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"As natural landscaping takes root we
must weed out the bad laws - how natural landscaping and
Leopold's land ethic collide with unenlightened weed laws and
what must be done about it"
BRET RAPPAPORT |
Reprinted from
The John Marshall Law Review Volume 26, Summer 1993, Number 4
Copyright © 1993 by
The John Marshall Law Review |
The John Marshall Law Review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION
II. THE LAND ETHIC
- Ecology
- Esthetics
- Environmental Ethics
- Aldo Leopold: A Pioneer Natural Landscaper
- The Judicial Acceptance of The Land Ethic
III. A HISTORY OF WEED
LAWS AND THE BATTLES OVER THEM
- Why We Have
Weed Laws
- What Is Wrong With The Green Lawn And
Weed Laws: And Those Who Proved It
- Lorrie Otto - The High
Priestess of Natural Landscaping Movement
- The National Wildlife Federation
- City of New Berlin v. Hagar
- Montgomery County, Maryland v. Stewart
- Little Rock, Arkansas v. Allison
- Ladybird Johnson and The National Wildflower
Research Center
- The Canadian Cases
- The "Chicago 5"
IV. THE REASONS FOR AND
RESPONSE TO THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE MOVEMENT
- The
Movement Officially Takes Root
- Why The Movement Is Taking Root
- What Cities Have Done In Response To The Movement
- The Madison
"Permission" Law
- Modified Local Weed Laws
- Promotional Natural Landscape Laws
V.
SOME VILLAGES STILL DON'T GET IT - WHAT TO DO IF YOUR VILLAGE IS ENFORCING ITS WEED LAW
AGAINST YOUR NATURAL LANDSCAPE
- Natural Gardening as a Fundamental Right
- Landscaping
as Speech and Art
- Landscaping as Religion
- Weed
Laws as Unconstitutionally Vague
- Weed
Laws as Irrational In Violation of The Equal Protection Clause and Unreasonable in
Violation of the Common Law
- Fire
- Vermin
- Mosquitoes
- Pollen
- Enforcement of Weed Ordinances Against
Natural Landscapes Increases Wind-Borne Allergenic Pollen and Other Health Hazards
- Aesthetics
VI.
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - SUGGESTIONS FOR LOCAL WEED LAWS THAT EMBODY THE LAND ETHIC
VII.
CONCLUSION
FOOTNOTES
APPENDICES
- Model
Modified Weed Ordinance
- Natural Landscaping Ordinance 932
- College Station Texas Proposed Natural Landscape
Ordinance
- City of New Berlin v. Hagar
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view a PDF file in its entirety, please obtain the most recent edition
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B.S., Indiana University, 1983; J.D., The John
Marshall Law School, 1986; Adjunct Professor The John Marshall Law
School 1989-1993. A litigation attorney with the Chicago law firm of
Schwartz, Cooper, Kolb and Gaynor Chtd.,
Mr. Rappaport
is also a member of the Sierra Club Lawyers Roundtable in Chicago. He
has consulted with numerous municipalities regarding revision of weed
laws and has spoken at seminars on natural landscaping.
The author
wishes to express his appreciation to the many people involved in the
natural landscaping movement who contributed to this article including
Donald Vorpahl,
Chicago attorney James
Romanyak, naturalist
Lorrie Otto, National Wildlife Federation Urban Wildlife Director Craig
Tufts, National Wildlife Federation General Counsel Joel Thomas, Program
Coordinator for Treeways
and Wildflowers for the United States Department of Transportation
Bonnie Harper-Lore, and Wisconsin prairie-ecologist Neil Diboll.
The author
also wishes to thank Christine Dekker
and Harvey Wright, Jr., law students at The John Marshall Law School,
for their research assistance in preparing this article, Paul Gaynor,
an attorney, for editing this article, and Laura Naples, Jeri Swinford
and Renee Schoenrock,
secretaries at Schwartz, Cooper, Kolb and Gaynor,
for typing the many revisions of this article.
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