Badlands Conservation Alliance’s annual meeting will be held in Bismarck at the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library on Saturday, November 16th, 2024, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm CT. The event will celebrate BCA’s 25th anniversary. The annual meeting will feature speaker Michael Barthelemy, Director of Native American Studies at Nueta-Hidatsa-Sahnish College. Barthelemy will speak at 3:00 pm, followed by a question and answer session. This event is free and open to the public, and will include refreshments and door prizes.
BCA has been defending the Badlands for 25 years. In September 2024, BCA joined legal intervention with the Western Environmental Law Center to defend the Bureau of Land Management’s new Public Lands Rule. BCA advocated to protect “suitable for wilderness” areas within the Little Missouri National Grasslands during the Forest Service Travel Management Plan public comment period in October 2024. Over the course of the year, Badlands Conservation Alliance collaborated with North Dakota Wildlife Federation, Dakota Resource Council, Maah Daah Hey Trail Association, North Dakota Natural Resources Trust, Walsh County Three Rivers Soil Conservation District, National Parks Conservation Association, and Nicole Donaghy of North Dakota Native Vote.
Michael Barthelemy is an enrolled member of the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation (MHA). He currently serves as the Director of Native American Studies at Nueta-Hidatsa-Sahnish College. Previously Michael was the Director of MHA’s Tribal National Park, and also was the Director of the MHA Interpretive Center. Michael is passionate about the history and culture of his people and other tribes throughout the Northern Plains.
Founded in 1999, Badlands Conservation Alliance is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the Badlands and rolling prairie ecosystem comprising western North Dakota’s public lands, both state and federal. We provide an independent voice for conservation-minded North Dakotans and others who appreciate this unique Great Plains landscape. It is also our mission to ensure that the public lands management agencies adhere to the principles of the laws that guide them and provide for wise stewardship of the natural landscapes with which the citizens of the United States have entrusted them — for this and future generations.