National water experts will be featured during the 2006 Northwest Water Policy and Law Symposium to be held Sept. 18-20 at the Holiday Inn in Bozeman.
Hosted jointly by the Montana Water Center, the Burton K. Wheeler Center at Montana State University, and the Inland Northwest Research Alliance, the two-day symposium will explore solutions in three areas of water policy: surface-water/ground-water interaction, water infrastructure management, and conflicting land- and water-use laws. It is designed for all interested in water and water law, state legislators, including agency personnel, water policy experts and attorneys, water scientists and managers, and officials of local government.
Donald Worster, a Pulitzer Prize nominated author and the Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas, will be the keynote speaker. Worster, the author of several works including "A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell," and "Rivers of Empire," which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18 on "A History of Water in the Great Northwest."
Warren Muir, National Academy of Science, is set to open the session at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, followed by a panel on infrastructure moderated by Bill Yellowtail, former director of EPA Region VIII. Other member include: Bill MacDonald, director of the northwest region for the Bureau of Reclamation in Boise, Dan Keppen of the Family Farm Alliance in Klamath Falls, Ore.,John Tubbs of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and Craig Bell, of the Western States Water Council in Salt Lake City. Dan Tarlock, of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, will be the lunch speaker on "Needed Reforms in Land and Water Policy."
A panel on "Surface and Ground Water: Their Relation in Nature and Policy," moderated by the University of Idaho College of Law's Barbara Cosens, will begin the afternoon on Tuesday, Sept. 19. Other members of the panel will include Bruce Aylward of the Deschutes River Conservancy, Mary Sexton of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and Laura Ziemer of Trout Unlimited.
A panel on land and water use will conclude the afternoon program on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
Moderated by Jan Brown of Yellowstone Business Partnerships, the panel will also include Bill Murdoch, Gallatin County commissioner, Carol Macbeth of 1000 Friends of Oregon and Gail Achterman, of the Oregon's Institute of Natural Resources, and Lora Lucero, an attorney from Albuquerque.
Larry Susskind, a noted environmental dispute mediator and professor of urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver the keynote address on challenges of a natural resource policy at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19.
Three discussions will be held concurrently beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20. Dorothy Bradley, Gallatin County Court administrator, will moderate a discussion on current infrastructure challenges. Jim Peterson, a Montana legislator, will moderate "Surface Water and Ground Water Interactions." Don Dixon, an agricultural adviser for Sen. Mike Crapo (R.-Idaho), will moderate "Water Regulation vs. Land-Use Regulations."
The workshop will culminate with the development of a white paper on water issues that will be distributed to decision makers throughout the Northwest.
The Cinnabar Foundation has provided partial funding for the conference.
Registration for the conference ranges from $50 to $150 and includes all meals, breaks and materials.
For more information, and to register, go to http://water.montana.edu/policy/.
Julie Hitchcock (406) 994-0336, jhitch@montana.edu,
or Sue Higgins,(406) 994-1772, shiggins@montana.edu
|
Email this article
