Bowen Blair

Bowen Blair

Environmental Attorney & Author

Image by Peter Marbach

Image by Peter Marbach

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A Force for Nature is a biography of a person and a place. It describes how Nancy Russell, a woman with no political, fundraising, or organizing experience, mounted a national campaign to overcome eighty years of conflict—some of it later directed at her through slashed tires and death threats—to protect the Columbia River Gorge, one of the nation’s most scenic, historic, and threatened landscapes.

Oregon State University Press | Now Available

Audiobook Available Summer 2024

Bowen Blair is an environmental attorney who—as a senior staff member for Friends of the Columbia Gorge, the Trust for Public Land, and Indian Country Conservancy—has protected some of the nation’s most important landscapes and acquired several hundred thousand acres of land for public and tribal ownership. In the Columbia Gorge, Blair helped draft and lobby the act that established the country’s most prominent national scenic area and negotiated the purchase of thousands of acres for public parks and tribal homelands. He was later appointed by two Oregon governors to the Gorge Commission, which he chaired. In 2023, Blair was appointed by Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland to the National Park System Advisory Board.

Bowen Blair is an environmental attorney who—as a senior staff member for Friends of the Columbia Gorge, the Trust for Public Land, and Indian Country Conservancy—has protected some of the nation’s most important landscapes and acquired several hundred thousand acres of land for public and tribal ownership. In the Columbia Gorge, Blair helped draft and lobby the act that established the country’s most prominent national scenic area and negotiated the purchase of thousands of acres for public parks and tribal homelands. He was later appointed by two Oregon governors to the Gorge Commission, which he chaired.

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Image by Peter Marbach