Strategies that Work for Resources and People
Resources Law Group represents public agencies, local governments, private companies, and individuals in matters concerning natural resources law and policy. Our regulatory practice focuses on water management, sustainable forestry, and sustainable energy development. Our goal is to help clients develop comprehensive, stable, long-range regulatory compliance and resource management programs resulting in efficient environmental project review and enduring conservation of natural resources. We work at the forefront of creative land use planning, reconciling important and sometimes competing land use objectives, such as local housing and economic development, with the conservation of endangered species, wetlands, and other valuable natural resources.
Our team has been instrumental in several regional, multi-party natural resources programs addressing water management, environmental regulation, habitat protection, and land-use planning and are currently engaged in the development of one of the largest natural resources plans in the country—the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which encompasses the 700,000-acre Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. We provide legal and strategic advice to help local governments develop land use plans creating parks and open-space infrastructure, and efficiently meeting the requirements of state and federal laws protecting species, habitats, wetlands, waterways, and water quality.
We are also expert in the design and implementation of habitat conservation plans under the Federal Endangered Species Act and California Natural Community Conservation Planning Act, regional wetland programs, mitigation fee programs, open-space preservation programs, managing sustainably harvested industrial timber lands, and other new and evolving conservation planning approaches.
We have been actively engaged in mitigation banking and conservation banking from their beginning. We helped to develop the policies that provide the foundation for mitigation and conservation banking, and we have since assisted in the development of numerous wetland and endangered species banks throughout California.
We have helped enhance public comments on, and discussion of, regulatory and resource management proposals, and have helped draw more Latinos and underrepresented communities into the development of public policy.