March 7, 2024
by Kayla Minton Kaufman
Climate change
Public Lands
State and Local
Climate change and the legal punishment of homelessness together create intersecting hazards. Homelessness, therefore, is a community issue and an environmental issue.
January 25, 2024
by Zak Handler
Public Lands
State and Local
Access to nature is tremendously important to human health and wellbeing; however, it is not equitably distributed. This post examines the law governing disability access to public lands and offers suggestions for improving access.
March 30, 2023
by Chris Gaarder
Public Lands
State and Local
Wildlife
The Internal Revenue Code allows taxpayers to claim an income tax deduction for donating perpetual conservation easements to qualified organizations.[1] The federal government has foregone billions of dollars of tax revenue in exchange for such easements…
April 15, 2021
by Myles Douglas Young
Litigation
Natural Resources
Public Lands
State and Local
The utilization of the Public Trust Doctrine in litigations is often premised on its supposed ancient Roman pedigree. This article explores the origins of the doctrine and finds that, in fact, the ancient doctrine was quite different from the one we see in the United States today. What errors do scholars make, and what do those errors mean for the survival of the modern doctrine?
By Myles Douglas Young, Administrative Editor
March 31, 2021
by Alec Williams
Air
Climate change
Litigation
Public Lands
State and Local
After a record-breaking wildfire season in 2020, lawsuits are likely to flood the dockets of federal and state courts across the United States. Wildfire liability determinations at either level can be complex, typically implicating many parties and exorbitant damage awards. However, in light of the projected impact of climate change on wildfire frequency and severity, such lawsuits may become increasingly commonplace.
By Alec Williams, Managing Editor
March 28, 2021
by John Pullman
Endangered Species
Natural Resources
Public Lands
Wildlife
What is it?
Biodiversity–a metric that accounts for the number of distinct species of flora and fauna on Earth–is greater now than ever before.[1] However, scientists expect that to change. Historically, there have been five mass extinction events…
April 11, 2019
by Stephanie Barbanell
Public Lands
Regulations
Wildlife
The proposed US-Mexico border wall may stop the migration of people, but what happens when it does stop the migration of animals?
March 28, 2019
by Timothy Park
Endangered Species
Forests
International
Natural Resources
Public Lands
Wildlife
China has been one of the largest contributors to reforestation efforts through its Grain for Green Program. However, have all of their efforts actually helped the environment? One fatal flaw in the program is severely limiting the programs impact on the environment.
February 21, 2019
by Alexandra Kustra
Public Lands
Sustainability
Wildlife
On February 15, 2019, President Trump declared a national emergency in order to secure funds to construct a border wall on the Mexican-American border.[i] The President claims the wall will prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States, and…
January 24, 2019
by Sylvie Yudin
Public Lands
Government shutdowns can have drastic effects on National Parks. It is up the administration under which the shutdown is occurring to decide whether or not to permit National Parks to remain open, and this decision can have lasting consequences on the environmental sanctity of the Parks.