front cover of Lawyers, Swamps, and Money
Lawyers, Swamps, and Money
U.S. Wetland Law, Policy, and Politics
Royal C. Gardner
Island Press, 2011

Lawyers, Swamps, and Money is an accessible, engaging guide to the complex set of laws governing America's wetlands. After explaining the importance of these critical natural areas, the book examines the evolution of federal law, principally the Clean Water Act, designed to protect them.

Readers will first learn the basics of administrative law: how agencies receive and exercise their authority, how they actually make laws, and how stakeholders can influence their behavior through the Executive Branch, Congress, the courts, and the media. These core concepts provide a base of knowledge for successive discussions of:

  • the geographic scope and activities covered by the Clean Water Act
  • the curious relationship between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency
  • the goal of no net loss of wetlands
  • the role of entrepreneurial wetland mitigation banking
  • the tension between wetland mitigation bankers and in-lieu fee mitigation programs
  • wetland regulation and private property rights.

The book concludes with insightful policy recommendations to make wetlands law less ambiguous and more effective.
A prominent legal scholar and wetlands expert, professor Royal C. Gardner has a rare knack for describing landmark cases and key statutes with uncommon clarity and even humor. Students of environmental law and policy and natural resource professionals will gain the thorough understanding of administrative law needed to navigate wetlands policy-and they may even enjoy it.

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front cover of Waters of the United States
Waters of the United States
POTUS, SCOTUS, WOTUS, and the Politics of a National Resource
Royal C. Gardner
Island Press, 2024
In 2023, the Supreme Court made one of its most devastating rulings in environmental history. By narrowing the legal definition of ‘waters of the United States’ (WOTUS), the court opened the floodgates to unregulated pollution. But while tremendously consequential, the decision was also simply the latest in a long series of battles over WOTUS, and which rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and perhaps even farm fields were to be protected by the Clean Water Act of 1972.
 
Waters of the United States is an unprecedented exploration of this history—and its importance for today’s efforts to conserve a critical natural resource. The book not only examines how bodies of water are legally defined (and therefore protected), but who gets to decide on these definitions. The result is a fascinating look at the ongoing power struggle between the president and federal agencies, the courts, the states, and Congress, over water quality.
 
Waters of the United States offers the detailed analysis necessary for any lawyer or environmental advocate to understand the nuances of water policy, while spinning a compelling narrative for readers who have never cracked a law book. The unique mix of insights into environmental law, history, and politics is required reading for anyone who cares about the future of the nation’s water. 
 
 
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