Natural Resources & Environmental Law
Natural Resources Journal
The need for interdisciplinary collaboration in solving resource-related problems was a formative principle in the creation of the Natural Resources Journal in 1961. The NRJ has become an internationally recognized quarterly devoted to the examination of resource issues. Multidisciplinary and policy-oriented, it continues to be guided by the principle set out in its first volume:
"The isolation of scholars in various fields concerned with resources problems continues to be a principal impediment to progress....[R]esources problems are so complex that traditional lines of approach prove inadequate.... Rarely do we find the work of the lawyer and the non-lawyer appearing side by side.... The primary function of this (new) journal is to meet this need...."
NRJ contributors come from various disciplines, represent many countries and provide many approaches to the complex issues raised by the need to balance resource development and environmental concerns. Recent issues of the journal have been devoted to electric bypass issues, oil and gas issues, western water issues, wilderness issues and migratory species issues.
Students compete for positions on the editorial board. They proofread and edit articles written by the experts in timely subject areas. Stephen Pyne, a leading writer on fire in the west, has written about fire in the national forests and John Leshy, solicitor for the department of interior in the Clinton administration, has contributed an essay on mining law reform and the mining law of 1972. The NRJ was the first to discuss options on how to preserve the Colorado River Delta’s ecosystems; some of the options subsequently were put into place.
