please join me in welcoming rob gordon. rob? >> thank you, john. and welcome again to the heritage foundation. we have a great panel today. judging from many faces i see in the audience, we have a great audience too. i think we'll get some excellent questions. let me start by acknowledging rachel kopec, the coalition's coordinator at the state policy network who worked with us to promote this event and is working with one of the speakers who's engaged with educating state officials on aspects of federal landownership. in a few minutes i will introduce our speakers. after they made remarks, we'll take questions. but first i would like to offer a little bit of context for our panel, states of dependence, reducing washington's control of the western u.s. i think some comparisons regarding land areas are needed because the areas we're discussing are so vast that they're difficult to comprehend. when rural lands not under federal control and the land under federal control that are lbm, forest service, fish and wildlife service, forest service, considere

please join me in welcoming rob gordon. >> thank you, john. welcome again to the heritage foundation. we have a great panel today. judging from many of the faces i see in the audience, we have a great audience, too, so i think we'll get some excellent questions. let me start by acknowledging rachel kopec, the coalitions coordinator at the state policy network who worked with us to promote this event and is working with one of the speakers who is engaged with educating state officials on aspects of federal landownership. in a few minutes i will introduce our speakers and after they've made remarks we'll take questions. but first i'd like to offer a little bit of context for our panel. states of dependance, reducing washington's control of the western u.s. i think some comparisons regarding land areas are needed because the areas we're discussing are vast. they're difficult to comprehend. when rural lands not under federal control and the lands under federal control that are ruled dlm are considered together, they are greater than the nation of

posting our program today is rob gordon who is senior adviser for our external relations department. before joining us here in 2008, he directed several conservation organizations. from 2003 to 6, he served on committee staff for the house committee on resources. in 1989, i founded the national wilderness institute, a nonprofit conservation organization and from '97 to 2002, he served two terms as a member of the commonwealth of virginia's board of recreation and conservation. >> thank you, john, and welcome again to the heritage foundation. we have a great panel today. and judging from many of the faces i see in the audience, we have a great audience too, so i think we'll get some excellent questions. let me start by acknowledging rachel kopec, the coalition coordinator who has worked with us to promote this event and is working with one of the speakers who is engaged with educating state officials on aspects of federal land ownership. in a few minutes, i will introduce our speakers and after they have made remarks, we'll take questions. but first i would like to offer a little bit