The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) turns 40 this year, and last weekend in Las Cruces college students from across the country came together to meet with policy makers, land managers, and researchers for a three day discussion about the future management of public lands.
The third Biennial Student Congress recently met in Las Cruces to talk about issues facing the management of public lands across the United States. The Public Lands Foundation and the Bureau of Land Management-Las Cruces District sponsored the event. Mike Ferguson, with the Public Lands Foundation says that this is there are two parts to the mission of the Congress.
“First, we’re trying to get the viewpoint of today’s younger people, and their perspectives on natural resource management, public land issues, and provide that to the director of the BLM, and The Secretary of Interior. The second objective is to get some of the younger people more engaged in interested in what some of the public land issues are,” says Ferguson.
AnnaFaith Jorgensen from Prescott College in Arizona said she was really excited about the event.
“I’m really hoping to connect with my peers to ask the hard questions of these professionals, and to brainstorms some answers,” says Jorgensen.
The event provided breakout sessions for discussions on important issues facing land management; Jorgensen was in a group that discussed State versus Federal Control of Public Lands. She says they discussed the need for people to care about the land.
“We’re developing this idea that a cultural connection needs to be present before a scientific connection. For example, somebody needs to go outside and care about the land, and care about their yard, before they’re going to care about it because we tell them to,” says Jorgensen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IkwuQ1nsQA&feature=youtu.be
Other issues the students and experts talked about included balancing development of federal land development with sustainability, The Federal Land Policy and Management Act as a national land ethic, and defining multiple use and sustained yield of public lands.
The three-day Congress of students and advisors took a field trip, which included working at a BLM restoration site, touring a mining operation, and also taking part in a workshop about BLM programs and hiring authorities.
Mike Kruse, another student from Prescott College says he has some interest in working to educating people about public lands.
“Even living in Arizona, and being a teaching assistant at a small liberal arts college, you are almost in a national forest, but still there are questions marks about what public lands are and where they are,” says Kruse.
The students worked at the Congress to develop recommendations and presented the recommendations to advisors, public land managers, and the Public Land Foundation.
