Law Commons^™

Climate Change Challenges For Land Conservation: Rethinking Conservation Easements, Strategies, And Tools, Jessica Owley, Federico Cheever, Adena R. Rissman, M. Rebecca Shaw, Barton H. Thompson Jr., W. William Weeks

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No abstract provided.

Trust Me, I'M A Pragmatist: A Partially Pragmatic Critique Of Pragmatic Activism, Joshua Galperin

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Pragmatism is a robust philosophy, vernacular hand waiving, a method of judicial and administrative decisionmaking, and, more recently, justification for a certain type of political activism. While philosophical, judicial, and administrative pragmatism have garnered substantial attention and analysis from scholars, we have been much stingier with pragmatic activism — that which, in the spirit of the 21st Century’s 140-character limit, I will call “pragtivism.” This Article is intended as an introduction to pragtivism, a critique of the practice, and a constructive framework for addressing some of my critiques.

To highlight the contours of pragtivism, this Article tells the story of …

Exploiting Conservation Lands: Can Hydrofracking Be Consistent With Conservation Easements, Jessica Owley, Collin Doane

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No abstract provided.

Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument For Statutory Recognition Of Options To Purchase Conservation Easements (Opces), Federico Cheever, Jessica Owley

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Land conservation transactions have been the most active component of the conservation movement in the United States for the past three decades. Conservation organizations have acquired property rights-mostly conservation easements-to protect roughly 40 million acres of land nationwide. However, climate change threatens this vast edifice. Climate change means that the resources that land conservation transactions were intended to protect may not persist on the land protected. Options to purchase conservation easements ("OPCEs") have long played a modest but important role in conservation law practice. In the world climate change is creating, with its substantial uncertainties and shifting windows of opportunity, …

Keeping Track Of Conservation, Jessica Owley

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Throughout the world, governments require land protection in exchange for development permits. Unfortunately, oftentimes scant attention has been paid to these land protection programs after development. Agencies and permit applicants agree on mitigation rules, but there appears to be little follow-up. When we do not know where conservation is occurring and cannot determine the rules of mitigation projects, the likelihood that they will be successful or enforced diminishes. I journeyed to California in search of answers by tracing four mitigation plans associated with the Federal Endangered Species Act. While I anticipated some difficulties, the tale is more alarming than expected. …

Making "Conservation" Work For The 21st Century: Enabling Resilient Place, Jerrold A. Long

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During the New Deal, as part of a larger effort implementing Progressive Era "conservation" regimes, the federal government authorized the structurally-invasive Flood Control Act of 1936. At the same time, the Standard State Soil Conservation Districts Law promoted the creation of local, place-based efforts to protect or restore locally-valued resources. "Conservation" thus came to signify both the invasive, structural, engineering approach of mid-20th Century flood control, and the local, more responsive and flexible nature of soil conservation districts. But our understandings of our place in the natural world have changed subtly but significantly over the past century. Any legitimate natural …

Using Conservation Management Agreements To Secure Postrecovery Perpetuation Of Conservation-Reliant Species: The Kirtland's Warbler As A Case Study, Dale Goble

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Kirtland’s warbler is one of many conservation-reliant species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This species has met recovery goals, but removing it from the protections of the ESA is problematic because of its reliance on ongoing conservation. We define conservation management agreements (CMAs) and describe how they may provide a mechanism to protect conservation-reliant species after delisting. We suggest that CMAs should include four major elements: (1) a conservation partnership capable of implementing management actions at conservation-relevant scales, (2) a conservation management plan based on the management actions in the species’ successful recovery plan, (3) sufficient financial resources …

Conservation Reliant-Species, Dale Goble

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A species is conservation reliant when the threats that it faces cannot be eliminated, but only managed. There are two forms of conservation reliance: population- and threat-management reliance. We provide an overview of the concept and introduce a series of articles that examine it in the context of a range of taxa, threats, and habitats. If sufficient assurances can be provided that successful population and threat management will continue, conservation-reliant species may be either delisted or kept off the endangered species list. This may be advantageous because unlisted species provide more opportunities for a broader spectrum of federal, state, tribal, …

A State-Based National Network For Effective Wildlife Conservation, Dale Goble

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State wildlife conservation programs provide a strong foundation for biodiversity conservation in the United States, building on state wildlife action plans. However, states may miss the species that are at the most risk at rangewide scales, and threats such as novel diseases and climate change increasingly act at regional and national levels. Regional collaborations among states and their partners have had impressive successes, and several federal programs now incorporate state priorities. However, regional collaborations are uneven across the country, and no national counterpart exists to support efforts at that scale. A national conservation-support program could fill this gap and could …

The Quest For A Sustainable Future And The Dawn Of A New Journal At Michigan Law, David M. Uhlmann

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When I joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School in 2007, the first assignment I gave students in my Environmental Law and Policy class was John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid. It must have seemed like a curious choice to them, particularly coming from a professor who just three months earlier had been the Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. The book was not a dramatic tale of courtroom battles. In fact, the book was not even about the law, and the clash of environmental values it depicted pre-dated the environmental …

Conservation Easements At The Climate Change Crossroads, Jessica Owley

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No abstract provided.

Distributed Graduate Seminars: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Studying Land Conservation, Jessica Owley, Adena R. Rissman

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No abstract provided.

Changing Property In A Changing World: A Call For The End Of Perpetual Conservation Easements, Jessica Owley

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No abstract provided.

Conservation-Reliant Species And The Future Of Conservation, Dale Goble

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Species threatened with extinction are the focus of mounting conservation concerns throughout the world. Thirty-seven years after passage of the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1973, we conclude that the Act’s underlying assumption—that once the recovery goals for a species are met it will no longer require continuing management—is false. Even when management actions succeed in achieving biological recovery goals, maintenance of viable populations of many species will require continuing, species-specific intervention. Such species are “conservation reliant.” To assess the scope of this problem, we reviewed all recovery plans for species listed as endangered or threatened under the Act. Our …

The Emergence Of Exacted Conservation Easements, Jessica Owley Lippmann

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No abstract provided.

Exacted Conservation Easements: The Hard Case Of Endangered Species Protection, Jessica Owley Lippmann

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No abstract provided.