Great Lakes Law

A win for Great Lakes wolves in federal court

The federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling striking down an attempt by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist Great Lakes wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Delisting the Great Lakes wolves would remove federal protections and open the wolves to state hunting seasons. (See this prior Great Lakes Law post on Michigan’s state-sanctioned wolf hunt.) In Humane Society v. Zinke, the federal court rejected the U.S. Fish... Read more →

Author Josh Cohen visiting Wayne State to discuss conservation and stewardship of Michigan’s rare coastal habitats

Josh Cohen and Brad Slaughter, authors of A Field Guide to the Natural Communities of Michigan, will be hosting a public discussion at Wayne State on conservation and stewardship of Michigan’s rare coastal habitats. Josh is the Lead Ecologist with Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Michigan’s natural heritage program. He is a good friend and great field guide for his adopted state of Michigan and its rare and unique habitats and critters. He roams the woods... Read more →

A critical look at Michigan’s coastal sand dune law

Coastal sand dunes are one of Michigan’s most treasured resources. In 1994, the state enacted legislation regulating land use on sand dunes. The legislature intended to balance competing public and private interests over the resource. The Sand Dune Protection and Management Act (SDPMA) was extensively amended in August 2012. As amended, local governments have a significantly diminished role in determining land use on sand dunes within their borders. Suzanne Sutherland is an attorney with Hilger... Read more →

Michigan’s first sanctioned wolf hunt opens this month surrounded by controversy

The following student post is by Nicholas McIntyre (B.A., Oakland University; J.D., Wayne State University Law School, expected 2014). While in law school, Nick has interned at the U.S. Justice Department (Community Relations Service) and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Over the past 30 years, Michigan’s wolf population has recovered dramatically, from three known wolves in 1989 to a current population of 658. See Rationale and Basis of Natural Resources... Read more →

Governor Snyder appoints Jon Allan as director of the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes

Governor Rick Snyder gets huge kudos for tapping Jon Allan as the next director of the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes. Jon will succeed Patty Birkholz, a long-time champion of Great Lakes protection who earned a reputation for putting environmental policy before partisan politics. Jon Allan will take a leave of at least one year to serve the state as an “Executive on Loan” from Consumers Energy, where he is currently the director of... Read more →

Great Lakes Week in Detroit – IJC Biennial Meeting and more

The International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Biennial Meeting on October 12-14 is anchoring Great Lakes Week Detroit 2011. The Great Lakes Commission and the Healing Our Waters Coalition will also be holding their annual meetings as part of the event, which should draw hundreds of Great Lakes advocates and policy makers to Detroit and the Wayne State University campus. Pursuant to the Canada-US Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the IJC convenes the Biennial... Read more →

Book review - Burning Rivers: Revival of Four Urban-Industrial Rivers that Caught on Fire, by Dr. John Hartig

Remember when rivers catching fire symbolized environmental degradation? I don’t - I was born in 1974, and my generation saw environmental values debated through Styrofoam cups and the spotted owl (rather lame symbols in comparison to a burning river). But the stories of rivers burning became a legendary chapter in the making of environmental law and the growth of political environmentalism. Yet I never understood the complexity of the problem, and the tremendous success in... Read more →

Great Lakes on the Ground – new blog by Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation

Here’s a great new blog for you to bookmark or put on your RSS feed - Great Lakes on the Ground (www.greatlakesontheground.wordpress.com). It’s authored by Andy Buchsbaum, Regional Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. I’ve known Andy since I was in law school and had the pleasure of working with him for several years at NWF. Andy has been personally involved in every major Great Lakes issue this decade, most recently... Read more →

Great Lakes on the brink of Asian carp invasion thanks to “monumental government screwup”

Asian carp are poised to enter the Great Lakes, and may already be within the watershed, thanks to a series of disastrous decisions and mistakes by state and federal government agencies. Scientists have collected DNA evidence showing that two distinct species of invasive Asian carp – the bighead carp and the silver carp – have made their way up the Mississippi River system and past the ineffective electric barriers operated by the Army Corps of... Read more →

Federal funding for Great Lakes restoration won’t stop new pollution problems

The Great Lakes restoration campaign - led by conservation groups, industry, and state and local governments to get more federal funding for research, habitat restoration, and toxic clean-ups - is taking some deserved criticism for simply throwing a lot of money at existing problems without providing new solutions. As Dan Egan reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article “Great Lakes aid isn't a cure-all; Despite $475 million restoration plan, damage continues in freshwater system”, some... Read more →

Better protections for wetlands in Michigan and the Great Lakes

The National Wildlife Federation’s recent report, Protecting and Restoring the Kidneys of the Great Lakes: An Assessment of Wetlands Programs in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, has reinvigorated ongoing efforts to improve wetland protection in Michigan. Michigan is one of two states that has a federally delegated wetland protection program, but for budgetary and political reasons the state is considering dropping its wetland protection program, leaving only the federal government to do the job (and... Read more →

President Obama taps Great Lakes advocate Cam Davis to lead Great Lakes restoration program

President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson have tapped Cam Davis, most recently President of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, for a position that most people will simply call “Great Lakes Czar.” Officially, Cam has been appointed by Administrator Jackson as Senior Advisor on the Great Lakes. While the position will be with the EPA, Cam will be working with numerous agencies to coordinate and implement the Great Lakes restoration work. This appointment fulfills... Read more →

Great Lakes Senators Key to Future of Clean Water Act

Since the Supreme Court’s infamously muddled and split decision in Rapanos v. United States created uncertainty for protecting non-navigable streams and wetlands under the Clean Water Act, political efforts have been building to restore protections through the legislation called the Clean Water Restoration Act. After several years of legislative and outreach work, 2009 could be the year of success for the Clean Water Restoration Act. I asked my good friend and former colleague Chris Grubb... Read more →