Malheur, Militias, and Multiple Use Management - the 2016 Refuge Takeover's Implications for "Science and Society"

Panel Description: This panel will bring together stakeholders and commentators to reflect back on the 2016 Malheur occupation through a "science in society" lens. While the ranchers who forcefully occupied the national... [ view full abstract ]

Panel Description: This panel will bring together stakeholders and commentators to reflect back on the 2016 Malheur occupation through a "science in society" lens. While the ranchers who forcefully occupied the national wildlife refuge spoke of government tyranny and traditional livelihoods, science has been an invisible but ubiquitous theme in this and other conflicts over public natural resources.  Ever since the 1970s, conservation initiatives on public lands have met with resistance, keeping science-based, technocratic governance from fully taking root.  Meanwhile, the precarious fate of public lands calls into question whether these vast natural resources will remain available for scientific inquiry and discovery.  Yet, the Malheur Refuge has a notable history of reconciling scientific priorities with other interests.  The panel discussion will address local, regional, and national implications of the Malheur occupation, with a particular focus on science and its relationship with environmental concerns, tribal rights, livelihoods, populism, fairness, and other questions in public lands management.

Moderator: Ann Eisenberg, University of South Carolina School of Law; ameisen@law.sc.edu

Panelists:

• Chad Karges, Malheur Wildlife Refuge Manager; chad_karges@fws.gov
• Jeff Rose, District Manager, Bureau of Labor Management Burns Office; j1rose@blm.gov
  
• Tay Wiles, High Country News Reporter; taywiles@hcn.org

Best of the West - Session 1