PENDLETON — On April 9, Oregon Humanities will present a live onstage conversation about public lands with Chuck Sams, former director of the National Parks Service. In conversation with Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, Sams will explore how public opinion informs public policy.

Questions will cover: How does traditional ecological knowledge factor into federal land management? How can we balance differing perspectives when it comes to highly contested issues like climate change and water rights? How do our relationships with the land impact the laws that govern it?

The event is Wednesday, April 9, at Pendleton Center for the Arts, 214 N. Main St. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the talk starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for general admission or $30 for “conversation starter.” A portion of the tickets are free — for information, visit www.tfaforms.com/5163161.

Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III is Cayuse and Walla Walla and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he grew up. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck.

Sams most recently served as the 19th director of the National Park Service from December 2021 to January 2025. Before that, he was former Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s appointee to the Pacific Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Before then, he served as executive director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

For 30 years, Sams has worked in tribal and state government, and in the nonprofit natural resource and conservation management field, with an emphasis on the responsibility of strong stewardship for land preservation for this and future generations.

For more information about this event, visit oregonhumanities.org.

This program is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Oregon Cultural Trust, the Susan Hammer Fund of Oregon Community Foundation, The Standard and Pacific West Bank.