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Full-Text Articles in Law

Who Should Protect The Forest: Conservation Easements In The Forest Legacy Program, Jessica Owley, Stephen J. Tulowiecki Nov 2017

Who Should Protect The Forest: Conservation Easements In The Forest Legacy Program, Jessica Owley, Stephen J. Tulowiecki

Jessica Owley

No abstract provided.


Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument For Statutory Recognition Of Options To Purchase Conservation Easements (Opces), Federico Cheever, Jessica Owley Nov 2017

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

Jessica Owley

The most dynamic component of the conservation movement in the United States for the past three decades has been land conservation transactions. In the United States, land conservation organizations have protected roughly 40 million acres of land through transactions. Most of these acres have been protected using conservation easements. Climate change threatens the vast conservation edifice created by land conservation transactions. The tools of land conservation transactions are, traditionally, stationary. Climate change means that the resources that land conservation transactions were intended to protect may no longer remain on the land protected. Options to purchase conservation easements (OPCEs) have long …


Foreword: Annual Review Of Environmental And Natural Resources Law, Jessica Owley Lippmann Nov 2017

Foreword: Annual Review Of Environmental And Natural Resources Law, Jessica Owley Lippmann

Jessica Owley

No abstract provided.


Preservation Is A Flawed Mitigation Strategy, Jessica Owley Nov 2017

Preservation Is A Flawed Mitigation Strategy, Jessica Owley

Jessica Owley

The objective of the Clean Water Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters. To help achieve that objective, the Clean Water Act limits the ability to dredge or fill a wetland. To do so, one must first obtain a section 404 permit. These permits, which are issued by the Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) with coordination and oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), require project proponents to avoid, minimize, and compensate the harms of any wetland destruction or modification. Compensatory mitigation is a troubling concept in wetlands regulation because it …


Foreword, Emma Garrison, Jessica Owley Nov 2017

Foreword, Emma Garrison, Jessica Owley

Jessica Owley

This is an introduction to the fifth Annual Review of Environmental and Natural Resources Law, providing brief explanations and analyses of cases and changes in environmental law in 2003.


Cultural Heritage Conservation Easements: The Problem Of Using Property Law Tools For Heritage Protection, Jessica Owley Nov 2017

Cultural Heritage Conservation Easements: The Problem Of Using Property Law Tools For Heritage Protection, Jessica Owley

Jessica Owley

Conservation easements are quickly becoming a favored tool for protection of cultural heritage. Perpetual encumbrances on the use of private land, most cultural heritage conservation easements are held by private conservation organizations known as land trusts. With minimal public oversight, land trusts decide which lands to protect in perpetuity and what the rules regarding use of those lands should be. A variety of concerns arise when protection of cultural heritage resides with private organizations. First, as governments abdicate cultural heritage protection to private organizations, the public’s role in site protection shifts. When private organizations and landowners negotiate which properties to …


Piney Run: The Permits Are Not What They Seem, Jessica Owley Nov 2017

Piney Run: The Permits Are Not What They Seem, Jessica Owley

Jessica Owley

In 2001, the Fourth Circuit addressed the permit shield provision of the Clean Water Act and found it to provide broad-scale protection for polluters. In Piney Run Preservation Association v. County Commissioners of Carroll County, the Fourth Circuit held that facilities with discharge permits are protected from lawsuits even when discharging pollutants not contained within their permits. Under this ruling, permit holders may discharge, without fear of penalty, any disclosed pollutant within the reasonable expectation of the permitting authority. This decision is worrisome because it does not protect the goals of the Clean Water Act and deprives the public of …


A Response To The Ipcc Fifth Assessment, Sarah J. Adams-Schoen, Deepa Badrinarayana, Cinnamon Carlarne, Robin Kundis Craig, John C. Dernbach, Keith H. Hirokawa, Alexandra B. Klass, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Stephen R. Miller, Jessica Owley, Shannon M. Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, Inara Scott, David Takacs Nov 2017

A Response To The Ipcc Fifth Assessment, Sarah J. Adams-Schoen, Deepa Badrinarayana, Cinnamon Carlarne, Robin Kundis Craig, John C. Dernbach, Keith H. Hirokawa, Alexandra B. Klass, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Stephen R. Miller, Jessica Owley, Shannon M. Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, Inara Scott, David Takacs

Jessica Owley

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result …