Jacob Byl, who earned his J.D./Ph.D. in law and economics in 2015, won first place in a student writing competition sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER).
The prize includes a $1,000 cash award.
Byl’s paper, “Easements with Ecosystems: A Conservation Tool for Endangered Species,” won first place in the student writing competition sponsored by SEER’s Endangered Species Committee and will be published in the committee’s newsletter.
In the paper, Byl argues that one of the challenges of regulation under the Endangered Species Act is that the statute approaches conservation on a species-by-species basis while many scientists and land managers would prefer to use ecosystem-based conservation. Conservation easements—legal tools that separate development rights from property—can include ecosystem-based principles and serve as useful legal tools for conservation of endangered species on private lands.
Byl was also a finalist in the Institute for Energy Law’s Hartrick Scholar Writing Competition in 2013.