Slides Worth Thousands of Words in Environmental Law
by
Richard J. Fink

As Professor David Getches of the University of Colorado School of Law accurately observed several years ago, "[L]aw, lawyers, law schools, and law students seem to have so little to do with the environment . . . ."

Professor Getches was referring primarily to the piecemeal nature of Environmental Law -- and hence the work of environmental lawyers and law students -- in comparison to the interrelated and global nature of environmental problems. But I think the essence of his remark applies more broadly. We law teachers and our students tend to lose touch with the environment beyond the classroom walls. Naturally we focus on the law, but because our time is limited and Environmental Law so vast and detailed, the law tends to crowd out other perspectives on environmental issues and even the environment itself. The law becomes the end, not the means to one or more ends, and the consequences of Environmental Law in the world are too often neglected.

To address this problem in a small way, I show slides to students in my Environmental Law course. The slides are pictures I have taken in places that were the subject of some of the opinions we study, locations affected by statutes we read, and areas that generated a few of the controversies we are examining. One purpose is to begin to reconnect students to the real-world environment. But some slides do more, I think. They illustrate both significant environmental values and instances of environmental degradation, so students can see graphically both the successes and the failings of our laws.

After a few years of seeking out locations related to my course, I can illustrate for my students, for example, the restoration of wildlife habitat in New Mexico and areas at the center of the current debate over wilderness designation in Utah. A leading case on national forest planning arose in Colorado, and we can view areas of that forest devoted to recreation, mining, and current and past timber harvesting. Our understanding of an interstate water rights dispute resolved by Congressional act is enhanced by slides taken along the length of the river and of the Indian reservation in Nevada that asserted federal reserved water rights. When my students study the National Environmental Policy Act or read excerpts from an environmental impact statement, we "visit" a project that was the subject of litigation under that statute or the site covered by the impact statement.

Showing slides in class may seem a step back to an old technology, but the medium has several advantages over videotape. First, the images are more impressive in the classroom. A typical video monitor is small by comparison to a projection screen. A slide may be static, but it commands the audience's attention for the short time it appears.

Second, you can take the slides yourself. Many people find it difficult to make a quality video with a video camera outdoors, and editing presents questions about who can do it and with what equipment. By contrast, taking slides does not require you be an expert photographer. Modern and fairly inexpensive "point and shoot" 35-mm cameras make good images. Editing your presentation is simple: Just select the slides you want and put them in whatever order suits you.

Not only can you take the slides yourself, but it is best if you do. Slides are available from commercial distributors and in stores such as gift shops in national parks, but those images are largely of beautiful or dramatic scenery, which fulfill the law teacher's purposes only slightly. For example, in my course we study the Mono Lake public trust decision. I could have purchased some nice slides showing the lake at sunset and the unusual tufa formations along its shore, and these would have given the students a limited sense of the resources at stake in the controversy over the City of Los Angeles' diversions of water from the Mono Basin. Instead, I was able to take slides showing the lake's tributaries from which the water is actually taken, and the brim-full Los Angeles Aqueduct alongside the virtually dry Owens River bed.

Taking the slides yourself is also desirable because the images should be integrated into the course and not seem to be just an accessory. This means you should approach slide presentations with the same degree of planning and preparation you devote to other aspects of the course. Slides of an area taken for other purposes on last year's vacation will likely appear in your classroom to be an afterthought (although I admit I have made travel plans with the purpose of taking slides for my course well in mind). You need to know in advance of taking them just what you want to convey with your slides.

When you visit your site, pick up any pamphlets and brochures that may provide interesting facts not readily available elsewhere, get maps of the area so you know precisely what you're photographing, and talk to people there. Take notes. I try to make a record of each shot in a notebook so that my commentary in the classroom while presenting the slides can be completely accurate. Take pictures of signs, which can help orient the students and sometimes provide useful information (such as a sign requiring protective clothing to enter the Summitville Mine in Colorado, which is now a Superfund hazardous waste site).

Take many, many slides. In this respect, follow the example of professional photographers. Even if you are a relative novice as a photographer, you will then be able to select from two or three slides of the same subject the one that has the best lighting and composition. And allow plenty of time to get off the road, walk, and get to know your subject.

An inexpensive slide sorter will allow you to quickly select and organize your slides. The logistics of the presentation will depend to some extent on the audio-visual facilities built into your classroom and the support available from the university or law school audio-visual department. However, consider the advantages of a projector with a wireless remote that controls not only the direction of the slide carousel but focus as well. Also, identifying for your audience particular aspects of the image on the screen is best accomplished with a hand-held pointer using a laser beam.

My use of slides in the classroom has been very well-received by students. Since it takes very little time to show a good number of slides, and because they are directly related to the law we study, students do not consider them filler. Since they are taken by the teacher, the slides seem to demonstrate a greater involvement by the instructor in the subject, which students seem to appreciate. Many of my students in the natural resources law course also enroll in my seminar on local environmental issues, and quite a few make their own visits to nearby sites and take slides to use in their presentations. For these students, their connection with the real-world environment has been strengthened, and I believe for others the distance between the law we study and the environment it affects is shorter.