Michele Straube, Director of the Environmental Dispute Resolution Program at the College of Law’s Wallace Stegner Center, published a Salt Lake Tribune op-ed on January 21.
The op-ed, “Can Utah talk constructively about the environment?”, detailed the successful process undertaken by the Collaborative Group on Sustainable Grazing for U.S. Forest Service Lands in Southern Utah to develop a “consensus agreement on grazing management principles and practices that provide for ecological sustainability, and that are socially acceptable and economically viable.”
Straube details the importance of dialogue in reaching this consensus and shares her conclusions about the process involved.
In conclusion, she writes, “My wish for the new year is that many more decision-makers and concerned individuals will have the courage to engage in the dialogue necessary to fully understand possible solutions to Utah’s environmental, natural resource and energy challenges.”