Better Planners Podcast
A Conversation on Tribal Planning with Chuck Sams
This episode was a great one with Chuck Sams, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse tribes, as well as the 19th director of the United States National Park Service from 2021 to 2025. He now serves as one of two of Oregon's members of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, the director of Indigenous programs at the Yale Center for Environmental Justice, and senior fellow at the University of Oregon Law School. Chuck has extensive experience in environmental stewardship and has spent nearly over 30 years doing salmon and watershed restoration work all across the Pacific Northwest and across the country on larger scale watershed restoration. We talk with him about tribal planning, lessons we can learn from indigenous nations, relationship building between tribes and government entities, and the current hot topic: data centers. Articles and resources mentioned in the episode: Oregon, Umatilla tribes aim to co-manage proposed wildlife area in Union County A small Central Oregon town shoots down data center development Offshore wind looked like a sure thing for Oregon — until it wasn’t. What went wrong? Want to be a part of the podcast? Send in an email or voice message! The team behind the upcoming Better Planners podcast wants to hear from you about the real life issues you handle as a planner. What are the honest, gritty, wicked problems you find yourself managing? To share your experiences, email betterplannerspodcast@gmail.com or leave a voice message by clicking: https://www.speakpipe.com/BetterPlannersPodcast Your message might end up in one of the upcoming podcast episodes. You can be as anonymous or as identifiable as you want. Where to find us: Website: https://oregon.planning.org/community/betterplannerspodcast/ Instagram: @betterplanners
