Ecology has advanced human understanding of natural systems considerably over the course of this century. Wetlands law and policy have evolved in response to our increased understanding of wetlands and the many benefits we derive from them. Notwithstanding this shift in policy and law, roughly...

Savings clauses can be found in an array of federal statutes governing public health, welfare, and environmental quality. Like explicit preemption provisions, the function of a savings clause is to differentiate the boundaries of federal and state authority. Unlike preemption clauses, however,...

The world is experiencing the sixth episode of mass extinction for life on earth. The National Academy of Sciences reports that this “biological annihilation” is even more dire than previously believed. Unlike previous episodes of mass extinction, this one is caused by human overpopulation,...

In many ways, the Clean Water Act of 1972 has been a tremendous success. Discharges of water pollutants from both industrial and municipal point sources have plummeted; the loss of wetlands has been cut decisively; and water quality has improved broadly across the nation. Despite all of this...

Enthusiasm for adaptive management has outrun evaluation of its usefulness as a natural resource management tool. Policymakers routinely endorse, and frequently require, it. Managers and academic observers alike have tended to assume that adaptive management is the best strategy. Little has been...

Natural resource regulation is heavily "scientized," by which we mean both that the current regulatory structure requires the use of science in a wide range of decisions, and that decisionmakers generally emphasize the role of science in those decisions. Nonetheless, critics on all sides of the...

Attacks on regulation have become commonplace in Washington, D.C., and on the campaign trail. Regulatory opponents in Congress have sought to translate their attacks on regulation into legislative proposals that, if enacted, would subvert the process by which regulatory agencies carry out their...

Rescuing Science from Politics debuts fourteen chapters by the nation's leading academics in law, science, and philosophy who explore the ways that special interests can abuse the law to intrude on the way that scientists conduct research. The high stakes and adversarial features of regulation...