UO’s Mary Wood releases “Nature's Trust” about citizens and ecological rights

The University of Oregon School of Law’s Mary Wood recently released a new book, "Nature's Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age."

In it, Wood discusses environmental law and the public trust doctrine. The trust doctrine asserts public property rights to crucial resources. At its core, Wood notes, the doctrine compels government, as trustee, to protect natural inheritance such as air and water for all humanity.

Wood is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Law and the faculty director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at the law school. She is an award-winning teacher who has taught for more than 20 years in the areas of environmental law, property law, federal Indian law and other subjects. Wood is the co-author of two casebooks, one on natural resources law and the other on the public trust doctrine. She speaks on climate crisis and environmental issues. 

"I wrote this book to empower average citizens to assert their ecological rights and hold government accountable, as trustee, of our public resources," Wood explained.  

- by Katherine Cook, UO Strategic Communications intern