Conservation and Management of Public Lands in the Western United States – A Wilderness Critique

For thousands of years, humans have lived in the wild spaces and landscapes that make up the West. And, for the last 200 years, humans have ravaged many of these spaces. And yet, in 2023, large tracts of wild spaces still exist within the Western United States.

This course will examine the value of “wilderness” and public land in the year 2023. What is the value of these lands (and waters) to the people who use, manage, conserve, appreciate, or have traditionally lived on them? We will use a week-long field experience and a weekend expedition to probe both the historical and current relationships between humans and these wild, largely untamed landscapes. Guiding questions for this course are:

Guiding questions for this course are:

• What is the role of humans in managing nature, wildlife, & wilderness?
• Who is “wilderness” for? What groups have been historically underrepresented in conversations related to “wilderness”? What effects may these exclusions have on society and the environment? How do we begin to change this story?
• How do we balance the preservation of public land with the need for local people to make a livelihood off the land?
• What, if any, models can we use to balance the preservation of wildland ecosystems and the current and future use of public land by humans for tourism, recreation, and utilitarian purposes? Can there be any land that humans are not managing or influencing?
• How important is collaboration between governments, non-profits, businesses, user groups, and cities in the process of public land conservation?

To answer these questions, students will participate in backpacking and camping trips to immerse themselves in the lands we’re studying while engaging with local experts who approach these landscapes from different ethical and practical approaches. Readings will provide additional knowledge in both the history of these spaces as well as current information and debates surrounding the use and management of the particular wild locations that we visit.

This trimester intensive course will include Zoom group discussions as well as four face-to-face trips including the two intensive field experiences. Field experiences will involve rigorous academic work and will be physically demanding. Students will maintain a cultural and natural history journal throughout the course and engage in weekly readings, discussions, and reflections. Students will be asked to weigh in on current events, science, and legislation throughout the course by considering the significance of “wilderness” and nature from their own personal lens, the field experiences from this course, and their understandings of the cultural, political, ethical, historical, and economic perspectives addressed in the course. Assessments in this course will require that students research and evaluate “wilderness” areas and public lands and, applying their learnings from the class, make recommendations (based on sound research and the understanding of multiple perspectives) regarding the future of the land. Students will create a podcast related to the theme of wilderness as their final project for this course.

  UC Approved: Interdisciplinary