Byron M.

Levan
NR 460
Dr. Fred Cubbage
11/17/2010
Summary Report 2

Through my study at North Carolina State University I have had the

opportunity of taking a natural resource policy class with Dr. Fred Cubbage.

During the class several speakers gave presentations based on their experiences

in the field. Each one gave valuable insight to the realm of environmental politics,

policy making and human dimensions. This paper documents and summarizes

the information provided by the speakers, Kurt Smith, George Hess, Nils Peterson,

and Bob Slocum.

The first of these speakers was Kurt Smith. Smith's topic was focused on

watersheds in and around the Wake county area. He discussed the Neuse River

rules and the effectiveness of these rules on water quality. His lecture gave very

detailed accounts of businesses, home owners, and land owners use of land and

their impacts on watersheds. Following these accounts Smith went on to explain

how these impacts may push for environmental policies to fight ecosystem

damage. Many people in our state are for environmental laws but only if they do

not limit personal freedoms. This is a problem since most environmental policies

limit personal freedoms for the gain of the collective community. Kurt was

especially concerned with ecosystems that are particularly sensitive to

environmental change. These would include systems such as mountain streams

in which removing surrounding vegetation could potentially increase

temperature, pH, etc.

The next of these speakers was George Hess. George Hess is a researcher
at NCSU in the College of Natural Resources. Hess's lecture was geared towards

the research that has been done on urban wildlife. Hess was particularly

concerned with wildlife that inhabits greenways within cities. Hess also discussed

the use of these studies to initiate laws and policies. He was intent on pushing

scientific data as the basis for law making rather than personal opinion. Hess also

discussed how local municipalities differed in their opinions on lawmaking and

the difficulty of large scale conservation based incentives for areas such as

greenways. Hess finished his lecture by encouraging students to get involved

with the policy making process so that scientific voices would be heard.

Nils Peterson was the next guest speaker who spoke on wildife laws.

Peterson began by discussing the ownership of wildlife within the U.S. He noted

that wildlife is owned by everyone in the U.S. collectively and managed by the

government for us. This sets up the basis for any policies created. Peterson went

further in explaining the different types of policies that have been made in the

U.S. and the reason for these laws. Peterson explained the plight of both the

passenger pigeon and the Carolina parakeet. The use of their feathers in the

millinary trade lead to their extinction. Due to these and several other species of

bird's demise, the U.S. formulated a treaty with other countries prohibiting the

taking of any bird considered migratory. This act is known as the Migratory Bird

Treaty Act of 1918. Other laws such as the Lacy act were similar to this one in

that they prevented the sale of any wildlife taken illegally. Peterson continued to

discuss the other major environmental policies including the Endangered Species

Act, Farm Bill, CARA-lite: Fish & Wildlife Conservation

Act etc.
 The final Lecture was given by Bob Slocum. Slocum is the Executive Vice

President of the North Carolina Foresters Association. Slocum's lecture started by

a quick overview of the history of his organization as well as the history of

forestry in North Carolina. He noted that North Carolina was well known for

forestry as we had the first forestry school in North America and once lead the

nation in naval stores. Slocum also noted the importance of forestry to both our

state's and nation's economy. Due to the monetary contributions Slocum felt that

forestry should be a prime focus in helping boost the economy. He noted that

during other major recessions in our economy forestry was used to bring fiscal

productivity back to our nation. Slocum went on to talk about how forestry has

influenced policy and the means at which foresters have been able to go about

getting forestry bills passed. Slocum spoke of the use of attaching forestry to

agricultural based polices. This has been done to several bills including the Farm

Bill. Slocum continued to explain the importance of wildlife conservation and how

maintaining healthy forests and private property rights contribute to this by

preventing landowners from selling their property to developers.

The information provided by these four lecturers not only informed those in

the Natural Resource Policy class but encouraged us to be more involved in policy

making. Knowledge of current laws, statutes and policies is critical in furthering

protection of our nation's natural resources. All of these lecturers emphasized

education in natural resource law but also demonstrated their commitment by

being actively involved in the policy community. I feel greatly privileged to have

heard these speakers and have gained valuable insight to the inner workings of

our governmental decision making.