CU-Boulder celebrates 10th anniversary of National Landscape Conservation System

n 2000, then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt sought to change that by creating the National Landscape Conservation System, which is charged with preserving some of the most striking lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. In honor of the system's 10th anniversary, Babbitt will give a free talk Thursday morning at the University of Colorado. Beginning Wednesday morning, CU's Center of the American West is hosting a series of free panel discussions and lectures that will touch on the history and future of the National Landscape Conservation System, or NLCS, finishing with Babbitt's Thursday speech. There are five types of designated lands that fit into the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System: national monuments, wilderness areas, national conservation areas, wild and scenic rivers, and national scenic and historic trails. Many of these areas have scenic or cultural significance that rivals national parks, just without the crowds and the highly developed visitor services, Hall said. "The NLCS lands are a gigantic public asset that the public barely recognizes," said historian Patty Limerick, director of the Center of the American West. "So there is a two-part hope to awaken the public to their ownership of a great resource, but also to lay out some of the responsibilities that come with that ownership."...more