Colorado Environmental Law Journal

    I. Introduction In January 2008, United Nations (“UN”) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commented on the coincidence of water and conflict at the World Economic Forum. Pointing out that the world’s thirst will grow alongside its economy and that “many more conflicts lie over the horizon,” he observed that “too often, where we need water, we find guns.”[2] Some observers are quick to point to the coincidence of armed conflict in regions of water scarcity and resort to syllogism, often labeling them “water wars.”[3] While Continue reading →

    National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. —Wallace Stegner[2]   I. INTRODUCTION In the mid-morning hours of Saturday, September 7, 2013, as the summer season was winding down at Yellowstone National Park, three-year-old Ella Marie Tucker found her father’s gun and shot herself.[3] Park emergency personnel tried to resuscitate her, but Ella died, the victim of the first fatal shooting in Yellowstone in over three decades.[4] Ella’s Continue reading →

        I. Introduction “Balance, that’s the secret. Moderate extremism. The best of both worlds.”[2] As a result of United States federal land policy in the early part of the country’s history, including the disposal of much of the federal land under the 1872 General Mining Law[3] and the granting of over 130 million acres to railroad companies,[4] much of the federal public land is scattered among various private land holdings throughout the country. This has made parts of the federal domain extremely Continue reading →