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Annual Symposium

The Wallace Stegner Center annually holds a symposium during spring semester on an environmental or natural resources topic of regional, national, and international importance. The symposium is interdisciplinary in nature, and includes speakers from the sciences and social sciences, academia, government, industry, and the legal profession.

Through the symposia and other programs, the Stegner Center has brought numerous luminaries to the College of Law, including Bruce Babbitt, Sally Jewell, Wendell Berry, Helen Caldicott, Jane Goodall, Bill McKibben, Pat Mulroy, Naomi Oresekes, Lynn Scarlett, George Schaller, Michael Soule, Sandra Steingraber, Lawrence Susskind, Rebecca Watson, Terry Tempest Williams, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Eric Freyfogle, John Leshy, Patty Limerick, Pamela Matson, Zygmunt Plater, Robert V. Percival, Joe Sax, Paul Schullery, Alan Weisman, and Charles Wilkinson among others.

The R. Harold Burton Foundation was the founding donor for the symposium in 1996 and has been the principal donor each year. Other donors who have provided support for multiple years include the Cultural Vision Fund and the Nature Conservancy in Utah.

Video archive

Wallace Stegner Center 30th Annual Symposium


Breathing Easier: Air Pollution Challenges and Solutions | March 20-21, 2025

The symposium will consider air pollution’s environmental and human health tolls—including the unequal burdens air pollution places on disadvantaged communities. Despite gains in many places, air pollution remains a vexing problem across the nation. In Utah, winters bring inversions and particulate matter pollution, and summers deliver increased ground-level ozone pollution. The Wasatch Front regularly exceeds national ambient air quality standards, exacerbated by the region’s unique geography and meteorology.

Finding solutions to these thorny problems becomes only more vital with each passing year. Emerging threats like dust from the shrinking Great Salt Lake and intensifying wildfire smoke further compound longstanding air pollution problems. Experts will share potential solutions, including those that have found success in other parts of the country.

Learn more »

The Renewable Energy Transition: Building a Bright Future
Watch the 29th annual symposium online »

Past Symposia


Twenty-eighth Annual Symposium, 2023

The Future of the Great Salt Lake
Website | Video Archive

Twenty-seventh Annual Symposium, 2022

The Colorado River Compact: Navigating the Future
Postcard | Video Archive

Twenty-sixth Annual Symposium, 2021

The Plastics Paradox: Societal Boon or Environmental Bane?
Postcard | Video Archive

Twenty-fifth Annual Symposium, 2020

Food and the Environment: Resilient and Equitable Food Security for the West
Brochure | Video Archive

Twenty-fourth Annual Symposium, 2019

Recreation Challenges on Public Lands
Brochure | Video Archive

Twenty-third Annual Symposium, 2018

Public Lands in a Changing West
Brochure | Video Archive

Twenty-second Annual Symposium, 2017

Water in the West
Brochure | Video Archive

Twenty-first Annual Symposium, 2016

Green Infrastructure, Resilient Cities: New Challenges, New Solutions
Brochure | Video Archive

Twentieth Annual Symposium, 2015

Air Quality: Health, Energy and Economics
Brochure | Video Archive

Nineteenth Annual Symposium, 2014

National Parks: Past, Present and Future
Brochure | Video Archive

Eighteen Annual Symposium, 2013

Religion, Faith and the Environment
Brochure | Video Archive

Seventeenth Annual Symposium, 2012

Silent Spring at 50: The Legacy of Rachel Carson
Brochure | Video Archive

Sixteenth Annual Symposium, 2011

Wildlife Conservation in the 21st Century
Brochure | Video Archive

Fifteenth Annual Symposium, 2010

The Challenge of Sustainability
Brochure | Video Archive

Fourteenth Annual Symposium, 2009

Wallace Stegner: His Life and Legacy
Brochure | Video Archive

Thirteenth Annual Symposium, 2008

Alternative Energy: Seeking Climate Change Solutions
Brochure | Video Archive

Twelfth Annual Symposium, 2007

The Colorado River Compact in the 21st Century: Time for Change?
Brochure | Video Archive

Eleventh Annual Symposium, 2006

Global Climate Change: The Arctic to the Rocky Mountain West
Brochure | Video Archive

Tenth Annual Symposium, 2005

Private Property and Nature Conservation: Land Ownership in the 21st Century
Brochure

Ninth Annual Symposium, 2004

Wilderness: Preserving Nature in a Political World
Brochure

Eighth Annual Symposium, 2003

The Nuclear West: Legacy and Future
Brochure

Seventh Annual Symposium, 2002

Seventh Annual Symposium, 2002
Powell and Stegner: Fifty Years After The Hundredth Meridian
Brochure

Sixth Annual Symposium, 2001

Metropolitan Growth: From Regional Visions to Real Results
Brochure

Fifth Annual Symposium, 2000

The Presidency and the Environment: The Twentieth Century and Beyond
Brochure

Fourth Annual Symposium, 1999

Where the Rivers Flow: Sharing Watersheds and Boundaries
Brochure

Third Annual Symposium, 1998

Exploring Aldo Leopold’s Legacy: The Land Ethic and the American West in the 21st Century
Brochure

Second Annual Symposium, 1997

To Cherish and Renew: Restoring Western Ecosystems and Communities
Brochure

First Annual Symposium, 1996

The Native Home of Hope: Community, Ecology and the West
Brochure