Date & Time: Tuesday, May 27, 2008, 12:00-1:00 PM EDT (9:00-10:00 AM PDT)
Where: To join, please dial 1-605-475-4150 and enter code 848852
ELI studies local and state land use and development laws and policies in Pennsylvania. Approaching the state as a model and case study, ELI evaluates practices and promotes those that foster smart growth while offering solutions to problem policies that create sprawl.
ELI’s work in Pennsylvania includes:
ELI has identified 28 substantial, multi-objective open space programs, in 21 states, that include some focus, either direct or indirect, on biodiversity. These 28 programs expend an annual average of more than $700 million for land acquisition that contributes to the protection of biodiversity, unique ecological areas, wildlife, and habitat.
Passed by Congress in 1969 and signed into law on January 1, 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) broke new ground as the first major Federal legislative effort to incorporate environmental considerations into all government decision-making. 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4347. NEPA fundamentally altered how lawmakers and regulators approached human impacts on the natural world by requiring federal agencies to prepare Environmental Impact Statements for all major Federal actions significantly affecting the environment.
When planned development activities are determined to result in unavoidable impacts to wetlands and streams, the entity responsible for causing the damage is required to restore, create, enhance, or preserve other land to offset those losses. These ‘compensatory mitigation projects’ must be provided long-term protection. Land trusts — the nation’s land stewardship professionals — may be best suited to provide the long-term stewardship of these sites. But with mitigation projects come significant staffing demands and varying degrees of exposure to risk for land trusts.
The Naturally Green Planning Program helps integrate conservation science and land-use planning through publications that identify effective policies and policy reforms and translate science into practical guidelines. The recommendations in our publications are designed to help planners ensure that traditional land-use tools are science-based and reflect conservation principles.
Featured Areas of Expertise and Resources:
Community planning and development decisions made at the local, county, and state levels have a significant and cumulative effect on the conservation of plants, animals, and natural communities. While many planners and decision-makers express interest in using their tools to conserve habitat and wildlife, most land use decisions are made in the context of competing political interests and without the information necessary to make science-based, conservation planning decisions.
Program goals are carried out through work in specific states and groups of states, and by national level policy research that is informed primarily by state and local case studies. The results are high-quality tools for reform and technical support resources. Current projects include:
In the coming decades, climate change threatens to increase the risk of significant flooding in the Mississippi River Basin. Over the next 90 years, the nation's flood- prone areas are likely to increase by 40-45 percent, according to an upcoming Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) study on climate change impacts. By increasing flood storage in a watershed, the restoration of wetlands and natural floodplains can help communities adapt to climate change and reduce its adverse impacts, while also providing wildlife habitat and water quality benefits.
Understanding mining and its regulation is important for shaping a sustainable environmental policy in the U.S. and other mining countries, as well as for forging new regional and international frameworks. Established in 1987, ELI’s Mining Center provides timely and reliable policy research on the laws, policies, and institutions that regulate the mining of fuel and nonfuel minerals in the U.S. and abroad.
