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For the week of Dec. 1, 1999 through Dec. 7, 1999

Sun Valley gets scholarly

ERC launches inaugural Frank Church Lectures with "Wilderness and the American Mind"


By HANS IBOLD
Express Staff Writer

The Environmental Resource Center now has a signature event, an event that will likely give the Ketchum-based organization national recognition.

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, the ERC launches its Frank Church Lectures with an impressive roster of speakers who will address "Wilderness and the American Mind," a title borrowed from a book of the same title by author and historian Roderick Nash, who will be the keynote speaker.

The free lectures, honoring the late U.S. Sen. Frank Church by exploring topics connecting the humanities and the environment, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Elkhorn Lodge in Sun Valley.

"Wilderness has got to be the No. 1 environmental issue at the turn of the century," said Lee Brown, the Frank Church Lecture series creator, in an interview. "We want to bring objective and fair environmental education to the public so we can all make better choices, and we want to do it in a way with experts who are nationally renowned."

Senator Church was a third-generation Idahoan who served four six-year terms in the U.S. Senate. He was a brilliant orator who offered compelling arguments for conservation and environmentalism at a time when those ideas were less than popular.

"For many of us who grew up in the 1960s, Church is a hero," said Brown, who lives in Ketchum and is Professor emeritus at San Diego State University. "He was an admirable politician."

While some of the speakers will look back and honor Church’s legacy, most of the speakers will look forward and try to carry his legacy on, Brown said.

Joining Nash on that journey are Bethine Church, widow of Sen. Church; Cecil Andrus, Idaho’s governor from 1987 to 1995; Patrick Shea, Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary; Idaho U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo; Jaime Pinkham, Nez Perce Tribal Committee treasurer; Hilda Diaz-Soltero, assistant chief of the U.S. Forest Service; and Rick Johnson, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League.

Nash’s keynote address will focus on how the theoretical and practical concept of wilderness has affected the way Americans view the environment. Nash is professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Barbara and is best known for his books Wilderness and the American Mind and The Rights of Nature.

Bethine Church will talk about her late husband and the accomplishments of the Sawtooth Society, a Boise-based nonprofit organization seeking to protect the Sawtooth National Recreation Area from threats of development and crumbling infrastructure.

Governor Andrus will offer remembrances of Sen. Church and provide some insights into the politics of national wilderness legislation.

Shea will discuss the legacy of Sen. Church and present results of a wilderness survey he has been conducting around the country.

Sen. Crapo, Pinkham, Diaz-Soltero, and Johnson will take part in a panel discussion entitled "Perspectives on Wilderness."

On Friday afternoon, Nash, Brown and Shea will visit the Wood River Middle School and discuss environmental issues with students. That encounter and the Saturday lectures will be covered and broadcast by National Public Radio.

The Frank Church Lecture Series is supported by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council.

 

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