Category: Volume 28
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Peace Like a River: Institutionalizing Cooperation Over Water Resources in the Jordan River Basin
I. Introduction In January 2008, United Nations (“UN”) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commented on the coincidence of water and conflict at the World Economic Forum. Pointing out that the world’s thirst will grow alongside its economy and that “many more conflicts lie over the horizon,” he observed that “too often, where we need water,…
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Collateral Damage: The Gun Debate Moves into America’s National Parks
National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. —Wallace Stegner[2] I. INTRODUCTION In the mid-morning hours of Saturday, September 7, 2013, as the summer season was winding down at Yellowstone National Park, three-year-old Ella Marie Tucker found…
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Not All Land Exchanges Are Created Equal: A Case Study of the Oak Flat Land Exchange
I. Introduction “Balance, that’s the secret. Moderate extremism. The best of both worlds.”[2] As a result of United States federal land policy in the early part of the country’s history, including the disposal of much of the federal land under the 1872 General Mining Law[3] and the granting of over 130…
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Areas of Critical Environmental Concern: FLPMA’s Unfulfilled Conservation Mandate
[1]Authors’ note: The analysis and citations in this article to “current” Bureau of Land Management (BLM) planning regulations are to the regulations in effect in 2015, when the article was initially prepared. In 2016, BLM issued new planning regulations, to be effective in January of 2017. However, on March 7, 2017, Congress voted to rescind…
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Mountain Biking into the Wilderness
ABSTRACT America’s Wilderness Act of 1964[2]* (the “Wilderness Act”) dedicates unique and scenically important federal lands for protection from development. Over time, the increased acreage of federal land designated as Wilderness, and new legislative proposals to further expand Wilderness, have fueled controversy over the scope of activities that may be pursued in Wilderness areas. One…
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The Truth Behind International Climate Agreements: Why They Fail and Why the Bottom-Up is the Way Forward. A Game Theory Analysis
I. INTRODUCTION Climate change is one of the biggest problems facing the world today. It is no longer just environmental groups who are warning of the threat. In 2014, the Pentagon released a report in which they determined that climate change was the greatest threat to national security, citing rising sea…
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The Hard(rock) Truth About Abandoned Mines in the Western United States: Why the Pressure Is On to Enact Good Samaritan Legislation as a Way to Recover
I. INTRODUCTION The water was mustard yellow. It was unnatural and unsafe, but was it unexpected? The normally blue, free-flowing Animas River, which flows from Southern Colorado into New Mexico, a part of the Colorado River System, was instantly transformed from a serene, natural river into a toxic wasteland. Three million gallons…
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Speech: In Love With the Wild: Thoughts About the Public Lands in the 21st Century
[1]Years ago, the writer and activist Terry Tempest Williams and I stood on the sidewalk in front of the Whitney Museum in New York asking passersby if they knew what the BLM is. Terry makes me do things like that. The first nine cosmopolitan people had no idea whatsoever, so Terry, who had bet that…
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Colorado’s Ground-Level Ozone Burden
I. INTRODUCTION Since 1970, the federal government has been regulating ground-level ozone under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”). At the ground level, ozone is an air pollutant, which can be harmful to humans, animals, and vegetation. Ground-level ozone is, in part, created by man-made emissions from industrial processes and vehicle exhaust. In…
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Wringing Wonder From the Arid Landscape of Law
INTRODUCTION It is easy to celebrate the multi-faceted work of Charles Wilkinson. His public service has given voice to many lives and communities. His teaching has transformed ambitions, including my own.[2] His wide-ranging writing has inspired uncounted thousands. Canvassing Professor Wilkinson’s full influence would require an article that would swallow any single…