Re-creating Public Land Recreation

On Tuesday, April 18th, the Andrus Center hosted an in person environmental conference focused on recreation and public lands with an eye towards resolving tensions and furthering best practices. Public lands act as anchoring institutions for surrounding communities. This conference, Re-creating Public Land Recreation, celebrated the popularity of outdoor recreation on public lands and convene a dialogue over how to improve policies and funding, and collaborating across shared recreation spaces.

The conference was scheduled as a 7:30 am to 5 pm in person event and will be followed by a white paper.

Conference speakers represented Federal and Tribal land managers, State and Local governments, and NGO and business leaders with expertise in recreation. Panel discussions centered on three themes:

• Collaboration, especially working across jurisdictional proximities;
• Funding, especially to overcome infrastructure and operational shortfalls;
• Policy, especially shortfalls of current laws and policies.

Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy-Stone Manning delivered the lunch keynote address and discussed ideas about what we can do together–with industry, partners, and land management agencies–to meet the challenges ahead. Former Montana Governor and Chair of the Foundation for America’s Public Lands (the charitable partner of the Bureau of Land Management, the new BLM foundation), Steve Bullock addressed the emerging role of foundations and philanthropy to fill gaps and catalyze action.  Panelist and moderator biographies are available along with the schedule.

Registration is now closed.