Nature-Friendly Ordinances, a new book published by the Environmental Law Institute® and written by ELI Senior Attorney James M. McElfish, Jr., shows how local governments can conserve living resources and habitats using familiar land-use tools. It is intended for all local decisionmakers that deal with land use — planning staff, planning and zoning boards, local legislative boards, citizen activists, and property owners. It is also an informative guidebook for journalists who cover growth impacts on local biodiversity.
Based on land management guidelines developed by the Ecological Society of America, the book shows how land use ordinances can address issues of habitat conservation, ecological function, watershed management, and conservation of diverse plants and animals.
“Local ordinances can contribute substantially to the conservation of biodiversity by creating and maintaining conditions of ecological health in the local landscape,” states McElfish. “Understanding the lessons of ecology and conservation biology enables local decisionmakers to better use their familiar land use tools to make their development decisions more ‘nature-friendly.’”
Nature-Friendly Ordinances describes key features to help ordinance drafters integrate ecological considerations into that have adopted nature-friendly ordinances.
Nature-Friendly Ordinances represents a significant addition to ELI’s growing library of “Smart Growth” information resources for American community planners and the journalists who cover them. It is the fourth publications installment executed under a research grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation that supported ELI’s work on effective local community conservation measures, joining:
- Conservation Thresholds for Land-Use Planners
- Planning for Biodiversity: Authorities in State Land Use Laws
- Planning with Nature: Biodiversity Information in Action
These research publications join a series of books that ELI has published, written by prominent land use experts and practitioners:
- Open Ground: Effective Local Strategies for Protecting Natural Resource
- New Ground: The Advent of Local Environmental Law
- Well Grounded: Using Local Land Use Authority to Achieve Smart Growth, all by John R. Nolon (Professor Nolon is the Director of the Land Use Law Center at Pace University Law School)
- Bargaining for Development: A Handbook on Development Agreements, Annexation Agreements, Land Development Conditions, Vested Rights and the Provision of Public Facilities, by David L. Callies, Daniel R. Curtin, and Julie A. Tappendorf.
Author contact inquiries and media questions may be directed to John Thompson, 202-939-3833, or pressrequest@eli.org.