PUBPOL 3890

Rewilding the American West: A Policy Incubator

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Debates over the proper aims, scope, and methods of environmental policy in America are as old as the conservation movement, from Gifford Pinchot's push for the responsible and productive use of public lands to John Muir's crusade for strict preservation. Over the last forty years, a growing number of scholars and policymakers have embraced a new approach to science-based conservation: rewilding. The term has been used by activists, ecologists, and policymakers to embrace a range of policy proscriptions, from the restoration of wide-ranging wilderness areas and large predators to restoring Pleistocene era megafauna or their ecological equivalents, to landscape restoration through the reintroduction of appropriate species, to productive land abandonment. However, a core principle uniting these disparate approaches is an emphasis on restoring biodiversity and promoting sustainability through the protection and enhancement of wilderness areas. The rewilding movement has also begun to influence public policy, offering innovative solutions to old and new policy challenges, including mitigating the impacts of climate change.

When Offered Fall.

• Understand core scientific concepts undergirding rewilding practices.
• Apply those concepts to thinking about policy solutions to contemporary problems.
• Research legislative histories to understand the legislative process and political dynamics shaping a bill's drafting, passage, and implementation.
• Analyze how legislative drafting, bureaucratic rulemaking, and judicial decisions shape policy implementation.
• Synthesize this knowledge to identify proposed policy solutions to contemporary conservation and environmental challenges.

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