Jeanne Christie spoke at Stetson law school workshop on the importance of wetlands

Jeanne Christie, executive director of the Association of State Wetland Managers, presented Are We There Yet? Trends in Protecting Wetlands and Biodiversity – A State-side View as part of Stetson University College of Law’s Foreman Biodiversity Lecture series on the Gulfport campus.

“The U.S. is the most ecologically diverse country in the world,” said Christie. “We have more kinds of forests, and deserts and wetlands that any place else. So while the federal government can pass laws and do a good job at the national level, it really takes states and local governments working together because things are so different from one part of the country to the other.”

Stetson’s Foreman Biodiversity Lecture series is coordinated through the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy, which is the recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Achievement Award in Environmental Law and Policy. All lectures in the Foreman Biodiversity Lecture series are complimentary and open to the public.

Jeanne Christie delivered the Foreman Biodiversity Lecture at Stetson. Photo by Alan Brock.

Jeanne Christie delivered the Foreman Biodiversity Lecture at Stetson. Photo by Alan Brock.

Doug Lashley delivered the keynote at the wetlands workshop later in the day.

Doug Lashley delivered the keynote at the wetlands workshop later in the day.

Christie’s lecture was held in conjunction with the Fourth Annual Environmental Law Institute-Stetson Wetlands Workshop.  The workshop featured a field trip to a mitigation site, a keynote by Doug Lashley of GreenVest, LLC on “Brownfields as Potential Wetland Mitigation Sites,” as well as panel discussions and breakout sessions.

“It’s extremely important for people to pay attention to wetlands and other parts of the natural environment, for state and local government to be fully engaged in protecting resources, and for people locally to be interested in finding out how to do that,” said Christie.

To learn more about environmental law programming and the Institute at Stetson, visit www.stetson.edu/law/biodiversity.