Schedule

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

8:00 AM: Arrival

8:30 AM: Welcome!

  • Land acknowledgement by Darren Parry, Utah State University.

  • Welcome by Bob Keiter, Distinguished Professor, University of Utah College of Law Bob Keiter, Distinguished Professor, University of Utah College of Law, and Director of the Wallace Stegner Center of Land Resources and the Environment

9:00 AM: Keynote address : John Leshy, University of California

Livestock Grazing on the Public Lands: A Look Back, A Look Ahead.

Trump II Administration’s emerging public land policy, including livestock grazing, and what the longer term impact might be. Leshy will draw on themes and lessons that emerge from his comprehensive political history of America's public lands, Our Common Ground (2022)

10:45 AM: History of Grazing Management & How to Change Agency Culture

  • Dennis Willis, Bureau of Land Management (Retired)

  • Chuck Oliver, U.S. Forest service

  • James Holt Sr., Nez Perce Tribe

10:00 AM: Q&A

10:30 AM: Break

12:45 PM: Moderated Legal Discussion (working lunch)

  • Matt Bishop, Western Environmental Law Center

  • Paul Ruprecht, Western Watersheds Project

  • Dana Johnson, Wilderness Watch

11:45 AM: Panel Q&A

12:15 PM: Lunch

1:45 PM: State's Attempts to Take Control of Public Lands

  • John Ruple, University of Utah: Suing to control Federal Lands: Utah v. United States & SUWA v. Cox

  • John Leshy, University of California: What strategies work best to combat efforts to wrest ownership of the public lands from the U.S.?

  • Tom Luebben, Law Offices of Thomas E. Luebben PC: The Origins, History, and Legal Status of Aboriginal Indian Title & Implications for Public Lands Litigation in Utah

3:30 PM: Underrepresented Biota affected by Grazing

  • Mary O'Brien, Project Eleven Hundred: Our native bees facing livestock - the popularity of native bees is on the rise but livestock and honey bees are taking their pollen.

  • Mark Surls, Project Coyote: Coyotes on the landscape: Understanding and living with America's songdog

  • Brian J. Miller, Wind River Foundation: [Brian’s topic will cover prairie dogs - presentation title to be forthcoming]

2:45 PM: Panel Q&A

3:15 PM: Short Break

4:30 PM: Panel Q&A

5:00 PM: Law School portion of Conference concludes

[Location is moved to Squatters Pub Brewery, 147 W Broadway, Salt Lake City, UT 841010]

5:30-10:00 PM: Squatters Pub Brewery Social

(Complementary apps, open cash bar)

  • Chris Lant, Utah State University to discuss the overproduction of alfalfa and its impact on the Great Salt Lake

Thursday, May 29, 2025

8:00 AM: Arrival

8:30 AM: Welcome!

9:00 AM: Misinformation and False Solutions in Range Management and Native Grassland Restoration: How to Find the Flaws and Work Towards Rewilding

  • Laura Cunningham, WWP: Shifting baseline syndrome, reference sites to measure baselines of native grasslands, and shortcomings of ESDs, AIM, and range monitoring for livestock goals

  • Dave Stricklan, General Manager and Executive Director of Rewilding at Birch Creek: Birch Creek restoration and how to get around agency misinformation

  • Erik Molvar, WWP: Cheatgrass, sage grouse, wild horses, Hammonds P-I

  • Mary O'Brien, Project Eleven Hundred: The power of visuals to counter misinformation and show public lands after livestock have left

10:45 AM: Wild Horses, Livestock, and Rangeland Health Issues

  • Chandra Rosenthal, PEER: BLM Rangeland Health Data: A comparative analysis of wild horse and cattle impacts

  • Vickery Eckhoff, former NY Times journalist: FOIA-based analysis of wild horse messaging - Examining claims of Land Health impacts

  • Erik Molvar, WWP: Ecological roles of wild horses, cattle, and sheep - Impacts on Land Health and solutions to improve land health in degraded areas

  • Robin Silver, Center for Biological Diversity

10:00 AM: Panel Q&A

10:30 AM: Break

12:45 PM: Moderated Media Discussion (working lunch)

  • Keegan Kuhn, Filmmaker

  • Teal Lehto, Content Creator

  • Mike Mease, Activist

11:45 AM: Panel Q&A

12:15 PM: Lunch

1:45 PM: Vegetation Treatment and Native Plants

  • Allison Jones: A review of the literature: Do mechanical vegetation treatments meet the goals managers set for them?

  • Arnold Clifford, Carrizo Mountain Environmental Consulting: Diné reverence for the natural order of vegetation

  • Scott Lake, Center for Biological Diversity: Past, present and emerging threats to pinyon-juniper woodlands in the Great Basin

3:15 PM: Imagining the Ideal

  • Barry Reiswig, Retired: Untangling the politics and ecology of cattle removal at Hart and Sheldon Wildlife Refuges

  • Darren Parry, Utah State University/Former Chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation: Before you can tell the story of the People you need to tell the story of the land - How Shoshone Traditional Ecological Knowledge is reshaping the landscape

  • Final panelist forthcoming

2:45 PM: Panel Q&A

10 minute tutorial on WWP’s cattle grazing app by Delaney Rudy

3:00 PM: Short Break

4:15 PM: Panel Q&A

4:30 PM: Law School portion of Conference concludes, see you bright and early for the field trip!

Friday, May 30, 2025

7:30 AM: Meet at the downtown Crystal Inn Hotel and Suites to arrange into carpools for Utah's West Desert

[Location: Crystal Inn Hotel and Suites, 230 W 500 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84101]

Visits to vegetation treatments of sage-brush and pinyon-juniper communities

  • Discussion on evaluating land health

  • Commentary from biologists, attorneys, and rangeland experts

12:30 PM: Field trip completed, proceed in the carpools back to Crystal Inn