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  • WORLD VIEW

The US Supreme Court has gutted federal protection for wetlands — now what?

Most US wetlands just lost federal protection, but there’s still time for state and local governments to act. Scientists and the public can help.
  1. Royal C. Gardner

    1. Royal C. Gardner is professor of law and co-director of the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida.

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Each year, I take my environmental-law students on a swamp walk in Big Cypress National Preserve in the western Everglades in Florida. Hip-deep in the translucent water, and mindful of alligators, we appreciate the cathedral-like setting inside a cypress dome. The trip helps the students to understand aquatic ecosystems and how wetlands influence downstream waters. Wetlands provide a range of ecosystem services related to water quality, flood control, aquifer recharge, shoreline stabilization and species habitats. A broader lesson is that environmental law, to be effective, must take science into account.

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Nature 618, 215 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01827-y

Competing Interests

R.C.G. was the pro bono Counsel of Record for the Amici Brief of Scientific Societies (American Fisheries Society, American Institute of Biological Sciences, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation, Ecological Society of America, Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society, International Association for Great Lakes Research, North American Lake Management Society, Phycological Society of America, Society for Ecological Restoration, Society for Freshwater Science and Society of Wet Scientists) submitted to the US Supreme Court in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency.

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