Bret Birdsong

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Professor of Law
Expertise: Public Lands and Natural Resources Law, Water Law, Environmental Quality Law, Property Law, Administrative Law

Biography

51ԹϺ William S. Boyd School of Law professor Bret Birdsong is a recognized expert in public lands management, federal natural resources, water rights, food system, and conservation law. 

Prior to joining 51ԹϺ, Birdsong served the United States Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, as a trial attorney focusing on public land and natural resources litigation from 1994 to 2000. As an Ian Axford Fellow in Public Policy in 1998, he studied New Zealand's specialized Environment Court and served as a visiting fellow in the office of New Zealand's Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

More recently, he served in the Obama administration as deputy solicitor for Land Resources at the U.S. Department of the Interior, providing counsel to the Secretary of the Interior regarding the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and other agencies regarding important conservation and land management policy initiatives.

Birdsong is a co-author of Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases, and edits chapters on Federal Reserved Water Rights and Interstate Water Allocation in the Treatise Waters and Water Rights.

Education

  • J.D., University of California, Hastings College of the Law
  • B.A., Princeton University

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environment, law, sustainability

Bret Birdsong In The News

Las Vegas Review Journal
For less than a year, the desert landscape and sacred mountains of Avi Kwa Ame have been spared from the sprawl of developers and the wandering eye of the mining industry.
E&E News
The winner of November’s presidential election will determine the fate of dozens of pending solar, wind and geothermal power projects that have the potential to power millions of homes and move the nation closer to President Joe Biden’s vision for a green energy economy.
Las Vegas Review Journal
Once your tires vibrate passing over your first cattle guard out of the Las Vegas Valley, chances are you are about to stumble into what makes much of Nevada one of the last untouched Western frontiers — public land.
Wonkette
The US Department of the Interior has a nice little present for America: a new “Public Lands Rule” that will fundamentally change how the government manages public lands. For the first time ever the US will require that recreation, conservation, habitat preservation, and clean energy development balance out land use policy, which for most of US history has been aimed primarily at handing over parcels of public lands for commercial exploitation.
All Bret Birdsong In The News

Articles Featuring Bret Birdsong

51ԹϺ Newsmakers 2023: Summer
Graduation surprise
Campus News | August 1, 2023

News stories from the summer featuring 51ԹϺ students and faculty.

The Stewards of a Broken Climate
aerial of Colorado River
Research | May 10, 2022

Confronted in our desert backyard by the inescapable effects of a deteriorating environment, these 51ԹϺ researchers, professors, and activists are fighting to mitigate the effects of climate change on scientific, legal, and sociological fronts.

51ԹϺ Newsmakers 2020: People
Professor Nancy Lough standing in front of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas
People | January 4, 2021

Great places are made of great people. Here are a few who made the news in 2020.

All Articles Featuring Bret Birdsong