Naturalist Nights - "Nature Should Be Free!" Public Claims to Public Lands in the 21st Century"

During the 2013 shutdown of the United States government, when public lands were gated and closed, a protester spray-painted words of outrage on a road block at a national park: “Nature should be free!”

Limiting access to iconic landscapes for 17 days struck upon long-held ideals of free, public nature. Do claims that people have rights to nature or common spaces have standing in our current political climate, particularly as competing demands upon public lands increase?

Dr. Melanie Armstrong, Public Lands Coordinator at Western Colorado University and a former National Park Service employee, will explore the gulf between ideals of untouched nature and the reality of day-to-day administration of public lands, as embodied in modern management activities like permitting, entrance fees, and resource education.

Presented by The Wilderness Workshop, Roaring Fork Audubon, & Aspen Center for Environmental Studies

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