Don Barry will join YCELP Assistant Director Lisa Dale’s spring “Environmental Policy in the American West” class this March for a lunchtime discussion on the future of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and its intersection with law and policy today. While preference will be given to students enrolled in the class, a number of spots will be made available to the public. To reserve your spot for this discussion, RSVP to Tiffany Chiappetta at tiffany.chiappetta@yale.edu.
Don Barry spent more than 41 years working on wildlife and public lands conservation issues as a senior governmental official and in the non-profit community. He spent more than 19 years at the Interior Department, having served as a staff attorney and Chief Counsel for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), as well as the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, overseeing the policies and programs of the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.
After his arrival at the Interior Department in 1974, Don helped draft the key implementation regulations for the then newly enacted Endangered Species Act (ESA) and he has been involved in every major amendment or reauthorization of the ESA ever since. Moreover, during the 12 years he served as an attorney for FWS, Don wrote numerous legal opinions interpreting key provisions of the ESA, opinions which still guide the implementation of the ESA to this day.