Organization, Mission and Functions Manual

Environment and Natural Resources Division

History

The richness and complexity of the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s (ENRD) history is inseparable from the larger story of the growth and maturation of American society in the 20th Century. In the early 1900s, Americans struggled to balance competing interests stemming from westward expansion, preservation of natural spaces, resource disputes on public and Tribal lands, and other such issues. Disagreements soon erupted over these difficult questions.

On November 16, 1909, Attorney General George Wickersham signed a two-page order creating "The Public Lands Division" of the Department of Justice to step into the breach and address the critical litigation that ensued. He assigned all cases concerning "enforcement of the Public Land Law," including Indian rights cases, to the new Division, and transferred a staff of nine – six attorneys and three stenographers – to carry out those responsibilities.

As the nation grew and developed, so did the responsibilities of the Division, and its name changed to the "Environment and Natural Resources Division" (ENRD) to better reflect those responsibilities. Today, the Division, which is organized into eleven practice areas and employs nearly 600 staff, has offices in Washington, D.C., Denver, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, Boston, and elsewhere throughout the country. The Division currently has a docket of more than 7,000 active cases and matters, and represents virtually every federal agency in courts in all fifty States, territories and possessions.

Each new generation of ENRD attorneys builds on the work of those who have come before. The Division was 100 years old on November 16, 2009. Now into our second century, we are mindful of the strong legacy that we have inherited and the future opportunities that stretch before us.

Mission

The Environment and Natural Resources Division enforces the Nation’s civil and criminal environmental laws and defends environmental challenges to Government action. Additionally, the Division represents the United States in virtually all matters concerning the use and development of the Nation’s natural resources and public lands, wildlife protection, Tribal rights and claims, worker safety, animal welfare, and acquisition of Federal property.

Major Functions

The major functions of ENRD are to:

Enforcing the Nation’s civil and criminal pollution-control laws;
Defending environmental challenges to federal agency programs and activities;
Protecting United States taxpayers in lawsuits seeking tens of billions of dollars from the federal fisc;
Representing the United States in matters concerning the stewardship of the Nation’s natural resources and public lands;
Acquiring land and real property for federal interests;
Bringing and defending cases under the wildlife protection and animal welfare statutes; and
Litigating cases concerning the resources and rights of Indian tribes and their members.