counsel for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks where she focused on land transactions and issues arising from the Montana Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act (including many years of wolf litigation), public information, and river conflicts. Martha also worked for the Montana legislative branch at the Environmental Quality Council and worked in the judicial branch clerking for Justice Nelson. She went to the University of Montana School of Law where she was the Journal Editor of the Public Land and Resources Law Review.
On Thursday, Oct. 25, Alan Campbell, attorney with the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in Missoula, will present The Public's Treasure in Land, Water, & Minerals: Law and Policy on Public Lands in the West.
Campbell will discuss the past, present and future of federal land policy and the related legal framework. He will describe three dominant paradigms. The first he calls the Era of Professional Determinism, beginning in 1890 and extending to about 1970. The second is the Era of Legal Determinism, beginning around 1964 and extending to the present. The third era began around 2000 and extends into the future. Campbell calls this the Era of Dynamic Complexity.
Alan Campbell has been an attorney with the U.S.D.A. Office of the General Counsel since 1988. He has worked in the Juneau and Missoula field offices. His primary responsibilities are currently National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, Endangered Species Act, and real property law.
Prior to his service with OGC he worked for the law firm of Preston, Gates and Ellis in Portland, Oregon. Before law school he worked as a hydrologist with the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Alan has a B.S. in Forestry from Michigan Technological University, an M.S. in Forest Engineering (hydrology) from Oregon State University and a J.D. from the University of Washington in 1987.
The series will end with a presentation on Global Warming: Law and Policy at a Crossroads, on Oct. 29 by Jenny Harbine, staff attorney in the Bozeman office for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, a nonproft public interest environmental law firm.
Harbine will talk about her work on the legal and policy aspects of coal and coal development. She will summarize the various federal law triggered by developing coal resources, as well as the regulatory framework relating to air pollution from coal-fired power plants. She will also address recent litigation on the issue, highlighting the policy implications and an uncertain future.
Jenny Harbine attended law school at the University of California, Berkeley and worked for several years at a small land use and environmental law firm in San Francisco before returning to her native Montana in 2006. Now a staff attorney for Earthjustice, Jenny’s docket is as broad as the spectrum of environmental threats that face the northern Rockies.
Sarah Bates is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Natural Resources & Environmental Policy and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Montana School of Law.