ELI’s Wetlands Program

The Environmental Law Institute’s Wetlands Program provides professionals and the public with timely, balanced information on wetlands law, policy, science, and management in order to prevent wetland losses and achieve an overall gain of wetlands across the United States.

NEW! Join Wetlands and Waters e-mail list to get monthly updates on the latest research, resources, events, and more from ELI. Contact wetlands@eli.org to join.

Featured Areas of Expertise and Resources:
 
  • Education and Outreach to promote the best in wetlands protection.

    • National Wetlands Awards: The National Wetlands Awards honor people who have contributed in an extraordinary way, through science, education, land stewardship, land development, or program development, to the conservation of the nation’s wetlands resources.

    • National Wetlands Newsletter: The National Wetlands Newsletter was published for nearly 38 years, providing key information and analysis to people engaged in protection and management of wetlands, watersheds, floodplains, and coastal resources. ELI members can access the complete online archives, illustrating the progression of wetlands law and policy from 1978-2016.

 

 

  • Research and Policy Analysis on cutting edge issues.

    • Clean Water Act Jurisdiction: ELI works to support state and tribal protection for wetlands and waters no longer protected by the federal Clean Water Act in the wake of pivotal Supreme Court decisions and changes in federal regulations.
    • Compensatory Mitigation Research: ELI is the leading research institution to evaluate compensatory mitigation required to offset adverse impacts to wetlands. ELI has conducted multiple studies of all compensatory mitigation mechanisms, including mitigation banking, in-lieu fee mitigation, and permittee-responsible mitigation, and done foundational work on the magnitude of compensatory mitigation and new approaches to improve its effectiveness.

    • State Wetland Programs: ELI’s fifty-state wetland program study was designed to inform and advance state wetland protection by providing information on state program regulatory and non-regulatory tools and activities.

    • Wetlands Research and Policy Analysis: ELI’s groundbreaking research on wetlands law and policy continues to examine federal and state protections for aquatic resources, including developments in federal Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction and tools for local wetlands protection.


Recent Work: