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This article describes how, as environmentalists turn their attention toward sprawl and conservation, biologists warn that habitat destruction is the single largest cause of species extinctions, and the role of local governments in biodiversity preservation deserves much greater attention. Local governments make many of the ?little decisions? that can preserve or destroy species habitat, yet their role under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) is remarkably underdeveloped. This article seeks to define the role of local governments with respect to the ESA.

Political borders, which delineate divergent political, social, economic, and demographic systems, affect the management of shared natural resources. Transboundary environmental management will attract increasing global attention as trends of population growth and natural resource scarcity drive coordinated solutions for environmental problems. Water pollution, in particular, will be a high priority for many nations because of the undisputed importance of water to sustain life and the unyielding characteristic of water to flow freely across political borders. The study of the Abbotsford‐Sumas aquifer offers a model to investigate the nature of shared resource management problems within two divergent cultural regions (western Washington and southern British Columbia), bisected by a political boundary (U.S.‐Canada border). Using the newly developed Transboundary Environmental Management Index (TEMI), the coordinated management of the organizations was ranked according to their “institutional capaci...

In a decision that sent shock waves through country coffee shops as well as the ivory towers of academe, the Iowa Supreme Court recently invalidated a state “right-to-farm” statute as a taking of neighbors' property without just compensation. Bormann v. Board of Supervisors, 584 N.W.2d 309 (1998), 51 ZD 71, cert. denied,— U.S.—, 119 S. Ct. 1096 (1999).

Canada and the United States entered into the Canada-US Air Quality Agreement (Agreement) in 1991, focusing primarily on a single air pollution problem: acid rain in the eastern parts of both countries. The intent of the Agreement, however, was broad and ambitious. In addition to establishing specific objectives relating to emission limits and the reduction of air pollutants, the Agreement establishes an ongoing bilateral system of prior notification and impact assessment, coordinated scientific and economic research, ongoing progress reviews, and a dispute resolution procedure. This broader purpose has allowed the parties to expand the Agreement’s scope to establish specific objectives for the constituents of ground-level ozone, a precursor of smog. It has also promoted cooperation and communication and the sponsorship of regional air quality initiatives. This chapter first discusses the reasons that the Canada and the United States found it necessary and beneficial to sign an international agreement addressing air quality issues. It then summarizes the Agreement, providing examples of some of the ways that its provisions have been used and discussing possible future initiatives. The last section assesses the effectiveness of this bilateral framework and its influence on Canada’s air quality management.

[W]ith the great increase and concentration of population, problems have developed, and constantly are developing, which require, and will continue to require, additional restrictions in respect of the use and occupation of private lands in urban communities…. [W]hile the meaning of constitutional guaranties never varies, the scope of their application must expand or contract to meet the new and different conditions which are constantly coming within the field of their operation. In a changing world, it is impossible that it would be otherwise. Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365 (1926).

If California does not secede from North America with the help of the San Andreas fault, its residents sometimes fear that it will sink into the ocean instead, foundered by the weight of its growing population. In order to accommodate immigrants from other states and counties, hillsides are graded, and neighborhoods tom down and rebuilt, in the blink of an eye. The population already exceeds the wildest imaginings of the original freeway engineers; in southern California, the land of the automobile, commuting speeds are expected to average 10 miles per hour in 1990.