Creative Misdirection: One Day at a Presentation

Opinion By Don Molde

A funny thing happened at a presentation the other day. A retired professor started off talking about how to repair damaged riparian (streamside) areas on public land around Nevada. The presentation was instructive, and supported by scientific data, photos, and the like.

Then, the topic shifted to wild horses and became (to put it in charitable terms) ‘creative’. 

When someone advocates for a large-scale reduction of wild horse and burro numbers in Nevada, as did the professor, it can be a challenge to pull it off. Public support for wild horses and burros is widespread among the public.

The best circumstance for such a presentation is to have a naïve audience, most of whom won’t know what is not being addressed or being ‘creatively’ repurposed. Should the presenter have academic credentials, that may well add some ‘mustard’ to the effort. Such was the case here. 

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