UNCONVENTIONAL Public Lands Council gets it done despite challenges presented for annual meeting by CCA Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur They say the third time’s a charm. And in a year like 2020, it seems increasingly necessary to resort to Plan C. Such was the case when the Public Lands Council (PLC) ended up hosting its 52nd annual meeting online on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Thursday, Sept. 24. PLC had initially hoped to hold its annual meeting in Seaside, Ore., showcasing the home state of outgoing PLC President Bob Skinner. Those plans shifted after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with PLC leadership opting to “Roll the Dice” on an Annual Meeting at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nev. But COVID-19 gathering restrictions (and a desire to ensure the health and safety of PLC membership) foreclosed the possibility of holding such a large event at the Nugget, and in mid-August PLC Executive Director Kaitylnn Glover announced that the meeting would be held virtually via the Zoom platform, with a limited number of PLC Officers and Directors convening in-person in Salt Lake City, Utah. The meeting—which drew in more than 200 online participants—was Glover’s first as PLC Executive Director, having taken over that role this past January after former Executive Director Ethan Lane was promoted to Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Glover previously worked for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and joins PLC with a wealth of experience tackling agricultural, public lands and natural resources issues for the Senator. Prior to the annual meeting, the PLC Board of Directors convened in Salt Lake City on Monday, Sept. 21 and Tuesday, Sept. 22 to lay the groundwork for the event, poring over the Council’s finances and deliberating on proposals for PLC Endowment Trust funds, among other decisions. California
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was well-represented in these matters by Mike Byrne, who participated in the deliberations virtually from his ranch headquarters in Tulelake. The Annual Meeting began in earnest on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 23, with Glover providing a wide-ranging update on PLC’s policy efforts. Glover provided details on the second round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP 2), which had been announced by USDA only five days earlier, and overviewed PLC’s legislative efforts to provide relief to ranchers hard-hit by the market impacts resulting from the pandemic. Of course, as with so many annual meetings, PLC’s ongoing efforts to provide regulatory reform of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) were discussed in detail, with Glover highlighting the Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2020 (S. 4589), introduced by her former boss, Senator Barrasso. The bill proposes several changes to the ESA, such as factoring in landowners’ voluntary species conservation efforts when making listing determinations or crafting recovery plans and establishing a priority system for listing petitions and other regulatory actions. In short, the bill aims to streamline the ESA regulatory process and acknowledge the significant contributions of ranchers and other landowners to species recovery. Amid a catastrophic wildfire season throughout the West—and particularly in California—fires were a major focus of the policy update. PLC leadership overviewed a number of Stewardship Agreements entered into between states and the federal government this year, including an agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and the State
