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- Info
Legal limitations on governmental regulation of private forestry in the United States.
| Author: |
Hickman, Clifford A.; Hickman, Maribeth R. |
| Date: |
1990 |
| Periodical: |
In: Forestry Legislation , Report of the IUFRO Working Party S4.08.03; 1990; Zurich: International Union of Forestry Research Organizations |
| Abstract: |
Private forest owners in the United States (U.S.) are subject to a variety of governmental regulations that restrict their land use and management options. These include measures intended to keep forest lands in forest use, insure continued forest productivity, and minimize the impacts of forest practices on air and water quality, soil fertility, endangered species, scenic beauty, and especially critical or sensitive types of ecosystems such as inland wetlands and coastal zones. For the most part, this regulation finds its legal justification in the so called "police power" of government. Police power may be defined as the inherent right of government to pass laws restricting the conduct of individuals and the use of their property when such is necessary to protect the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the public (ARBRUCKLE et al. 1985). The concept of police power as it applies in the area of land use traces its origin to both the common law of private nuisance and the legal doctrine of waste (CUBBAGE/SIEGEL 1985). The common law of private nuisance, which has been expanded by the courts to protect public as well as private interests, provides that individuals may not use their property in a manner that will injure the real property rights of others (CUBBAGE/SlEGEL 1985). The doctrine of waste, which was fashioned by the courts to balance the desire of current owners to make productive use of their property against the desire of future owners to receive the property in a substantially unimpaired condition, holds that owners may only use their property in a manner that will not damage or destroy it (CUBBAGE/SIEGEL 1985). The basic objective of this paper is to provide a brief review of how the use of the police power in the United States is constrained by law. The discussion is intended to clarify both the powers of the regulators and the rights of the regulated with respect to private forest ownership. |
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