In recent years the FSU College of Law’s environmental law program has offered a substantial number of programs on important environmental issues through its Environmental Forum series (held each semester), and lectures by distinguished environmental law professors from around the country who visit the law school to share their ideas about the current state of the law and its likely future directions.  We’ve been very pleased with the reception these programs have received – there is clearly a great deal of interest in the State about environmental issues – and we have a sense that our programs have helped educate the public and advance the debate about the future of environmental protection in a constructive way.  We’ve been very fortunate to include leading members of the Section in our Environmental Forum series and we look forward to continuing to do so in the future.

     Following our recent very successful fall Forum on the Kelo decision and the issue of eminent domain, the College of Law will host, this spring, in addition to our Environmental Forum and a distinguished lecture by Professor Douglas Kysar of Cornell Law School, an innovative Symposium that will feature an extraordinary array of leading scholars, including Tony Arnold (Louisville), Deb Donahue (Wyoming), Don Elliott (Yale), Dale Goble (Idaho), Neil Hamilton (Drake), Dennis Hirsch (Capital), David Hodas (Widener), Oliver Houck (Tulane), John Nagle (Notre Dame), Jan Neuman (Lewis & Clark), Jim Salzman (Duke), Dan Tarlock (Chicago-Kent), and Sally Collins and Rob Doudrick from the U.S. Forest Service. 

     The Symposium, The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services, will examine the potential impact of ecosystem services (for example, the value of wetlands in filtering water and thereby improving water quality, and the value of trees in the climate change arena) on environmental law and policy.  Should property rights in ecosystem services be more clearly defined?  How should ecosystem services be recognized in common law property and tort doctrine?  Do current regulatory frameworks adequately account for ecosystem service values?  Can information, incentive, and market-based instruments help?  Overall, how can we operationalize a law and policy of ecosystem services?  These issues are of importance to scholars as well as to policy makers and practitioners. 

     For those interested in exploring these issues in detail, FSU’s law review will publish the proceedings of the Symposium in a special issue.      

     Please visit our web site, http://www.law.fsu.edu/, for more information on the upcoming Symposium, as well as for information about Professor Kysar’s lecture and our spring Forum.