SUSI experience!! July 18-20, 2011

Monday, July 18: Public Policy Issues in Natural Resource Management

Mr. Kevin Orchison, SUSI Program Officer with the U.S. Department of State, visit our program on site at The University of Montana. After a short introduction, he joined our classroom sessions with Dr. Alan Watson, the Research Social Scientist with the Leopold Institute, the Executive Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness and the chairman at the Science Program of the World Wilderness Congress. We talked about some current public policy issues in natural resource management, drawing from Aldo Leopold’s assessment that management policies without the necessary scientific information are often more harmful than helpful to a healthy land. Aldo Leopold was one of the early leaders of the American wilderness movement and is acknowledged by many as the father of wildlife conservation in this country.

at Steve Loken's backyard

At 5pm we biked for dinner at the home of Steve Loken and Lynda Saul. Lynda is the Montana Wetland Program Coordinator at the Department of Environmental Quality. She leads the state-wide Montana Wetland Council to increase the protection of Montana's wetlands through scientific rigor, enhanced coordination, and non-regulatory approaches. Whereas, Steve has been a sustainable building consultant in Finland, Japan, and Australia. He shared a lot of his interesting knowledge as nationally-recognized energy and home building expert, with expertise not only in green and regenerative building design, but also in sustainable community redesign.

Tuesday, July 19: Climate Change and Leadership

UM Professor Dr. Tom Roy discuss building non‐profit organizations and such issues as the nature and structure of non‐profits and effective management of citizen non‐profit groups, including relationships between organizational membership, structure, funding sources and organizational strategies. The session was followed with another one about US Environmental Movement with Mr. Bob Clark, an Organizing Representative from Missoula Sierra Club. Mr. Clark discussed how the environmental movement has had a profound impact from passage of major legislation to changes in the way people live their daily lives to disruptions of global trade meetings.

at the FLAT house

After lunch, we got a workshop with some members of UM Climate Action Now (UMCAN): Yaicha Bookhout, Patrick Rhea, Zack Porter, Aleta Jokisch, Clay Springmeyer, Morgen Hartford, and Tyler McRae. We shared our experiences and got a lot of feedbacks on organizing a campaign, lobbying the government, and fund-raising tactics. That evening we went again to the FLAT house to have dinner with the UMCAN members.

Wednesday, July 20: Climate Change and Leadership

Dr. Steve Running, UM Regents Professor of Ecology lead a discussion on his contention that combating climate change is the monumental global task of our time. As a chapter Lead Author for the 4th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Running shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is also a Team Member for the NASA Earth Observing System, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.

Dr. Dane Scott, the Director of The Center for Ethics at The University of Montana, then held a leadership workshop addressing issues of societal ethics and the ethical practices of land professionals. Special focus was given to the ethical dimensions of climate change policy, covering such issues as ethics, climate change and scientific uncertainty and international climate change negotiations.

At 3pm we had Country Group Meetings with Dr. Broberg, Kedra, and Mike to discuss Group Projects. After that, we had a classroom session on Economics of the Environment with Dr. Helen Naughton, an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Montana.