Abstract
The public trust doctrine is a potent common law doctrine that places obligations on government to maintain and preserve certain natural resources. For decades, academics and advocates alike have mined the doctrine for answers to pressing environmental problems. But missing from the public trust doctrine's robust literature is any attention to the role of local governments. This Article seeks to fill that gap by situating the public trust doctrine as dependent, at least in part, on local governments for its practical effect. Indeed, the way many citizens experience the public trust doctrine is influenced by local governments. I call this phenomenon the local public trust doctrine. I his Article makes two contributions. First, it examines and catalogs three interrelated roles through which Itxal governments impact the doctrine: (I) local government as landowner; (2) local government as regulator; and (3) Iocal government as enforcer. Each role demonstrates the largely unexplored extent of local government's impact on the everyday realities of the public trust doctrine. Second, this Article offers explanations for why the public trust doctrine is so susceptible to local governments' influence. It concludes that the very nature of the public trust doctrine-its changing legal foundations, its inherent flexibility, and its situs between public and private rights-renders the doctrine uniquely prone to local government influence. The Article concludes by offering a series of recommendations for governments, advocates, and scholars to better understand and employ the local public trust doctrine.