CLEANR faculty and staff share substantial expertise in areas such as climate policy, natural resources law, endangered species protection, ecological health, and Indigenous planning and knowledge.
Current Projects
Most recently, CLEANR Director Dr. Gregg Macey helped design a new program to make it easier for communities and Tribal interests to partner with universities and land managers to address threats from climate change such as drought, wildfire, and extreme weather. The Wildland-Urban Interface Climate Action Network (WUICAN) is a unique network of experts from environmental science, social science, law, and the humanities as well as land managers and tribal leaders. Its goal is to create knowledge and climate solutions that ensure a resilient relationship between society and wild landscapes. Three University of California campuses (Irvine, Riverside, and San Diego) will host the network and partner with community groups, tribes, and management agencies to protect and preserve California landscapes experiencing unprecedented climate events. With a generous grant of $5.5 million from the State of California through the Climate Action Research Initiative, WUICAN will create new opportunities for California residents to have a say in how federal, state, and local agencies can best protect communities from climate change. Network members will share these innovations to engage communities across California in tackling climate change and maximize the efficiency of state spending on climate programs. WUICAN will fund community leaders to assess needs for climate action and design appropriate solutions in partnership with policy experts. WUICAN will also invest in training academic researchers to build strong connections with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities who have unique knowledge and priorities. That investment includes providing the next generation of community organizers and students of all ages with the communication and teamwork skills to build a climate resilient workforce. Leveraging innovative climate research, land stewardship, and educational projects, WUICAN will produce science-based and community-driven best practices for dealing with climate risks. Collaboration on policy development will lead to more effective conservation, restoration, carbon storage, drought resilience, and fire prevention on landscapes across California. Together, these stewardship practices and policies will address many of the priorities named in California’s Climate Adaptation Strategy, Pathways to 30×30 conservation strategy, and 2022 Scoping Plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For more information, please contact Dr. Gregg Macey, CLEANR Director.
News
Past Policy Workshops
Promoting Water Efficiency through Water Budget Tiered-Rate Structures in California
November 12, 2021
In partnership with the California Coastkeeper Alliance and former Irvine Ranch Water District Water Conservation Coordinator
This roundtable focuses on promoting water efficiency through water budget rate programs in California. In an effort to build resiliency as the state faces growing stressors due to changing climate and other pressures, water resource experts in California have begun to explore a variety of initiatives focused on long-term water conservation and efficiency planning. This 2020 roundtable explores one particular approach to water efficiency and conservation: water budget-based, tiered-rate structures. These rate structures involve calculating a water budget that represents an efficient volume of water based on individualized customers’ water needs, and are designed to provide a clear and visible incentive to avoid high levels of water use by having the water user pay different prices per unit of water delivered depending on the amount used. This roundtable will facilitate dialogue on the water efficiency and water quality improvements, as well as revenue stability achieved by water districts that have adopted budget-based rate structures, and will address the gaps in knowledge that policymakers have on this issue. This roundtable will bring together California legislators, water districts, NGOs, scholars, and economists in an effort to contribute to policy action aimed at the Legislature’s creation of a State Revolving Fund allocation that would provide technical and legal assistance to municipalities to develop water budget rate structures.
A Conservation Vision for the Federal Endangered Species Act
October 15 & 16, 2020
In partnership with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC)
To continue the dialogue at their spring 2019 scoping session, CLEANR and EPIC convened this virtual roundtable which focused on several recommendations expected to meaningfully enhance species conservation, and for which practical policy changes are possible. Following from this roundtable, CLEANR developed a report offering six priority recommendations for improving the ESA and implementing its regulations and policies, with an emphasis on enhancing species and habitat conservation: (1) tailoring protections for endangered, threatened, and recovered species and their habitats; (2) revising incidental take authorization standards;(3) improving recovery planning and implementation; (4) providing incentives for species conservation on private, state, and federal lands; (5) accounting and preparing for ecological change; and (6) improving generation, quality, and public dissemination of ESA data. The full report is available here.
Tap Into Resilience: Removing Barriers to Local, Sustainable Water Resource Strategies
September 13, 2019
In partnership with Waternow Alliance
As water systems face ever-increasing stressors due to our changing climate, communities are looking for ways to build resilience and secure local water resources. Localized water resource strategies such as green infrastructure, efficiency programs, and on-site reuse initiatives can be affordable, effective, and environmentally friendly alternatives to centralized systems to help address these challenges. Yet legal and policy barriers, including limited funding options and institutional water management silos, have limited their scope. Building upon WaterNow Alliance’s Tap Into Resilience campaign, this roundtable engages participants in a focused discussion on the legal and policy reforms needed to identify and address the barriers to promoting decentralized and localized water strategies. The roundtable convenes scholars, technical experts, and representatives from cities and water utilities to share lessons learned from those already grappling with these issues and explore opportunities for diversifying water resilience strategies with on-site solutions.
Advocating for Improvements in Species Conservation
April 12, 2019
In partnership with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC)
With a Democratic majority in the House after the November 2018 midterm election, this roundtable focused on developing a progressive vision for effective adjustments to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) to enhance species conservation. This roundtable brought together scholars, advocates, and policymakers with expertise in species and habitat conservation efforts to facilitate meaningful dialogue around possible edits to the ESA that would build upon the successes the ESA has already achieved in protections for species and their habitat.
Proposition 218
May 18, 2016
California’s Constitution mandates that state water resources be put to beneficial use and not be wasted or used unreasonably. Proposition 218 requires government agencies to show that the amount charged for a property- related service such as water delivery does not exceed the proportional cost of the service. As California faces growing water supply challenges, the recent Capistrano Taxpayers Association v City of San Juan Capistrano litigation involving tiered water rates and Proposition 218 struck down penalty rates for excessive water use, thus posing additional potential hurdles for conservation. This half-day workshop roundtable will convene various leading thinkers to address water conservation challenges facing local governments in California, exploring the application of Proposition 218 and its potential effects on California water policy. The participants will explore solutions to address: (1) stormwater funding, (2) conservation pricing, and (3) affordability, including the potential development of model local ordinances and recommendations for state water law and policy reform.
Pilots in Species and Water Permit Coordination
July 30, 2015
Hosted by the Environmental Law Institute
This roundtable focused on the benefits, costs, and challenges of coordination of species conservation permitting under the Endangered Species Act with permitting under the Clean Water Act and other regulatory schemes. The regulatory processes for these overlapping regimes are fragmented, and there have been a number of recent attempts to coordinate agency assessments of projects under these parallel regimes. Based on this dialogue session and independent research, CLEANR published an article in the Environmental Law Reporter on the lessons of recent experiments in permit process coordination efforts for endangered species and aquatic resources in California. Future sessions on permit coordination, possibly including recent Congressional changes on permit coordination through the FAST Act, are being contemplated with the Environmental Law Institute.
Innovation in Habitat Conservation Planning
July 30, 2015
Hosted by the Environmental Law Institute
Hosted by the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, and in partnership with the Center for Collaboration in Governance Building on a series of roundtables held in February 2014, December 2014 and July 2015 on habitat conservation planning, this dialogue session will bring together experts from the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Department of Interior, Department of Transportation, Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, state agencies, environmental organizations, industry, and academia. They will discuss innovation in the development and implementation of Habitat Conservation Plans. Two ancillary sessions will focus on 1) the coordination of wildlife conservation under the Endangered Species Act with the Clean Water Act and other regulatory schemes and 2) the funding of transportation, infrastructure, and wildlife conservation.
Lessons from the Natural Community Conservation Planning Experience in Southern California
July 15, 2015
This roundtable built on the sessions in February and December of 2014 on habitat conservation planning and brought together a range of experts on Southern California’s Natural Community Conservation Plans (NCCPs). With the first NCCP implemented in Orange County, Southern California NCCPs provide over two decades of experience, and this dialogue asked participants to reflect on the program’s evolution and assess the extent to which these plans are achieving their goals. The dialogue focused on the lessons that can be learned for improving NCCP design and implementation moving forward and how the NCCP program compares to the federal Habitat Conservation Plan program.
This session was intended to inform the next dialogue in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2015.
The Financing and Mitigation of Habitat Conservation through Infrastructure Planning
December 11, 2014
In partnership with the Center for Collaboration in Governance
As emphasized in recent federal initiatives, there is a growing recognition of the need to plan for, fund, and implement habitat conservation through more effective, efficient, and adaptive landscape-level infrastructure planning. Building on a February 2014 session on the lessons of area-wide multi-agency federal Habitat Conservation Plans, this dialogue brings together a range of experts to focus on applying this experience to the future planning and financing of habitat mitigation for infrastructure.
The Future of Habitat Conservation Planning
February 6–7, 2014
In partnership with the Center for Collaboration in Governance (CCG)
This dialogue session brings together a wide range of experts from government agencies, industry groups, and non-governmental organizations who have been on the cutting edge in the development of habitat conservation planning. The dialogue will ask participants to assess the evolution of the federal Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) program and consider approaches for addressing past and future challenges to the effectiveness of HCPs. Dialogue sessions will focus on four key topics: (1) funding, (2) landscape-level planning, (3) climate change and (4) collaboration.