This has been a very good year for our Section. The Section’s Executive Council has initiated a number of new projects which will create opportunities for environmental and land use attorneys and for the affiliate members of our Section (comprised of environmental engineers and consultants, land use planners, law school students and others).

     One of these outstanding opportunities is the 10th Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference “Shaping Florida’s Future: A Decade of Protecting an Eternity” held on February 19-21, 2004 at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This outstanding forum featured cutting edge discussions lead by top scholars and practitioners on a variety of environmental and public policy issues. The key speaker was author Carl Hiassen who drew an overflowing crowd and provoked laughs and an interesting debate. The Public Interest Committee headed by Erin Deady did an excellent job as always in planning and orchestrating this very exceptional forum.

     The Treatise on Environmental and Land Use Law published by REGfiles is a prolific compilation of core, and fringe, Florida and federal environmental and land use law topics, authored by outstanding Florida practitioners and members of the Section. The Treatise is the Section's centerpiece publication and is an extremely valuable resource for the Florida environmental community.
The Section’s leadership improved the Treatise in many fundamental ways which make it more accessible and establish it as the “go to” source for environmental and land use law research, particularly with respect to those issues unique to Florida. The Treatise is now managed by three Committees which address (1) authorship of articles (chaired by incoming Section chair, Bob Fingar, and Martha Collins), (2) editing of contents (chaired by George Gramling and Enola Brown), and (3) marketing, including web based applications (chaired by Joe Richards and Thomas Spencer Crowley, III). The Treatise is updated semi-annually and forthcoming editions promise improvements because of the efforts of these committee chairs and members. Thanks also go to Gary Hunter, who continues to represent the Section’s interests and to manage the Section’s relationship with its publisher, REGfiles.

     Our Section has enjoyed several new “Affiliate/Attorney Social” events. These events are intended to provide networking opportunities for Section Members, Affiliate Members and invited guests. The first “Affiliate/ Attorney Social” was held in Tampa on February 26, 2004 and was co-sponsored by Frank & Gramling Law Firm, ECT, Inc., and Golder Associates, Inc. The event was a big success. Over 40 professionals including attorneys, engineers, scientists and government representatives, attended the event. The second “Affiliate/ Attorney Social” was held in Orlando on April 8, 2004. It was sponsored by the Section, the Gray Robinson Law Firm, Mitigation Marketing, Inc., and E Sciences, Inc. Future social events are being planned.  Our thanks go to Peter Partlow of E Sciences, Incorporated, our Affiliate Committee Co-Chair, for the planning and organization of these events.

     Our Continuing Legal Education Committee has coordinated some excellent seminars including “Environmental Law Issues: Federal Environmental Laws: Florida Impacts,” which was held on March 26, 2004; “Liability and Ethics for Environmental Lawyers and Professionals” which was held on August 21, 2003; and the Annual Update at Amelia Island on August 21-22, 2003. Paul Chipok, Mary Hansen and David Jordan spearheaded these CLE projects, and are working hard to build relevant and valuable CLE seminars.
We invite everyone to attend the annual update seminar on Amelia Island on August 19 – 20, 2004. Tom Pelham will deliver the keynote address, followed by a lively debate about the Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment.

     Larry Sellers will provide his excellent annual assessment of legislative and constitutional changes. The annual update will feature reports from state agencies including the Department of Environmental Protection, the Water Management Districts, and the Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

     If you haven’t viewed the Section’s web page at www.ELULS.org, please do so. You will find that the Section’s web page is an excellent source for direct access to the Section’s projects, membership, Executive Council and other contacts, as well as links to environmental and land use resources.
Joe Richards has tirelessly improved the web page and has mentored our Executive Council through Internet and other information access opportunities for many years.

     The Florida Bar Journal Column committee has consistently procured excellent, cutting edge articles by section members concerning diverse topics on environmental and land use law, including the pro-con article on the Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment in February, 2004, and law student Kevin Regan’s article, “Protecting Florida’s Rare Plants from Extinction,” in the July/August 2003 issue. The success of our Journal roles and articles stems, too, from Robert Manning’s leadership of this committee.

     New Executive Council member Enola Brown assumed the role as editor of the Section Reporter along with co-editor Andrea Zelman.
Thanks to Enola, the Section Reporter stays on schedule for publication and continues to contain valuable news and law updates for the Section membership.

     We have been consistently building bridges with our colleagues across the country through involvement in the ABA’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (“SEER”). Michelle Diffenderfer, Section Liaison, has helped open opportunities for our Executive Council and Section membership including joint CLE projects. The Section Executive Council is planning on holding its fall meeting in conjunction with the ABA SEER’s 12th Section Fall Meeting on October 6 – 10, 2004 in San Antonio, Texas. This will provide us with the opportunity to learn more about SEER’s organization and CLE programs and meet and develop relationships with environmental and land use lawyers from across the country.
The Access to Justice Committee has developed new projects that will assist lower income and disenfranchised people embrace environmental and land use issues. Nicole Kibert has assumed the chair of this Committee, working closely with Committee founder Suzi Ruhl. One upcoming initiative to watch is the brownfields workshop, which is currently sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute (“ELI”) and the Florida Brownfields Association (“FBA”). The workshop will assist brownfields stakeholders with the integration of public health issues into brownfields redevelopment in Florida.

     The Law Schools Committee of the Section stays in contact with law schools in Florida to encourage law student’s participation in environmental law issues. This year, five law schools received financial assistance from the Section. The Law School Committee administers the Section’s Dean Maloney Memorial Writing contest. Winning students attend the annual meeting and the first prize winner receives $500 and the cost of attending the section’s annual update meeting. The Section recently adopted a new policy, which we hope will encourage student participation even further, that allows up to ten law students to attend the annual update at no charge and compensates them for the annual update meals if they assist in the manning of their school information table. Materials from the conference will be donated to each law schools library.

     These are just some of the activities of our Section. We welcome new members as always and encourage diverse participation from the Bar.