BY KAREN BOSSICK
The tenure of the late Idaho Sen. Frank Church between 1957 and 1981 coincided with an era of unprecedented federal legislation protecting the environment.
Both Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson presided over a flurry of congressional lawmaking effecting far-reaching, powerful laws, such as the Clean Water Act, which protect plant and animal species, air and water and public lands.
It was an era of bipartisanism. And many of the measures were the work of Frank Church, who advocated what he called the “New Conservation.”
The non-partisan Frank Church Institute, whose mission is to promote civic engagement and the understanding of public policy, suggests that Church’s ability to galvanize consensus into a win-win model of environmental protection offers a way forward towards cooperation and sustainability today.
To that end, they’re bringing history professor Sara Dant to offer a free presentation at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, at Ketchum’s Community Library.
Dant, chair of history at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, has written a book titled “Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West.” She also has written prize winning articles on western environmental politics and Frank Church, a precedent-setting Expert Witness Report and Testimony on Stream Navigability upheld by the Utah Supreme Court, and is the co-author of the two-volume “Encyclopedia of American National Parks.”
“Losing Eden,” traces the environmental history and development of the American West, explaining how the land has shaped and been shaped by its inhabitants. It starts with the Beringia migration and includes a look at the Columbian Exchange, federal territorial and resource exploitation and even climate change.
Her book will be available for sale and signing, courtesy of Chapter One Bookstore.
The Frank Church Institute was established in 1982 within the School of Public Service at Boise State University to honor the achievements and carry forward the principles of Church in forums characterized by civility, tolerance and compromise.