Boulder County Nature Association ecosymposium: Public Lands in Public Hands for the Public Good

[Sandra Laursen]

I invite all of you to join the Boulder County Nature Association for our 2026 Ecosystem Symposium.  We are tackling an important topic, the protection of public lands at a time when they are being battered from all sides.  

Public Lands in Public Hands for the Public Good: 

Engaging law, policy, and advocacy to protect our shared natural heritage

This symposium examines the risks arising from recent changes in federal stewardship of public lands in Boulder County and beyond. Currently, about 242,000 acres of Boulder County’s 474,000 total acres are held as public open space or federal lands—so this topic hits close to home as public lands now face complex, evolving challenges. To learn more and to get a ticket, visit https://bcna.org/2026ecosymposium/ 

The program includes:

• Lectures, moderated and informal conversations, poetry and images
• Expert speakers from law, natural resource management, public opinion research, anthropology, Tribal Relations, and elected office
• Outreach tables from local environmental organizations
• Lunch, coffee, and fellowship for registered attendees

Together we will celebrate our public lands, examine current threats to these lands, and build our courage and our toolkits for advocacy.

I've been working closely with the speakers and am quite excited about this program. If you are on the fence about the topic, or worried that it will be a downer, I encourage you to read the titles and abstracts recently added to the website. They are full of inspiring ideas and words: collective power, hopeful future, common ground, resilience.  These speakers are not going to paper over the problems we face, but they will remind us why our public lands are worth our best efforts to protect them and will give us some ideas about how we can do that.  

Our greatest strength in this work is our solidarity - join with others who care about public lands, on Saturday, April 4. Please join us if you can, and please share with your networks even if you cannot attend. I would love to see you there!

Sandra Laursen
Boulder County Nature Association volunteer