Over 20 years ago, the Center for Water Policy’s Director, Melissa Scanlan, began researching the front-line dilemmas Wisconsin’s water trustees at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources face when they implement the laws that give life to the Public Trust Doctrine. She has written three articles based on research interviews with the WDNR that are each separated by about a decade. Her latest research findings from her 2021 interviews highlight how climate change and population pressures have intensified water management challenges. She documents a steady erosion of state laws over the past decade that have weakened WDNR’s authority and capacity to respond. The research concludes with suggestions for improving Wisconsin’s implementation of the constitutionally-grounded protections for the waters of the state.
Read the research:
Melissa K. Scanlan, The Public Trust Doctrine: Regulatory Reform, Climate Disruption, and Unintended Consequences, 49.3 Ecology Law Quarterly 779 (2023).
Earlier works in this research series are also available:
Melissa K. Scanlan, Implementing the Public Trust Doctrine: A Lakeside View into the Trustees’ World, 39 Ecology Law Quarterly 123 (Summer 2012).
Melissa K. Scanlan, The Evolution of the Public Trust Doctrine and the Degradation of Trust Resources: Courts, Trustees and Political Power in Wisconsin, 27 Ecology Law Quarterly 135 (2000).
Watch the short research explainer: