When the idea of a clinic bringing ecology and law students together to serve as support for land conservation efforts was introduced, there wasn’t anything like it. Science and policy are inextricably linked, but there aren’t many other programs like UGA’s Land Conservation Clinic.

“I think this particular clinic, with its focus on land conservation and cross disciplinary approach, is unique in the country,” said Director Steffney Thompson. “You can’t do land conservation without knowing and understanding some of the science, so we need to bring in these other disciplines so that we can do our job well. That allows us to operate in this really rich field of law, science and policy.”

The clinic is a cooperative effort between the School of Law and the Odum School of Ecology and works at the nexus of law, science and policy to support and enhance land conservation. Its predecessor, the Interdisciplinary Environmental Practicum, was founded in the early 2000s by Laurie Fowler, senior public service associate emeritus who served as Ecology associate dean and policy director for the River Basin Center. The practicum was the first interdisciplinary environmental law clinical program in the country. 

Fowler’s ecology, law, engineering and environmental design students analyzed and drafted environmental protection policies for federal, state and local governments and industries as far away as New Zealand and as close as Athens-Clarke County. They pioneered the use of innovative land-protection tools to protect water quality/availability and biodiversity and shared their work widely via model ordinances, guidance documents and conservation easement templates.

When she retired, Fowler suggested the creation of the Land Conservation Clinic, with a full-time director, to focus more narrowly on land conservation—a particularly pressing need in the state.

“My vision was an endowed faculty position to direct the clinic full time, whereas teaching the practicum was just a small part of my responsibilities,” she said. “We chose land conservation as a focus because that community was clamoring for help in terms of technical and legal assistance now and more qualified professionals in the future.”

In 2023, Thompson became the first full-time director of the Land Conservation Clinic. An affiliate of the RBC, she has ample experience in the conservation space, having served more than 20 years as executive director of the Oconee River Land Trust, which protects over 43,000 acres of land across the state.

This year, student interest has been high, with more than twice as many applicants as spots available. Thompson said that although her students come from different backgrounds, they all share an “attachment to land in some form, and a desire to learn more about the tool used to protect it.”

That tool is the conservation easement, a humble yet surprisingly powerful legal agreement that permanently protects land for future generations.

A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement between a landowner and an organization like a land trust or government agency. Easements allow certain uses and restrict others with the goal of protecting the property’s conservation values, such as natural forest, farm fields and planted pine forests, wetlands and streams.

Land conservation is a way of recognizing the many benefits derived from undeveloped land not only for the present, but for future generations. Before land can be conserved, the agricultural, ecological, cultural and environmental value of any given piece of property must be assessed.

The ecology students contribute the knowledge about conservation values and how to protect them, while the law students contribute the legal knowledge needed to create easements.

But conservation easements aren’t the only focus of the clinic. Students also look at other efforts to support land conservation and the benefits generated from conserving land.

“Every time you protect land, you protect water,” Thompson said.

Emily Chalfin, an ecology graduate student in the Integrative Conservation and Sustainability program, enrolled in the clinic in spring 2024, following the Supreme Court verdict in the Sackett v. EPA case.

In May 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against the Environmental Protection Agency in a case that has had significant ramifications. The decision effectively reduced federal wetland protections. Under the ruling, any body of water that does not possess a “direct surface connection” to navigable waters are no longer considered “Water of The United States,” and cannot be regulated under the Clean Water Act.

Wetlands, despite their frequent lack of “direct surface connection” to more obvious bodies of water, often interact and exchange with them through groundwater flow or after heavy rains. Despite this scientific reality, many wetlands are now left largely unprotected.

A lack of federal protection means that the responsibility of managing wetlands falls to the states and local governments.      

“So, if you wanted to develop a wetland or cover it with concrete, you no longer have a lot of that red tape in the way,” Chalfin said.

Chalfin and her colleagues worked closely with UGA’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems to create a wetlands protection primer for local governments, based on a more extensive guidebook created in 2013 by Katie Sheehan Hill, then with the Odum School’s River Basin Center (RBC). The primer contains model ordinances and information on voluntary protection using conservation easements. The project culminated in last May’s Local Wetlands Protection Workshop cohosted by the LCC and the RBC, a day-long conference attended by over 60 county and municipal government officials and representatives of watershed NGOs.

Thompson plans for her students to dive into unique issues surrounding easements, such as condemnation. Condemnation is one of the very limited ways that an easement can be extinguished, so it’s important for land trusts to know how to respond to that situation.

Her students are also currently working on drafting an easement for a county heritage tree program. If a tree is of a high enough historic or natural significance, or if it has become a landmark in the community, it may be designated as a heritage tree and protected in perpetuity under certain counties’ programs with an easement.

Although the clinic work can be challenging at times, with students learning concepts outside their discipline, they are able to learn from each other, collaborate, and have an impact.

“This real-world experience of working with others to assist a client to accomplish a goal is invaluable for students,” Thompson said, “and I’m excited to see what the clinic will do next.”