Democracy at work with citizens who are truly informed. A republic thrives. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. In the Nations Capital to wherever you are, it is the opinion that matters the most that is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan powered by cable. Welcome to another at the university of utah, college of law presentation, we are pleased to have you with us this afternoon. I am robert keiter, director of the center for Land Resources and the environment here at the college of law. I should note that we are very pleased to be joined this afternoon not only with our esteemed speaker but cspan will be forming todays event and we are pleased to have them with us. The customary way that we start these events at the college of law is with native lands acknowledgment. We acknowledge that this land which was named a for the tribe, the ancestral homeland of the shoshone, by you tribes, the university of utah recognizes and respects the enduring relationship that exists between many Indigenous Peoples and their traditional homelands. We respect the sovereign relationship between tribes, states and the federal government. And the university of utahs commitment to a partnership with native nations and urban indian communities through research, education and Community Outreach activities. This will conclude our series for the fall semester. Beginning in the Spring Semester we will host a series of the noon events exploring utah water law. That lecture series which is sponsored by the Ottoman Society is a lead in in essence to our 20th annual symposium which will be on the future of the Great Salt Lake. I suspect everyone in the room knows that the Great Salt Lake has dried immensely. We all face a significant challenge, environmentally and economically as a result of that. The state is making moves to begin to address that. We hope the symposium offers Meaningful Solutions to the challenges presented by the drought and receding of the lake water levels. Todays green bag Event FeaturesProfessor John leshy, distinguished Professor Emeritus at the university of California Hastings College of law and former solicitor of the interior department throughout the Clinton Administration. He is wellversed in atopic he will be speaking on which is the subject of his recently published book by Yale University press entitled our Common Ground, our Common Ground a history of americas public lands. John leshy, in addition to his activity at the university of california, hastings, college of law served as counsel to the chair of the Natural Resources committee and house of representatives, he has been a law professor joining hastings faculty at Arizona State university. He served during the Carter Administration is associate solicitor of interior for energy and resources, served as attorney advocate for the Natural ResourcesDefense Council in california and as a litigator with the Us Department of justice civil rights division, quite a diverse career, exposed him to various levels and institutions within our government. He also served as leader of the Transition Team for the Clinton Gore Administration in 1992 and colead for the interior Transition Team for the Obama Biden Administration when it came into office in 2008. He has visited at Harvard Law School which is where he graduated and earned his bachelors degree, served numerous boards and commissions and authored a book on the mining law as well as casebooks on public land and Natural Resources law and water law. His talk obviously addresses the sweep of history, of americas public lands and with that very pleased to welcome to the Green Bag Program today, Professor John leshy, my friend and colleague. We look forward to your talk. [applause] thank you, bob. Bob is an expert with many publications in the area of public land. We worked together for a long time. At the university of utah i had the pleasure of speaking before. It is great to see snow on the mountains. I am happy to be here. My book is the First Comprehensive history of americas public lands, the four big agencies, park service, fish and Wildlife Service and bureau of Land Management. In a long time. You folks in utah know more about public lands generally speaking than most americans but still, when you tell people the United States owns 600 million acres of public land, plains, mountains, wetlands, seashores, deserts, they are surprised because the celebration of private property and distrust of government particularly the National Government, baked into our culture. People are surprised to learn that, the question, i had no idea how did that happen, i wrote this to answer the question how it happened. It didnt just happen. It came about because the political system, our political leaders primarily in washington made political decisions that resulted in what you see on this map. With the way they came to be made are the core of the book. The heart of the story i tell, begins late in the 19th century. That is when congress and other branches of government really become serious about holding and conserving significant amounts of land and National Ownership. That was after, usually long after the United States acquired title to these lands in the first place, from native americans and foreign governments. Acquisition for native americans began soon after columbus landed in the americas, long before, three centuries before the United States came to be. Once the Us Government was established in the late 18th century, it continued that process and vast areas from foreign governments like the louisiana purchase. Native nations usually lost their lands through a process that began with often brutal dispossession by an evolving cast of characters was speculators, minors and other developers, settlers often backed by the military force of the european invaders and their successor, the United States. Acquisition of native legal title followed. This was usually commerce by treaties and other arrangements while providing some compensation, could never fully make up for the injustices perpetrated by the and already of the loss. The process of disposition and acquisition come along and contemplated story, from the one i tell which begins generally after all of that acquisition had occurred. And get a sense of that, in 1890, just before this process of reserving and conserving federal lands began. As you can see, there was a lot, the white area our lands were acquisition of title had been settled. I will put it differently, the title to their ancestral land, not conservationists and other projection advocates, not to deny the prominent conservation advocates like most of the contemporaries regarded native americans and their cultures as inferior, nor what i argue federal agencies became part of public lands that consistently reset for native americans and cultures but the good news is progress is being made in this general area and i will tell you more about that later on in my talk. What i want to do is outline the major themes that emerge from my book especially as they relate to use and offer some reflections about what this might mean for the future. I will try to convince you that these major themes demolish common fictions that have grown up about these lands. The first and most notorious fiction is public lands have been a divisive force in american life. One of my favorite examples to the contrary, i offer many in the book, the socalled weaks act, most people never heard of it. It was a bill passed by congress in 1911, the first significant Environmental Restoration legislation in us history. What it did is established a program where the National Government would buy up land in the upper reaches of the eastern midwestern southern watershed most of which was logged over. To reduce erosion and help prevent destructive floods. This act going through congress, governors of the New England States joined forces in a panel to testify before congress. The governor of massachusetts noted in our testimony this was the first time in American History that governors from those reasons go before congress to, quote, ask for something, for the common welfare of the United States. Weeks after that, were responsible for most of those lands in the eastern half of the country. The Second Fiction i want to demolish is public lands tend to provide americans along partisan lines. We view issues of Public Policy as a red blue republican democrat but a dominant theme of public land is how republicans and democrats alike have long agreed on the importance not only of holding more and more land for us ownership but also protecting them. So all can have opportunities for lifechanging encounters and can learn from and be inspired by the cultural and scientific resources on these lands. My book provides many examples. Southern democrats, new england republicans. Some tend to be republicans, less favorable to protection of public lands. The gop surprised many heroes in this story. Another of my favorite examples. This fellow, a newspaper publisher, a republican politician, Dwight Eisenhower appointed him to be secretary of the interior in the 1950s. In that position he protected vast tracts of alaska public land. 11 million acres by putting them in National Wildlife refuges notably the arctic National Wildlife refuge on the northeast coast of alaska which was called americas serengeti. Most public lands were safeguarded through a land grab by the National Government carried out over state and local opposition. It is heard in the intermountain west. Grassroots advocacy and support was instrumental in establishing nearly all protected public land that we see today including those in utah. This is the case with this is a big surge of decisions, reserving public land that began in the 1890s. It began 1891, congress responding to requests from the west from their growing cities in particular to protect the uplands, the president sweeping power to reserve public land permanently in us ownership. President Grover Cleveland in 1897, a year after utah became a state, Grover Cleveland, a democrat, established the first forestry grid in utah, 900,000 acres. He did it with strong support of utahs first governor, a republican who graced the president s action by withdrawing state owned lands in the proposed from sailing settlement. Then between his ascension to the presidency went mckinley was assassinated, ran for election in the fall of 1904, Theodore Roosevelt tripled the amount of acreage in utah and did something similar in other states and did that and told congress he did it because he believed it was he told congress in 1904, the Forest Reserve policy can be successful only when it has the full support of the people of the west. The people who live in the neighborhood ultimately determine whether or not they are to be permanent. Those political instincts, and fall of 1904, care utah by 40 points. He covered other western states by at least 20 points in won the popular vote by 20 points. The second term, more than doubled the acreage of utah. Leading utah politicians were prominent roles and safeguarding public lands of National Ownership. In 1903 to 1933, primary sponsor of legislation that established civil and National Parks. The primary sponsor of legislation that in 1916 established the National Park service. What was on the cover of the law School Brochure hosts more visitors annually than any other National Park. Worthen yellowstone or yosemite. As a history professor, thomas alexander, who are taught more than half a century ago, the utah National Parks have, quote, the hearty approval of most utah funds. Another example, don colton utah congressman, also a republican, was a leading proponent of the legislation that paved the way for lands managed by the bureau of Land Management be safeguarded in National Ownership. Had he not lost his bid for reelection in the depths of the Great Depression in 1932, it would have been called the colton grazing act. Around the same time in the 1930s congress was expanding programs to purchase private land back into National Ownership. Primarily comfort conservation and Environmental Restoration. Most of the protected public lands, parks, forests in the eastern half of the country required for the consent of the state involved. In fact, south florida and texas, two iconic National Parks, everglades, they were acquired by the state themselves from private owners with state taxpayer funds, zoning to the National Government so they could be safeguarded as National Parks. Not a land grab. In public land, really the executive branch of the government has done most of this with congress on the sidelines. Facts are to the contrary. In the late 19th to the middle of the 20th Century Congress did give the executive pretty broad powers to hold, reserve, protect land, in 1911 there was the Antiquities Act of 1906 that some of you may have heard about that gave the president Broad Authority for select or scientific interest which is controlled by the United States and Call National monuments. Thats confusing term. The Reason Congress labeled them National Monuments is congress wanted to reserve for itself the label National Park. Only congress can make a National Park, gave the president the power and said we will call this monument so they wont be confused and keep our prerogative. Since the Antiquities Act has been on the books in 1906 almost every president , republican and democrat used it to protect 100 million acres of public land on shore and many times that of submerged lands off the coast. Most anytime congress has used, most every time president s have used the Antiquities Act to protect public Land Congress later effectively ratified that action. Heres an example. Most of you probably know for years the office of tourism ran a Successful Campaign to encourage visitation to a trade mark, the name, the mighty five National Parks. What you may not notice four of those parks were first protected by the president using the Antiquities Act. It is not unusual but there are 63 iconic places called National Parks. Half of them were first protected by the president using Antiquities Act and congress came along later and flashed a park label on them so congress could get credit too. In the 1960s, the demand by a conservative democrat from colorado, who for 14 years shared the Relevant Committee of the house, he engineered and persuaded congress to recapture a lot of that authority they had delegated to the executive branch. The first big success came with the wilderness act of 1964, congress created a new, protective category of public land, the most protective category because generally speaking in wilderness you cant build roads or use motorized v