In this position, he will be Solicitor Hilary Tompkins’ deputy in charge of the team providing legal advice to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding the management of nearly 250 million acres of public land. The issues in Professor Birdsong’s docket will include national monuments, renewable energy on public land, wilderness, forestry, recreation, livestock grazing, and other uses of BLM lands.
“It will be a thrill and an honor to serve the nation as an appointee in the Obama administration and to help Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell develop and implement the administration’s priorities for public lands,” wrote Professor Birdsong in an email to Boyd faculty. “I expect to return to the faculty in a few years enriched in my legal experience and with new perspectives to bring to my scholarship and teaching.”
His research focuses on federal land and resources management.
