Timothy Egan

A Voice of the West Tim Egan, who writes an on line column for the New York Times website, had a marvelous piece earlier this month. He called it "My Summer Home" and it was an ode to the vast expanse of America - our public lands - that all of us own. Egan wrote of an early trip with a friend, also named Tim, and the land they found was theirs and is ours, all of us. "It was ours, Tim and I came to understand, all of it. We owned it — lake, mountain and forest, meadow, desert and shore. Public land. We could put up our tents and be lords of a manor that no monarch could match. We could hike in whatever direction our whims took us, without fear of barbed wire or stares backed by shotguns. We could raft into frothy little streams, light out for even bigger country, guided only by gravity." Good stuff and the kind of thing you can hear first hand from Egan on October 6th in Boise. The Andrus Center for Public Policy, in cooperation with the Ted Trueblood Chapter of Trout Unlimited, is hosting an appearance and book signed for Tim at the Rose Room in downtown Boise. The event is free and open to the public and begins at 6:30 pm. Tim will talk about his latest book - The Big Burn - and copies of that page turner will be available thanks to Boise's Rediscovered Books. The Big Burn is a fascinating account of the devastating fires that scorched so much of northern Idaho, Montana and Washington in 1910. Wallace, Idaho virtually burned to the ground. Egan places the fire story in the larger of context of natural resource politics, the birth of the U.S. Forest Service and the legacy that big ol' fire carries to this day. Come on down on October 6th. It will be a good time with a good guy and a great writer.

Now...For Something Completely Different

Civility in Public Life - Now There's an Idea Jim Leach, the former Republican Congressman from Iowa and now chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will be in Boise a week from today as part of his national civility tour. I'm happy, through the Andrus Center for Public Policy, to be involved in hosting a lunch and speech from the chairman on June 11th. A small number of tickets remain for Leach's speech entitled "Civility in a Fractured Society." If you're interested visit the Andrus Center's website.

During a recent speech on the civility subject in Salt Lake City, as the Tribune reported, Leach "recalled an episode from Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War , in which even the cultured state of Athens murdered, enslaved and colonized the people of the island Melos for refusing to help fight Sparta."

The former 30-year congressman said: "The lesson is that even great nations sometimes lose their way," he said. "We're going to have to think about whether or not we remain one country that moves together, but can also accommodate a wide variety of views."

The lesson - U.S. challenges at home and around the world require real understanding, civility and a sense of history; not to mention tolerance.

Jim Leach is an interesting, thoughtful guy who has spent a good part of his life in politics and knows the value of engaging our adversaries armed not only with strength, but with understanding, debating our political opponents with decency and practicing the arts of democracy with civility.

By the way, Boise State University President Bob Kustra will be interviewing Jim Leach on his Boise State Public Radio show - 91.5 FM - today at 5:30 pm and Sunday at 11:00 am. The Idaho Statesman's Dan Popkey has also interviewed the chairman, so look for his piece soon.

Civilization Requires Civility

National Civility Tour Comes to Idaho Jim Leach is on a mission. The former Republican Congressman from Iowa, now chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has the passionate belief that we're shaking the foundations of our democracy by the way we handle our political discourse. Leach is on a mission for civility. In a speech last fall in Nebraska, appropriately entitled "With Malice Toward None," Leach said: "The public goal should be to recognize that it is great to be a conservative or libertarian; great to be a liberal, a moderate, or progressive. But it is not great to hate. It is not great to refuse to respect one’s fellow citizens at home and refuse to endeavor to understand fellow peoples abroad. "The decency and fairness with which political decisions are made are generally more important than the outcome of any issue. The 'how' almost always matters more than the 'what.'" Leach should know. He spent 30 years in Congress, rose to the top ranks, lost re-election in 2006, taught at Princeton and was tapped by President Obama to run the Endowment last year. Almost immediately he launched a 50-state "civility tour" talking about the importance to a functioning democracy of understanding and not demonizing your political opponents. He talks about the search for "the common good," not just partisan advantage. Leach has a politician's experience and a scholar's disposition. Believe me, that is a rare but valuable combination. The Andrus Center for Public Policy - I serve as the Center's volunteer president - will host Leach for a lunch and talk on June 11th at the Grove Hotel in downtown Boise. The Idaho Humanities Council, the state - based affiliate of the NEH - has been instrumental in getting the chairman to Idaho. Leach will speak on "Civility in a Fractured Society." Leach doesn't call for the abandonment of fiercely held political principles, but rather that we not start the political discourse by assuming that the other person's position is automatically suspect and therefore not worthy of consideration. It is a message the Andrus Center embraces. The Center was formed in 1995 to help carry on the approach to public affair that the four-term former Idaho governor embodied - vigorous, but civil debate that sought to find win-win solutions. Seating for the luncheon and speech is limited and you can reserve a spot online at the Center's website. As columnist Jamie Stiehm noted recently in U.S. News - to steal Dr. Samuel Johnson's phrase - "we've become good at hating," but not so good at being civil. Jim Leach is trying to save us from ourselves. Let's hope he's making progress.

Collaborate or Litigate

Andrus Conference Considers A Better Way If you want a sense of how often public policy in the American West regarding land use or the environment is made in a courtroom, just Google the name of any one of the last half dozen Secretaries of the Interior. You'll get lots of hits: Alaska v. Babbitt or Defenders of Wildlife v. Kempthorne or Andrus v. Shell Oil Company. Much of the litigation results from a legitimate need to sort out claims to competing rights. My right to use the land or drill for oil versus some other right to protect a species or complete a process. But a good deal of the litigation over what we might broadly call "the environment" comes about because legitimate competing interests can't find a basic level of trust in the other side to try and sit down and hash out a compromise that leaves the lawyers advising rather than suing. That may be changing a little as so called "collaborative processes" produce significant win-win situations in various places in the West. Last Saturday's Andrus Center conference in Boise highlighted two successful and very different collaborations in Idaho. One - the Owyhee Initiative - resulted in legislation that both protects some of the most spectacular river canyon country in the U.S. and helps preserve a rural way of life in the rugged ranching country of southwestern Idaho. Fred Grant, a property rights lawyer who worked for eight years on the collaboration, told the conference his willingness to come to the table with the once-hated enviros had cost him friends, but the payoff had been worth all the heartburn and hard work. The second collaboration has been underway in eastern Idaho in the Henry's Fork drainage where irrigators, environmentalists and federal agencies meet regularly to work through water and habitat issues. They're not looking for legislation, but rather a constructive forum to work on problems. With the Henry's Fork Watershed Council they seem to have found the forum. The Idaho Statesman's Rocky Barker covered the conference that also featured Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and BLM Director Bob Abbey. Rocky's piece today offers more insight into how the collaborative process is working in the Henry's Fork basin. Over the next few weeks the Andrus Center - I serve as the Center's volunteer president - will distill the innovative thinking from the conference, produce a "white paper" and engage a working group in an attempt to create more forward progress focused on collaboration rather than litigation. Look for more follow up. Collaboration that solves problems and builds trust has to gain more traction in an American West where fundamental values - open space, wildlife habitat, clean air and water, working landscapes that support ranching and resource utilization - are in danger in a changing economy and a changing climate. To some, as former Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus likes to say, the word "compromise" is an unclean concept. But, if you believe as I do, that personal relationships built on trust are what ultimately make the world go round, then finding a way to collaborate and not litigate really is the path to a better future in the often contentious American West.

Life in the West

Andrus Center Explores Land Issues, Challenges When Bob Abbey, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, testified before Congress last year during his confirmation hearing he talked about the need for common sense communication around the many demands on the 256 million acres of our land that he manages. "We can achieve our common goals and better serve the public by working together while we continue our discussions on issues where we might disagree," Abbey told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That statement is a pretty good summary of the 15 year old philosophy of the Andrus Center for Public Policy. The Center, chaired by the former Idaho governor and Secretary of the Interior, will host Abbey and the nation's other major land manager, Tom Tidwell, the Chief of the Forest Service, at a day long conference in Boise on May 1st. Registration for the conference - Life in the West: People, Land, Water and Wildlife in a Changing Economy - began yesterday at the Center's website. As Dr. John Freemuth, the Boise State University political scientist who serves as the Center's Senior Fellow, has written:

"Whether it is lost habitat, wolves, or the many other battles stemming from different values, many worry that a livable and familiar Idaho could slip away under economic and other pressures. At the grassroots level there have been a number of efforts and partnerships underway in Idaho that might have something to teach us about building necessary “civic capacity” as we try and grapple with this landscape level change at the state level. We want hear hear and learn from some people involved in these efforts, in order to better see what might be needed to build a sustainable political and social coalition to work successfully all around the state.

"This Andrus Center conference will develop a set of action items designed to build on current successes in Idaho and elsewhere and commit to a follow up of these action items over the next several years by tapping citizens and leaders committed to making our capacities grow."

If you are one of the thousands of Idahoans who care deeply about the use and future of our public lands, you will want to be part of this conversation. As Cece Andrus has often said, the best ideas come about when people check their guns at the door, sit down together to understand the point of view of others and come away with common sense conclusions. The many thorny issues - energy, water, wildlife, access - that confront us in the West certainly need a common sense touch.

I hope you'll join us on May 1st at Boise State University.

A Delicate Balance

It's Not As Easy As They Made It Look In the old TV series, Perry Mason always wrapped up the case in the last few minutes of the show, tied a ribbon on the verdict and went out for a cocktail, or whatever, with Della Street. If only it were that easy in real life. The American system of justice is often complicated, confusing, contentious and cumbersome. It is also central to our form of government. On April 15th in Boise, the Andrus Center for Public Policy - I proudly serve as the volunteer president of the Center - will host with the Idaho Press Club a half day seminar that will dig into some of the complications of the justice system, particularly as they relate to the media. The seminar - we're calling it "A Delicate Balance" - is also supported by the University of Idaho College of Law and the Idaho State Bar. Members of the bar can earn two continuing legal education (CLE) credits for attending. The seminar at the Boise Centre is open to the public - there is a $10 registration fee - and will be, I believe, both interesting and entertaining to anyone who cares about how our justice system works and how its workings are reported by the media. Register on line at the Andrus Center website and look over the seminar agenda. Idaho's Chief Federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill will keynote the seminar and be joined in a panel with, among others, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, the Idaho Statesman's Dan Popkey, Todd Dvorak of the Associated Press, Betsy Russell of the Spokesman Review nd prominent Idaho attorney Walt Bithell. University of Idaho Law School Dean Don Burnett will participate in the panel and offer remarks. Some years back, the Andrus Center adopted as a part of several of its policy conferences a "Socratic dialogue" method of engaging participants in a discussion of difficult, contemporary issues. We'll take that approach again on April 15th. I'll present a hypothetical scenario to the panel and they'll work through some of the issues that often occur when the Constitution's guarantee of a fair trial comes in conflict with the First Amendment protections of a free press. It will be fun and provocative. Participants in the Andrus Center/Press Club seminar are also invited to attend the College of Law's Bellwood Lecture reception also at the Boise Centre. The reception will begun upon completion of the seminar. Hope you'll attend. I'm guessing that even Perry Mason could benefit.