Law Commons^™

Gila River Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act Of 2004, United States 108th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

Federal legislation: Gila River Indian Community Water Rights Settlement of 2004 as Title II found in the Arizona Water Settlement Act of 2004. Title I reallocates 28,200 acre-feet of CAP agricultural priority water; amends the Colorado River Basin Project Act re Lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund making $53M available for the Gila River Indian Community Water OM&R Trust Fund. Title II ratifies the Gila River Indian Community Water Rights Settlement of Feb. 4, 2003. The Secretary will comply with National Environmental Policy Act in executing the Agreement and Reclamation is the lead agency for compliance. The DOI Secretary shall …

Nez Perce Tribe - Snake River Water Rights Act Of 2004, United States 108th Congress

Native American Water Rights Settlement Project

Federal Legislation: TITLE X--Snake River Water Rights Act of 2004, Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 PL 108-447, 118 Stat. 2809 (Dec. 8, 2004). Parties: Nez Perce Tribe, US, ID. The Agreement or "Mediator's Term Sheet" was entered in on April 20, 2004 and resolves the Nez Perce Tribe's water rights claimed in the Snake River Basin adjudication in Idaho.

Slides: Lessons Learned From The Development And Implementation Of An Adaptive Management Plan At Three Hydropower Plants In Northeastern Washington State, Bob Dach

Best Management Practices and Adaptive Management in Oil and Gas Development (May 12-13)

Presenter: Bob Dach, Federal Activities Specialist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region, Lakewood, CO

11 slides

Can Congress Regulate Intrastate Endangered Species Under The Commerce Clause?, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In Spring 2003, both the 5th Circuit and the D.C. Circuit agreed that Congress has the authority under the Commerce Clause to protect intrastate endangered species on private lands under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but used completely opposite reasoning to reach the same result. The 5th Circuit in GDF Realty v. Norton rejected the government's argument that the economic impact of the commercial development regulated under the statute was the appropriate focus for whether the statute has a substantial effect on interstate commerce. Instead, the 5th Circuit concluded that intrastate spiders and beetles, which have no economic value, do …

Turning The Endangered Species Act Inside Out, Jud Mathews

Journal Articles

Within a week, both the Fifth and D.C. Circuits upheld the takings prohibitions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, as applied to species found only in single states, against Commerce Clause challenges. Both cases reach the same result, but the legal analysis used to get there could hardly be more different. In GDF Realty, the Fifth Circuit found the requisite "substantial impact" on commerce by treating the species themselves as commodities and aggregating the economic impact of all endangered species "takings". The D.C. Circuit, by contrast, held in Rancho Viejo that the true object of ESA regulation …

Predictions And Prescriptions For The Endangered Species Act, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The thirtieth anniversary of the enactment of the modern Endangered Species Act (ESA) offers an irresistible excuse to suggest changes that are needed to set the statute, and the larger project of environmental protection, on course for greater effectiveness. The 1973 ESA is novel in its approach and reach, in that it reflects both the resource management and pollution control traditions in environmental law. Its evolution indicates broader trends in the legal landscape of environmental law.

Making predictions about the future of the ESA is a daunting task. Most predictions made thirty years ago about the statute proved to be …

The Battle Over Endangered Species Act Methodology, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The substantive contours of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been largely worked out for quite some time. Starting in the mid-1990s, however, opponents of Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service decisions realized that the methodological contours of the ESA were not nearly as settled as their substantive kin. Industry and environmental interests alike appreciate that how these methodological rules get worked out could revolutionize the ESA for decades to come, and during the 1990s they opened the debate over ESA methodology and have been going strong at it ever since. This Article explores the breadth and …

Taking Adaptive Management Seriously: A Case Study Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

If one compares the way in which the ESA was implemented in 1982 to the way it is today, the list of differences would far outweigh the similarities. Indeed, the ESA has been transformed so much through administrative reform toward the ecosystem management model, I have dared to suggest elsewhere that it has earned the seal of eco-pragmatism. In this Article, I explore the related question such an assertion necessarily begs-has the ESA also earned the seal of adaptive management?... Part I of the Article provides the legal and ecological background necessary to appreciate the need for ecosystem management, and …