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In March, I had the pleasure of spending a week on the Colorado Plateau with fellow students and professors from the Advanced Natural Resources Law Seminar. The Colorado Plateau – a heart-shaped desert region encompassing portions of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Arizona – is home to some of the most unique landscapes and wildlife in the entire nation. In the fall of 2023, I took my first visit to the Plateau for a canyoneering trip and was immediately hooked. From the hoodoos of Goblin Valley State Park to the deep canyon walls of Dead Horse State Park to the iconic arches of Arches National Park, I loved traversing the region’s slickrock trails to explore red-rock features that absolutely blew my east-coast mind.

While the Colorado Plateau is certainly beautiful, it also faces many of the nation’s greatest natural resources challenges. These issues – specifically, how to manage these landscapes amidst climate change and increases in public popularity – are what encouraged me to study natural resources law in the first place. They’re what drew me to take this seminar and what drew me to apply for the Wyss Scholars Program, since I hope to devote my career to learning about and addressing these issues. Especially at a time where executive orders are opening up public lands for logging, the future of National Monuments remains unclear, and states like Utah are jockeying to claim ownership of “unappropriated” federal lands, these landscapes need scientists, scholars, lawyers and other passionate folks to advocate for their protection.

On the seminar trip, our class met with many of these local advocates of the Colorado Plateau. One of my favorite conversations of the whole trip happened on day one, when we met with Lena Pace, Superintendent of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Hovenweep and Natural Bridges National Monuments. She spoke of the delicate balance between managing Parks for the twin purposes of public recreation and conservation, as well as preserving the “wilderness feel” while also keeping recreators safe. She pointed to tools like timed-entry permit systems to control visitation to popular areas, and keeping fees at a price that helps fund the parks but doesn’t erect barriers to use. I was also struck by many of our conversations with the Hopi, and the unique challenges of being a nation completely surrounded by another nation (Navajo Nation), affected by severe poverty, and facing serious issues regarding rel