Online Articles

An image of the coast

(Sea) Walling Off the Beach: The Future of California’s Coastal Commons Remains Contested

November 15, 2018 by Ryan Levandowski Climate change Public Lands State and Local Water

As rising sea levels threaten California’s coast, the state’s characteristic beaches have become a battleground for homeowners, cities, and state regulatory agencies. Because coastal adaptation policies often pit preservation of public beaches against private property rights, recent litigation over the issue has posed a difficult question for courts: Who should (literally) give ground?

Valley of the Gods, which is excluded under the Trump Administration's new monument boundaries, has been used as various locations in film and television throughout the years, including two appearances in BBC's Doctor Who.

Up for Grabs – The State of Fossils Protection in (Recently) Unprotected National Monuments

October 5, 2018 by Professor John C. Ruple, Michael Henderson, and Caitlin Ceci* Natural Resources Online Supplemental Article Public Lands

In this exclusive online article, Professor John C. Ruple, a Research Professor of Law and Wallace Stegner Center Fellow at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, explains why plant and invertebrate fossils on land excluded from Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments now receive less protection under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act and National Landscape Conservation System Act. Without national monument protections, will these valuable segments of the fossil record be forever lost to the public and to scientific study?