Welcome to the Connecticut wetlands law blog!

I am creating this site as an educational resource - a place to turn to see what's new in court cases, in the legislature, in the minds and actions of those who sit on municipal wetlands agencies, who appear before them as experts or representatives, who are the applicants and the members of the general public who see themselves involved for the first time or perhaps the umpteenth time.

When I went into private practice in 2006, the editor of The Habitat, the quarterly newsletter of the Connecticut Association of Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commissions (CACIWC), asked me to think about offering a standing column. That column is called "Journey to the Legal Horizon." At times I am asked to address a topic; otherwise I propose to report on recent decisions. Over time that column has evolved from addressing short, discrete questions to writing about important cases in depth. You can read those newsletters at the CACIWC website (www.caciwc.org) or at my website (www.attorneyjanetbrooks.com).

I will continue to offer my column in The Habitat. I see those columns as the entree of a meal: hearty, filling, substantial and best savored while sitting so as to digest the ideas. The Connecticut Wetlands Law blog, on the other hand, I see as appetizers at a party. Interesting to stimulate dialogue among an engaged crowd. Of course, you can go to a reception just to eat a meal's worth from the appetizers passed around, but isn't it a lot more interesting to enjoy an offering over conversation with someone who has an entirely different perspective from you? I hope you'll think so and you will offer your comments.

I expect to write on a very broad range of issues, with the sole common denominator that there is some connection to the topic of inland wetlands laws. I already am thinking about a technology issue that arose very tangentially in a recent Supreme Court case. I enjoy procedural oddities, I read the footnotes that others glide over and I can be happy musing over what-ifs. Will you want to read every entry? Well, if you don't like the pigs-in-blankets, surface again when the stuffed mushroom caps are passed around.

And even if you think I am writing about a topic and giving you exactly the legal advice you think you need, STOP. I am not. I, as an attorney, am not offering legal advice to you, gentle reader, on this blog. You may contact me with confidential information, when you are seeking legal advice, by using the contact information at my website (www.attorneyjanetbrooks.com). Otherwise, please know that your comments are for everyone to savor. And now, please pass those appetizers around.