Professor Adam Brown (about me)
Email: brown@byu.edu
Office phone: (801) 422-2182
Office: 772 KMBL

Current syllabus: https://adambrown.info/p/courses/2022/fall/325
Syllabus version: August 18th, 2022

Office hours: starting 9/8: Th 10-11 and Fr 10:30-11:30 or email to set another time to meet in my office or over Zoom.

What's this course about?

Our food, clothing, shelter, and all essentials of life come from the earth, and all our wastes go back into it. This simple truth forces every society to decide how to balance its economic activities against the earth's natural constraints. These decisions are often among the most difficult in modern politics. They can pit health, prosperity, beauty, and survival against each other.

For Latter-day Saints, these decisions are further complicated by a moral imperative. Though Latter-day Saint scripture proclaims that "the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare," this declaration is accompanied by a stern warning: God makes everyone individually "accountable, as a steward over earthly blessings," in their management of God's "handiwork" (see DC 104:13-18).

Environmental politics has such a broad scope that no course could cover it all. We will focus on America's public lands. These include many gems—national parks, wildernesses, rangelands, forests, and some waterways—but also vast stretches of seeming wasteland. Mining, grazing, preservation, logging, recreation, drilling, and restoration clash on these lands. Competing government entities wrestle for control.

In the first half of the course, we will discuss the general philosophies and political dynamics surrounding land and wilderness, as well as concepts relevant to environmental politics more generally. In the second half of the course, we will consider several policy disputes: Hard rock mining, dam construction and removal, endangered species rehabilitation, and protection of national parks and wilderness areas. We will observe environmental conditions firsthand with several local field trips. The course culminates in an overnight trip to the Moab area that includes Arches National Park and other sights.

My purpose is not to prod you toward agreeing with my stance on the difficult issues we will discuss. Rather, it is to train you in the history and nuance of these issues so that you can engage them fairly and productively, whatever your leanings. More specifically, these are this course's learning objectives:

• To engage the competing philosophical, scientific, and political underpinnings of selected environmental disputes, especially those relating to public land management;
• To integrate knowledge about individual political institutions into a broader understanding of the policy process as a whole, using public land management as our running case study;
• To stimulate discussion about the proper roles of governments and markets in producing desirable policy outcomes;
• To observe firsthand how policy decisions impact conditions on the ground;
• To equip students to participate in policy disputes wherever they may settle.

Field trips

This course includes several field trips. Some are local trips held (mostly) within our regularly scheduled time, though we may start early or end late. We will also have an overnight excursion to the Moab area. Check the schedule below for details, recognizing that inclement weather or other circumstances may prompt changes.

The local field trips could be thought of as lectures taught on location. They will include substantial lecture and discussion. Be prepared to take notes while standing, probably by hand. Bring pens, paper, and a hard writing surface such as a binder or clipboard.

The Moab trip will include less lecture relative to observation (though you should still be prepared to take notes). Instead, I will help you see firsthand how land management decisions have influenced conditions on the ground. Based on your observations, you will prepare a brief paper about land management strategies after the trip.

Field trips will involve walking on rough ground, ascending steep trails, and other potentially strenuous activity. Wear sturdy shoes and weather-appropriate clothing. Bring water (lots), a backpack, snacks, and sun protection as needed. My hope is that students at a variety of fitness levels can participate. Please visit with me in advance if you have an injury, disability, limited mobility, or other concern that may limit your participation or require reasonable accommodations.

Unless we use a university-owned vehicle, you will be responsible for your own transportation for field trips. I will help you organize into carpools, but recognize that you join a carpool of your own free will; the university does not assume liability for privately-owned vehicles used for student transportation. This includes vehicles that I might own myself. (For fall 2022, we will use university vans for everything except Rock Canyon.)

We will use a university-owned van for the Moab trip. The political science department generously covers all transportation and lodging costs, but you are responsible for your own food and other personal supplies.

If you are a minor, talk to me about obtaining parental consent. Otherwise, your participation implies your acknowledgement and acceptance of the risks inherent in travel, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Visit with me if you have questions.

Grades, assignments, and attendance

20%	Term paper (instructions )
2%	Term paper peer review
9%	Moab response paper (instructions )
34%	Midterm
34%	Final exam
1%	Completion of BYU's anonymous course evaluation

In-class writings and activities. We will regularly do writings or other activities in class. Some will assess your comprehension of assigned readings. You should not find these exercises difficult if you stay current. These are practice for exams and are not scored.

Keep your peers healthy. Do not spread illness. Stay home if you have symptoms of flu, covid, norovirus, or other contagious illness, such as vomiting, nausea, coughing, chills or fever, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, muscle aches, fatigue, headache, and so on. (If you vomit overnight, it is almost certainly norovirus, often called "stomach flu," not food poisoning.) Remember that your peers may be vulnerable or immunocompromised. Even if it's just a bad cold, nobody wants that. Stay home when sick. Wash your hands often, even when healthy. Get your flu/covid/etc vaccines. If you feel well but may have been exposed, please mask up or stream via Zoom. Help us all stay healthy.

Attendance. I do not track attendance (except in Moab), but absences will make exams harder. If the technology cooperates, I will use Zoom to stream (and record) all classes (except field trips) to accommodate illness/quarantine, disability, emergency, and similar circumstances. You don't need a doctor's note for illness; you are adults and can decide for yourselves to stay home when sick (or exposed). Email me before class to ask for the streaming link. If streaming live isn't an option, email me later for a link to the recording. I will delete recordings after a bit, so request one promptly if needed.

Missing local field trips: Unfortunately, I cannot record field trips. If you must miss a trip, please inform me in advance if possible so we don't delay our departure waiting for you. After the trip, do what folks did in the pre-Zoom days when they missed class: Get notes from a friend or two, review the slides I have posted, then—after doing all you can to learn what you missed—visit with me to fill in any gaps.

Missing the Moab field trip: All should plan to attend, but life happens. Do not feel pressure to attend if you wake up sick or experience some other emergency. Contact me if possible so we don't delay our departure waiting for you. I will provide you with an alternative assignment. (Unexplained or unexcused absences will cause you to forego all the points associated with the Moab response paper.)

Late assignments: Take-home assignments are due promptly at the beginning of class. Any paper turned in on the due date but after the beginning of class gets a 5% penalty. If you are tardy, your assignment will receive this penalty; allow yourself adequate time before class for printing. If you experience a family or medical emergency that causes you to submit an assignment late, contact me as soon as reasonable. Otherwise, one weekday late is a 10% penalty; two is a 20% penalty; three is a 30% penalty; later is unacceptable. A "day" ends at 4:45pm, the close of the workday. Late assignments should be submitted to the dropbox near the 7th floor KMBL elevators so that they receive a timestamp. (The department secretaries timestamp all assignments at about 4:50pm each day, hence the 4:45pm cutoff.)

Missed exams: No makeups unless you arrange it in advance for a valid reason or have an emergency and contact me as soon as possible to work things out.

Final exam: See scheduling details at the bottom of the course schedule.

What books do we need to buy?

The BYU library has physical or electronic copies of most required books. I have placed them on course reserve, meaning you may check them out for up to three hours. BYU library course reserve link: https://reserve.lib.byu.edu/course/43321/

The books are listed in roughly the order we will read them, so if you wish to start reading before the course begins, start from the top. Unlike most upper-division political science classes, I mostly assign popular rather than scholarly books in this class. We will spend minimal time on these books in class, but you will be accountable for them on exams. The upshot is that you can safely read most of these books before the class even starts rather than syncing your reading to the course schedule. Just use the reading guides and take notes that you can review when the exam rolls around.

John McPhee, Encounters with the Archdruid. 245 pages. Amazon. Reading guide .

Kerry Emanuel, What We Know about Climate Change, updated (2018) edition. 65 pages. Amazon. Reading guide .

Timothy Egan, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, 324 pages. Amazon. Reading guide .

Stephen Meyer, The End of the Wild. 112 pages. Amazon. Reading guide .

Megan Kate Nelson, Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America. 195 pages. Amazon. (If this note is still here on the first day of class, remind me to post a reading guide!!)

Recommended but not required:

Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire. 352 pages. Amazon. Reading guide . I will assign a few chapters (as scanned PDFs), but this book has had tremendous influence on how people view southern Utah wildlands, so I will strongly encourage you to read the whole thing.

Wolters and Steel, The Environmental Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands. 315 pages. Amazon. I do not assign any of this book, but several chapters align closely with lectures and will therefore be useful in preparing for exams.

Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. A Utah writer reflects on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

Williams, Smart, and Smith (editors), New Genesis: A Mormon Reader on Land and Community. A volume containing essays by 42 different Latter-day Saints from all parts of the political spectrum, including several essays by LDS general authorities and elected officials. Writers explain how their personal life and religious experience connect with the natural world around them.

Ken Burns, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, a 12-hour documentary. Info here, also in libraries and streaming services.

Honesty and plagiarism

Writing submitted for credit must consist of your own ideas presented in your own language. When appropriate, you may include ideas from others if clearly identified by appropriate introduction ("According to...") and citation. Direct language must additionally appear in quotation marks. Take care while gathering material for your papers to track sources and to differentiate quotations you have jotted down from paraphrases you have written. Even unintentional plagiarism has consequences. Violations may result in a failing grade on an assignment or in the course; serious violations may result in university action. Read more in the university catalog.

A thesaurus does not eliminate plagiarism. Please review this short infographic about plagiarism  by Emily Myers.

Inclusion, accessibility, and discrimination

"We strive to create a community of belonging composed of students, faculty, and staff whose hearts are knit together in love. ... We value and embrace the variety of individual characteristics, life experiences and circumstances, perspectives, talents, and gifts of each member of the community and the richness and strength they bring to our community" (BYU Statement on Belonging). "The Lord expects us to teach that inclusion is a positive means toward unity and that exclusion leads to division" (Elder Gary Stevenson).

Mental health, counseling, and stress management

Many lifelong mental illnesses emerge in adolescence and early adulthood. If you experience frequent sadness, worry, fear, inability to focus, nightmares, forgetfulness, or mood changes; if you are withdrawing socially by avoiding friends and activities; if you experience significant changes in sleeping or eating habits; if you are abusing alcohol, medications, or other substances; or if you are thinking about hurting yourself, then please talk to somebody. Mental health concerns, crime, family problems, and stressful life events can affect students' academic performance and quality of life. BYU Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS, 1500 WSC, 801-422-3035, caps.byu.edu) provides confidential counseling and stress management services for free to full-time students. For immediate concerns visit help.byu.edu.

Marginalized groups

President Nelson has taught, "The Creator of us all calls on each of us to abandon attitudes of prejudice against any group of God's children. Any of us who has prejudice toward another race needs to repent! During the Savior's earthly mission, He constantly ministered to those who were excluded, marginalized, judged, overlooked, abused, and discounted. As His followers, can we do anything less?" He also taught, "Any abuse or prejudice towards another because of nationality, race, sexual orientation, gender, educational degrees, culture or other significant identifiers is offensive to our maker."

Elder Ballard has taught, "I want anyone who is a member of the Church, who is gay or lesbian, to know I believe you have a place in the kingdom and recognize that sometimes it may be difficult for you to see where you fit in the Lord’s Church, but you do. We need to listen to and understand what our LGBT brothers and sisters are feeling and experiencing." He has also taught, "We need to ... eliminate any prejudice, including racism, sexism, and nationalism. ... [T]he blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ are for every child of God."

People may feel vulnerable or marginalized at BYU due to their race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religious views, age, and so on. Join me in creating a compassionate learning environment where "all may be edified by all." Please visit with me if I may help you.

Accommodating disabilities

BYU is committed to providing a learning atmosphere that reasonably accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Examples include vision or hearing impairments, physical disabilities, chronic illnesses, emotional disorders (e.g. depression, anxiety), learning disorders, and attention disorders. If you have a disability that impairs your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the University Accessibility Center (UAC) to request a reasonable accommodation. The UAC can also assess students for learning, attention, and emotional concerns. Going further: If you have a disability, please visit the UAC to request an accommodation letter, which will spare you from needing to explain yourself over and over to each of your instructors. The letter will not disclose your disability, and I will not ask, but it will recommend to your instructors appropriate accommodations. Even if you are still waiting on the UAC letter, please talk to me about appropriate accommodations.

Title IX and sex discimination

In accordance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, BYU prohibits unlawful sex discrimination against any participant in its education programs or activities. The university also prohibits sexual harassment—including sexual violence—committed by or against students, university employees, and visitors to campus. Sexual harassment, dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking are considered forms of "sexual misconduct" prohibited by the university. University policy requires all university employees in a teaching, managerial, or supervisory role to report all incidents of sexual misconduct that come to their attention in any way, including but not limited to face-to-face conversations, a written class assignment, class discussion, email, or social media post. (This means I am a mandatory reporter; if you are unsure what that means, please ask.) Incidents of sexual misconduct should be reported to the Title IX Coordinator at t9coordinator@byu.edu, 801-422-8692, https://titleix.byu.edu/report or (24 hours) 1-888-238-1062. BYU offers confidential resources for those affected by sexual misconduct, including the university's Victim Advocate. Find further information at http://titleix.byu.edu.

Course schedule

Dates may change, of course; a syllabus is a plan, not a contract. You can also view the reading schedule in calendar format. Although my lectures may diverge considerably from the readings—more so for some topics than for others—be advised that anything from lecture or the readings is fair game for the exams.

• Unit 1. General concepts

• Fri, Sep 2nd, 2022. Introduction. Environment, policy, and environmental policy.
  Terms	environment; spaceship earth; ecology; Commoner's four laws; environmental policy; politics; policy; Broad Arrow policy; closed season; public land
  Readings 94 pages	This entire syllabus. Please read all the information above carefully, especially the course overview, the field trip policies, and information about grades and assignments. Mark field trips on your personal calendar. [10 pages] Term paper instructions and rubric  [9 pages] Read "A Mountain" from Encounters with the Archdruid (reading guide ) [75 pages] Work on readings for next time
  FYI	This course requires several field trips, including a full-day field trip to the Moab area. Check the schedule below and plan ahead. Visit with me if you have any questions or concerns, whether about scheduling, disabilities, or whatever else. We meet weekly to ensure long enough periods to accommodate local field trips. Pace each week's readings so they don't pile up on a single day. If you're reading this before the course has started, I encourage you to read as many of the books as possible before our first meeting. Consult the reading guide for each book so you know what to take notes on. We cover them in this order: Encounters with the Archdruid, What We Know about Climate Change, The Big Burn, The End of the Wild, then Saving Yellowstone. Please take advantage of the reading guides I have prepared for each book.

• Fri, Sep 9th, 2022. Political thought about the environment. Part 1.
  DUE	Asst 1 (instructions )
  Terms	wilderness; nature; natural resources; Little Red Riding Hood; Hansel and Gretel; Pan; paradise; Petrarch on Mount Ventoux; John Locke; property rights; Jeremy Bentham; John Stuart Mill; utilitarianism; Ralph Waldo Emerson; transcendentalism; John Muir; wild wool; sauntering; preservationism
  Readings 137 pages	Read "A River" from Encounters with the Archdruid (reading guide ) [93 pages] Read these excerpts from Locke, Bentham, and Mill  [10 pages] Emerson, Nature  Read pp 1-18; skim the rest. [20 pages] Muir, "Wild Wool" , from Steep Trails [14 pages] Recommended: In the "resources" section for today's lecture, read the abridged excerpts from Thoreau's Walden.
  Resources	Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind. My lectures on the idea of wilderness owe a debt to Nash's excellent book. Augustine, Confessions. Mostly irrelevant, except the passages discussed in class. Locke, Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration. Property rights as paramount. The U.S. Declaration of Independence The U.S. Constitution Bentham, A Fragment on Government and Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Utilitarianism. Mill, Utilitarianism. Thoreau, Walden (excerpts, abridged) , chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 11, 13, 16, 17, and 18 [14 pages]
  FYI	As a reminder, expect occasional writing assignments or activities in class to assess your completion of the readings. Ahem. Don't expect such blatant hints in the future.

• Fri, Sep 16th, 2022. Political thought about the environment. Part 2.
  Terms	Gifford Pinchot; conservationism (the conservation ethic); Aldo Leopold; the land ethic; deep ecology; Rachel Carson; scientific environmentalism; Silent Spring; motivated reasoning
  Readings 101 pages	Leopold, excerpts from The Sand County Almanac  [34 pages] Carson, excerpts from Silent Spring  [32 pages] Emanuel, What We Know about Climate Change (reading guide ), at least the first half [35 pages]
  Resources	Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind. My lectures on the idea of wilderness owe a debt to Nash's excellent book. Pinchot, The Wilson letter  (source). This letter, attributed to Pinchot, lays out the conservationist ethic. Muir via Palmer, "A Parable of Sauntering" . How we should enjoy wilderness. Leopold, A Sand County Almanac. Carson, Silent Spring. Serialized in The New Yorker: Part 1 , part 2 , and part 3 . Gore, Introduction to the 1994 edition of Silent Spring  [14 pages] Huber, Hard Green. A conservative calls for a rejection of environmentalism and a return to the conservation ethic. Gore, An Inconvenient Truth. Environmentalist documentary. Watch clip 1, clip 5, clip 7, and clip 9. Hayward, An Inconvenient Truth, or a Convenient Fiction. Response to Al Gore. Watch a clip. McElhinney and McAleer, Not Evil, Just Wrong. Another response to Al Gore. Watch the trailer.
  FYI	Two books, Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, are often credited with kickstarting the modern environmental movement. I have assigned only excerpts, although I encourage obtaining and reading both books through. Carson's book was serialized in the New Yorker; if you want to read more of her book, I have placed a copy of this serialization under "Resources." I assign Emanuel's book in connection with our discussion of scientific environmentalism. Just as Rachel Carson sought to bring complex scientific information to the masses with Silent Spring, Emanuel adopts a similar goal with this book. Read it on your own; you will be accountable for it on the exam.

• Fri, Sep 23rd, 2022. Making environmental policy. Governmental institutions.
  DUE	Asst 2 (instructions )
  Terms	institution; Nixon; Earth Day; Carter; energy crisis; Reagan; deregulation; GHW Bush; Clinton; Grand Staircase-Escalante NM; GW Bush; ANWR; Clear Skies Initiative; Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine NM; Obama; Deepwater Horizon; bureaucracy; Department of Interior; Environmental Protection Agency; bureaucratic discretion; bureaucratic competitiveness (turf battles); judicial review; standing; citizen standing
  Readings 130 pages	Emanuel, What We Know about Climate Change (reading guide ), second half [30 pages] The Big Burn, first 100 pages or so (reading guide ) [100 pages]
  Resources	Cahn, Kamieniecki, and McCain-Tharnstrom, "Bureaucracy, Politics, and Environmental Policy in the American West,"  from Environmental Politics and Policy in the West, 2007 edition [29 pages]
  FYI	In class, we will briefly review the complicated web of bureaucratic agencies tasked with managing one piece or another of the nation's environmental policy agenda. Click "Show additional resources" to access a reading (by Cahn et al.) to benefit those who would appreciate a slower or more thorough overview of these agencies than the hasty, scattershot discussion we will have in class. The Big Burn has three parts. Read Parts 1 and 3 most carefully, as they are most relevant to this course. Don't skip Part 2, but you may skim it. Of course, Part 2 is by far the most engaging part of the book.

• Fri, Sep 30th, 2022. Making environmental policy. Interests and difficulties.
  Terms	interest; latent interest; organized interest (interest group); pluralism; collective action problem (free rider problem); selective incentive; purposive (or moral) incentive; policy cycle; agenda setting; formulation; legitimation; implementation; impact and reformulation; termination; punctuated equilibium
  Readings 124 pages	Madison (1787), The Federalist, No. 10  [13 pages] Olson (1971), excerpt from The Logic of Collective Action  [11 pages] The Big Burn, next 100 pages or so (reading guide ) [100 pages]
  Resources	Scruton (2012), How to Think Seriously about the Planet: The Case for an Environmental Conservatism Schattschneider, excerpt from The Semisovereign People [9 pages]
  FYI	Madison: What is a faction? Why do factions arise? How do we manage factions appropriately? Olson: What barriers hinder interest group formation? When are these barriers most likely to be overcome? Why are some societal interests more likely to organize than others?

• Fri, Oct 7th, 2022. Assembling the commons. Origin, history, and management of the public domain. The Bureau of Land Management's origin and mission. The BLM and grazing politics.
  DUE	Asst 3 (instructions )
  Terms	public land; Articles of Confederation; state cessions; Northwest Ordinance; federal property and territory clause; agrarian democracy; General Land Office (GLO); Homestead Act; Morrill Act (land grant universities); railroad grants; tragedy of the commons; the Big Die-Up; Dust Bowl; Taylor Grazing Act (1934); Bureau of Land Management (BLM); Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA, 1976); grazing fees; Sagebrush Rebellion; Cliven Bundy; Utah Public Lands Transfer Act (2012)
  Readings 136 pages	Brown, Utah Politics and Government , ch 2, for a general overview of public lands issues in the west [15 pages] Nemerever (2019), Contentious Federalism: Sherifs, State Legislatures, and Political Violence in the American West.  I hope you will read the whole thing, but if pressed for time, focus on pages 1-8 and 17-21. [21 pages] The Big Burn, last 100 pages or so (reading guide ) [100 pages] Recommended: Ruple, "Western Public Land Law and the Evolving Management Landscape," in Wolters and Steel, The Environmental Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands, p20-36. How public lands came to be, origin and purpose of major management agencies (BLM, National Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service), and three major laws (Wilderness Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act). We will cover all this material in coming weeks, but the reading provides a concise overview that may be helpful review. Recommended: Brunson, "Rangeland Policy and Management in a Changing West," in Wolters and Steel, The Environmental Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands, p37-54. The BLM and grazing.
  Resources	Nash (2014), Wilderness and the American Mind, 5th edition Wilson (2014), America's Public Lands Smith and Freemuth (eds) (2007), Environmental Politics and Policy in the West

• Thu, Oct 13th, 2022. Yay! (No class.)
  DUE	Midterm
  FYI	If this were a MWF or TTh class, I would give a day off to take the test. Being a weekly class, I can't realistically do that. But I can replace our usual Friday class with a shorter, pre-recorded lecture (about mining) that has minimal readings, which should give you time to catch up if needed, study, and take the exam. The exam will be in the Testing Center on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (You may also take it Friday, but the Testing Center will impose a $5 late fee.) You can download my lecture slides. At the end of each lecture you will find slides containing review questions and terms. These are your study guide. The exam consists entirely of open-ended questions of varying length. Bring pens. You do not need a bluebook or anything else. You may bring blank scratch paper if you wish.

• Unit 2. Specific disputes

• Fri, Oct 14th, 2022. Mining PRERECORDED. Development of Utah mining industry. Environmental hazards associated with mining. Federal policies about mining on BLM and USFS lands. Cleaning up hazardous mining wastes. The policy cycle applied to mining.
  Terms	Bingham Canyon; Tintic district (Eureka); Geneva Rock; Point of the Mountain; plat for the city of Zion; General Patrick Connor; placer mining; lode mining; spoil (overburden); ore; tailings; tailing pond; particulate pollution; smelting; sustainability; General Mining Act of 1872; discovery; prudent man rule; locating; recording; maintenance; mineral patent; Ralph Cameron (Bright Angel Overlook); Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement); Superfund (CERCLA); National Priority List (NPL); US Magnesium; Eureka Superfund site; Richard Davis quarry; Rock Canyon
  Readings 4 pages	Brown, Utah Politics and Government , pp 5-8 [4 pages]
  Resources	Smith and Freemuth (eds) (2007), Environmental Politics and Policy in the West Abbey, "Rocks" from Desert Solitaire (reading guide ) [28 pages] Rock Canyon preservation alliance "It's not just dust: Point of the Mountain mining threatens Utah residents' health" Protect our water: Reform the 1872 mining law
  FYI	Watch this lecture before our next meeting. If possible, visit Rock Canyon afterward to view the site discussed in lecture.

• Fri, Oct 21st, 2022. Rivers and dams. How societies use rivers. Why dam building exploded in the 1960s, then rapidly declined. The 21st century politics of river restoration.
  Terms	channeling; diversion dam; Army Corps of Engineers; Bureau of Reclamation; Murdock Diversion; Provo River Project; Provo River Water Users Association (PRWUA); Deer Creek Dam; Olmstead Diversion; Central Utah Project; Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD); Jordanelle Dam; Hetch Hetchy dam; Echo Park dam; Glen Canyon dam; Bridge Canyon dam; Teton Dam; pork; Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968); NEPA (1970); river restoration; fundamental changes; experiential changes; secondary changes
  Readings 58 pages	Review "The River" in Encounters with the Archdruid Abbey, "Down the River"  from Desert Solitaire (reading guide ) [58 pages]
  Resources	The Provo River Project and PRWUA: Provo River Water Users Association The Central Utah Project: see the Central Utah Project Completion Act office and the Central Utah Water Conservancy District The Central Utah Project mitigation commission, i.e. Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission Reisner (1986), Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water Nash (2014), Wilderness and the American Mind 5th edition, pages 227-237 in particular Lowry (2003), Dam Politics McCool (2012), River Republic: The Rise and Fall of America's Rivers McCool (2007), "The Politics of Dam Removal and River Restoration," in Environmental Politics and Policy in the West DamNation (2013), a documentary about dam removals (unrelated to the similarly-titled book) Grace (2013), Dam Nation: How Water Shaped the West and will Determine its Future Beard (2015), Deadbeat Dams: Why we should abolish the US Bureau of Reclamation and Tear Down Glen Canyon Dam (written by a former Commissioner of the US Bureau of Reclamation) Smith and Freemuth (eds) (2007), Environmental Politics and Policy in the West Abbey (1975), The Monkey Wrench Gang
  FYI	Prepare appropriately for rain, sun exposure, cold, hot, whatever. Wear shoes you can walk comfortably in. This field trip will run long. Please arrive promptly so we can depart on time. Plan to return up to an hour late. We will visit several sites along the Provo River, starting in Provo and ending near Midway. I assign Abbey's essay to illustrate why the Glen Canyon dam project was (and is) one of the nation's most controversial reclamation projects. He employs some foul language, especially near the beginning of the chapter. You may skip those paragraphs if they offend you.

• Fri, Oct 28th, 2022. Endangered species. How a fish saved the pioneers. The June sucker's decline and restoration. Development of endangered species policy. The 1973 Endangered Species Act: Listing, take, and recovery.
  DUE	Term paper (instructions ) for peer review. Your paper must be final draft quality. If I judge otherwise, I will either exclude you from the peer review process (resulting in a zero on your peer review assignment) or else deduct a penalty from your peer review score. If you are working with a partner, bring two copies of your paper so you can both participate separately in the peer review exchange.
  Terms	June sucker; Fort Utah; Utah Lake; turbidity; shallow lake ecology; carp; extinction; American mastodon; American bison; passenger pigeon; Lacey Act (1900); Migratory Bird Conservation Act (1929); Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES, 1973); Endangered Species Act (ESA, 1973); Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS); National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS); listing; threatened; endangered; Federal Register; take; Utah prairie dog; critical habitat; Gunnison sage grouse; desert tortoise; Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP); recovery plan; Provo River delta; background extinction rate; mass extinction; sixth extinction
  Readings 116 pages	Meyer, The End of the Wild (reading guide ) [112 pages] Salt Lake Tribune, "How Utah Lake once sustained tribes and Mormon pioneers and why it needs help"  [4 pages]
  Resources	Utah Lake: Legacy, available as both a book and hourlong documentary. Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction. Mangun (2007), "Wildlife Resource Policy Issues in the West," in Environmental Politics and Policy in the West See the special July 25, 2014, issue of Science about the anthropocene extinction (or sixth extinction). June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program Provo River Delta Restoration Project Utah Mitigation Commission
  FYI	Arrive 10 minutes early so we can drive to a location off campus. We will drive over to Utah Lake and other areas. We may return up to 30 minutes late. Our lecture will focus mostly on the politics and policy of endangered species management. Meyer's book provides an essential overview of the underlying science, which we will discuss only in passing. Meyer's book is not the best on the subject, but it is probably the best one that is short. For a much better discussion of extinction science, but one that is very readable for non-specialists, I recommend Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction.

• Fri, Nov 4th, 2022. Protected lands. National parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and national wildernesses. How different land management strategies reflect different environmental philosophies. Policy cycles and policy entrepreneurs. Competition between Congress, presidents, and executive agencies.
  DUE	Peer review (instructions )
  Terms	Yellowstone NP; Colter's hell; George Bird Grinnell; national park; Fort Yellowstone; John Muir; Yosemite NP; Theodore Roosevelt; Mesa Verde NP; Antiquities Act; national monument; Grand Canyon National Monument; Hetch Hetchy; policy entrepreneur; Stephen Mather; National Park Service (NPS); Acadia NP; southern national parks; Division of Forestry; forest reserves; USDA Forest Service (USFS); Gifford Pinchot; national forest; multiple use; scientific management; Pelican Island; wildlife refuge; Migratory Bird Conservation Act; Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS); Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); wilderness; Wilderness Act; Gila Wilderness; Aldo Leopold; Wilderness Society
  Readings 96 pages	Abbey, Desert Solitaire, "Introduction," "The First Morning," "Solitaire"  for an introduction, then "Polemic,"  which you should understand (and remember) before our Moab trip. (Reading guide ) [46 pages] Saving Yellowstone, first 50 pages or so [50 pages] Recommended: Koontz and Jenkins, "Professionalism versus Politics: The century-long battle over national forest policy," in Wolters and Steel, The Environmental Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands, p57-74. The Forest Service's adoption of Pinchot's "scientific management" approach and the political pressures that have forced changes.
  Resources	Nash (2014), Wilderness and the American Mind, 5th edition Wilson (2014), America's Public Lands: From Yellowstone to Smokey Bear and Beyond Turner (2013), The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since 1964 Aitchison (1987), Utah Wildlands Lankford (2010), Ranger Confidential American Lands Council, Utah Rep. Ken Ivory's organization pushing for state control of federal lands
  FYI	Desert Solitaire continues to have a profound impact on how people view southern Utah. I encourage reading all of it.

• Fri, Nov 11th, 2022. Moab field trip
  Terms	Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trackway (or Mill Canyon Dinosaur Fossil Trail); Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (2009); Hell's Canyon trackway theft (2014); Dead Horse Point; Bears Ears National Monument proposal; Greater Canyonlands National Monument proposal; national monument; Antiquities Act (1906); Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument; Utah's "Mighty 5" national parks; Courthouse Wash art panel; petroglyphs; pictographs; Archaeological Resources Protection Act (1979); Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, 1990); Blanding artifact raids; Arches National Park; developers; preservers; national park vandalism; industrial tourism; cryptobiotic crusts
  Readings 68 pages	Saving Yellowstone, next 50 pages or so [50 pages] Read the Moab response paper instructions  prior to our trip so you know what to watch for. Look over the list of things you should bring with you in the Moab field trip student guide  You don't need to print this packet; I'll have a stack of them. Below are visitors guides for the various sites we are likely to visit. I encourage you to flip through them prior to our trip, though it is your choice. Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail visitor brochure  [2 pages] Dead Horse Point State Park visitor brochure  [2 pages] Dead Horse Point State Park dark sky brochure  [2 pages] Moab area rock art brochure  [4 pages] Arches National Park visitor guide  [8 pages]
  Resources	Bears Ears Coalition
  FYI	Meet in front of the WSC for departure at 12:40pm Friday. Plan to return as late as 9pm Saturday. You are responsible for your own food and other needs. Remember medications, shower supplies/deodorant, and feminine hygiene products. I will have a few extra supplies, so talk to me if you are in need rather than suffer in silence. Review the packing list in the field trip student guide linked above. Opportunities to refill water may be scarce. Carry plenty. The top of this syllabus gives important information about liability, transportation, and disabilities. Please review it. Consider printing the various brochures and bringing them with you. Expect minimal phone coverage.

• Sat, Nov 12th, 2022. In Moab

• Fri, Nov 18th, 2022. No class
  DUE	Term paper (instructions )
  Readings 50 pages	Saving Yellowstone, next 50 pages or so [50 pages]

• Tue, Nov 22nd, 2022. No class
  Readings 50 pages	Saving Yellowstone, the rest [50 pages]

• Unit 3. Conclusion

• Fri, Dec 2nd, 2022. Latter-day Saints and the environment
  DUE	Moab response paper (instructions )
  Readings 33 pages	Hinckley, "God So Loved the World"  [2 pages] Nash, "Righteous Dominion and Compassion for the Earth"  [12 pages] Gospel Topics, Environmental Stewardship and Conservation topic page [3 pages] Church Newsroom, "In Honoring Creation, We Honor the Creator" [3 pages] Hymn texts: 26 (Joseph Smith's First Prayer), 49 (Adam-ondi-Ahman), 62 (All Creatures of our God and King), 86 (How Great thou Art), 87 (God is Love), 92 (For the Beauty of the Earth), 94 (Come ye Thankful People), 114 (Come unto Him), 338 (America the Beautiful) [9 pages] Children's songbook texts: 202 (I Often Go Walking), 228 (My Heavenly Father Loves Me), 231 (All Things Bright and Beautiful), 232 (Beauty Everywhere) [4 pages]
  Resources	Mormon Channel (2014), Our Earth, Our Home [1:34] Nibley, "Man's Dominion"  [9 pages] Handley, "The Environmental Ethics of Mormon Belief" . Excellent review of what's out there. Nibley, "Brigham Young on the Environment,"  from Brigham Young Challenges the Saints. Hugh Nibley reviews Brigham Young's statements on the environment. Editors Handley, Ball, and Peck (2006), Stewardship and the Creation: LDS Perspectives on the Environment, published through the BYU Religious Studies Center, available online Church Newsroom (downloaded March 2015), "Selected Scriptures and Church Leader Statements on Environmental Stewardship and Conservation" (or PDF ) [7 pages]
  FYI	The first half of the course dealt with ideas about land and wilderness. The second half explored policy disputes relevant to America's public lands. You now have enough information to evaluate your own environmental philosophy. To help you do so, we will conclude by reconsidering the ideas and philosophies surrounding public lands, with an emphasis on what LDS thinkers and authorities have said. You will need access to scriptures (electronic is fine), including the Topical Guide, for an in-class activity.

• Mon, Dec 12th, 2022.
  DUE	Final exam
  FYI	Take the final in the Testing Center on TBD. Check the Testing Center hours before you go. Bring a pen. As you prepare for the final, I encourage you to re-read the federalism chapter from my Utah politics book , since it ties together the topics we have discussed in the second half of the course. Recommended: Ruple, "Western Public Land Law and the Evolving Management Landscape," in Wolters and Steel, The Environmental Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands, p20-36. This chapter provides a review of how public lands came to be, origin and purpose of major management agencies (BLM, National Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service), and three major laws (Wilderness Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act).