In my experience, the answer to the questions above are not black and white. Unfortunately, in practice, the answers depend upon location, property size, past activity, condition of the property, future use of the property, and sometimes it seems, the whims of the Federal or Local agencies that enforce the regulations.

I'm going to ramble a little here, and I am not an expert. Over the years, I have read numerous regulations, spoken to many city planning departments, corresponded with and represented multiple developers, and have worked with many professional consultants. The more I experience, the less I know. Actually, we do need to know enough about wetlands, beach mouse, and other environmental regulations to know that we need to recommend guidance from professionals that advise on these topics for a living. We should know enough to know that a property has the potential to be affected by certain regulations, and how to advise our clients to seek proper professional advice.

My desire to touch on this subject in a Broker Bit is because I am confused about the different interpretations of various environmental regulations.

• 7 years ago, I listed and sold a large acreage tract. The seller was willing to obtain a wetlands delineation. We hired one firm that came back with a result showing 40% of the property was potential wetlands. The seller did not like the results and hired a different firm. The new firm came back with about 10% wetlands. The large disparity was a disagreement about "Jurisdictional" vs. "Isolated" wetlands (See Sackett v. EPA).  The Corps of Engineers concurred with the 10%.
• A good client of ours purchased some commercial property in Fort Morgan. Prior to closing, she discussed the beach mouse situation directly with USF&W with no red lights.  A year later after closing, an adjacent property became available, which would provide even more property to develop, or make it more feasible. She went under contract on the property. In her due diligence, USF&W asked her to do residential instead of commercial, or she would be required to purchase a similar sized lot in the Fort Morgan area and convert it to habitat as part of her mitigation. This killed the deal, but did not kill her first acquisition for some reason. She did not hire a consultant.
• I have been involved with two, similar sized gulf-front properties, about 1 mile apart. One of the properties has historically been trampled upon, used as temporary storage, and has had multiple activities with heavy equipment on the lot. The other lot is almost pristine beach, dunes and sea oats. One was determined, without any testing, to be beach mouse habitat. The other one was determined, without any testing, not to be located in beach mouse habitat. Guess which one was which. Wrong!!

There are all kinds of these stories around, and I am pretty sure there is justification for each decision, but if we are not professionals in the environmental industry, we cannot rely on what appears to be common sense. To complicate matters further, the environmental regulations are under continuous change, either because of lawsuits or different administrations. For example:

• In Sackett v. EPA, the 2023 Supreme Court ruling narrowed federal protections for wetlands under the Clean Water Act, requiring a "continuous surface connection" to be federally protected, potentially exposing many wetlands to development.    (When I googled, this was an AI Overview, so forgive me, but it is interesting reading). 
• Wetlands Fight Teed Up for Arguments | Florida Realtors :  In 2020, the EPA shifted permitting authority to the State of Florida for projects that affect wetlands in the state. Conservation groups have sued to shift permitting authority back to Washington, D.C. Arguments are slated for May 2025, and in the meantime, there is confusion over who has authority to issue permits.
• Need a Beach Mouse Permit? Do you know what an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) is? To apply for an ITP, you need to fill out the necessary forms, pay a processing fee, and potentially perform a cultural resource survey.  And, you can start your process at the Fairhope US Fish & Wildlife Office. Oh, wait a minute, did you see this:  https://yellowhammernews.com/doge-terminates-fairhopes-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-lease/   A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office lease in Alabama was canceled earlier this month by the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Fairhope had its lease terminated on March 3, according to DOGE's website.

So, let's see, what is the answer to these questions:  What Should We Know About Wetlands? What Should We Know About The Beach Mouse?  In my opinion, it is not "what we should know", but "who should we know".  That "Who" is a professional that makes a living knowing the "What".