August 12, 2014 – The 2014 Reimagine Western Landscapes Symposium, “A Place for Wildlife,” will take place Aug. 22 – 23, 2014, at the University of Utah’s Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities Education in Centennial Valley, Montana. The symposium will challenge the humanities to become leaders in wildlife conservation with a reimagined approach for respecting, preserving and protecting wildlife and western landscapes.

A diverse array of experts will be featured, including keynote speakers Timothy Egan, a New York Times columnist and author, Terry Tempest Williams, an environmental author and the University of Utah’s Annie Clark Tanner Environmental Humanities Scholar, as well as noted western scholars, conservationists, ranchers, biologists and community leaders. Panelists will explore the positive and negative impacts on wildlife from environmental, legislative, recreational and agricultural practices.

“We want to come away from this symposium with reimagined ways to engage communities and younger generations in the protection of wildlife and western lands,” said Leslie Miller, longtime member of the University of Utah’s College of Humanities Partnership Board and Director of the Reimagine program. “An identified and achievable objective to help wildlife should emerge from the information shared at the symposium. A new way to tell the story and change the course for imperiled wildlife should come from the humanities.”

KUER’s Radio West host Doug Fabrizio will be in Centennial Valley for a live broadcast  Friday, Aug. 22, 11 a.m. – noon Mountain Standard Time. His interview of select symposium panelists will take a serious look at the West’s conservation practices and the positive and negative impacts on wildlife.

All symposium activities will be held at the Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities Education, in Lakeview, Montana. As an official extension of the University of Utah campus, the Taft-Nicholson Center works to bridge the arts and humanities with the sciences. Home to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and historic Lakeview, Centennial Valley supplies the inspiration for this year’s theme “A Place for Wildlife.”

The symposium is a free educational forum, open to the public. Maximum seating capacity is limited to 150 individuals. To join the audience, please email a registration request. No on-site, overnight accommodations (other than campsites on the refuge) are available in Lakeview for attendees. Please click here to see links to an area map, recommended off-site accommodations and travel times.