The Stegner Center’s 22nd Annual Symposium, to be held March 23 to 24, 2017, will focus on “Water in the West: Untapped Solutions.” The symposium will address how the twin drivers of climate disruption and demographic change are likely to impact water availability in the West over the next 50 years.
With these challenges as a backdrop, the Stegner Center’s solution-oriented symposium will focus on practical solutions to problems. Specifically, the Symposium will address four sets of issues: changing law—legal innovations to address these issues; changing science and the role of technology in improving data-driven water resource planning and management; changing infrastructure and new approaches like recycling wastewater; and changing behaviors—creating incentives that bring about the changes needed to respond to a dynamic world. The symposium will be interdisciplinary in nature and include speakers from the physical, biological and social sciences, academia, government, industry, public interest organizations, and the legal profession. Eric Freyfogle, Swanlund Chair and Professor of Law, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will deliver the Wallace Stegner Lecture in conjunction with the symposium on March 22.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Eric Freyfogle, Swanlund Chair and Professor of Law, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Annual Stegner Lecture)
- Bradley Udall, Senior Water and Climate Scientist/Scholar, Colorado Water Institute
- Patricia Mulroy, Senior Fellow, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada Las Vegas
- Jonathan Overpeck, Co-Director, Institute of the Environment; Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Professor of Science, University of Arizona
- Kevin Fedarko, Author of The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon and Grand Canyon River Guide
- John Fleck, Director, University of New Mexico Water Resources Program; Author of Water is for Fighting Over
- Laura Briefer, Director, Department of Public Utilities, Salt Lake City Corporation
- Thomas Brower, Drinking Water Improvement Project Coordinator, Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council
- Steven Burien, Professor, University of Utah Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Steven Clyde, Vice President, Director and Shareholder, Chair of Natural Resources and Water Law Practice Group, Management Committee Member, ClydeSnow Attorneys at Law
- Mark Reynolds, Lead Scientist, California Migratory Bird Program, The Nature Conservancy
- Sasha Richey, Research Associate, Multi-Scale Land Surface Hydrology Hydro Lab, Washington State University, Pullman
- Carol Werner, Adjunct Professor, Family and Consumer Studies and Professor Emerita, Psychology Department, University of Utah
- Heather Whiteman Runs Him, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund
- Greg Woodside, Executive Director of Planning and Natural Resources, Orange County Water District
For additional information or to register, please look online at the Stegner Center at www.law.utah.edu/stegner after the first of the year.