The University of Georgia River Basin Center and University of Georgia School of Law Land Conservation Clinic co-hosted a Local Wetlands Protection Workshop on Tuesday, May 7 at the Delta Innovation Hub in Athens. The goal of the workshop was to explore background on wetlands and the federal wetland regulatory system, as well as how the legal landscape is evolving and options for wetland protection and conservation.
The workshop was inspired by the recent US Supreme Court Sackett decision, which reduced federal protection of many wetlands by updating the definition of a conservable wetland. However, the RBC and Land Conservation Clinic were inspired to look into options for counties and municipalities to conserve and manage their wetland resources despite the new definition. The workshop welcomed county and municipal officials, representatives of watershed NGOs, and experts in both wetland ecology and environmental law from across UGA.
IRIS affiliate and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources professor Rhett Jackson and professor of entomology Darold Batzer opened the event by describing the environmental value of wetlands. “The legal interpretations and the implementation of the Clean Water Act are not consistent with hydrologic science,” Jackson explained in a presentation slide. “Hydrologically, the entire landscape is connected to navigable waters and affects the flow, chemistry, and ecology of navigable waters.”
IRIS’s Law and Policy Fellow Matthew Shudtz continued the talks with an overview of the Sackett decision and its implications for wetlands. The case defined “waters of the United States” as “traditionally navigable” (in Shudtz’s words, whether you can put a kayak in it) and “adjacent” waters as having a continuous surface connection with no clear demarcation. The rest of the workshop was dedicated to discussing legal and regulatory implications of this decision, as well as existing and future options for wetlands protection.
View the full program here. Check out more photos from the day in this Google Drive.








