Successful natural resource damage (NRD) claims can be key to the success of important habitat conservation, creation, and restoration efforts. However, NRD claims often languish in the assessment process, sometimes for more than a decade, while restoration opportunities are lost.

US regulations allow for the opportunity to expedite NRD settlements, but it is rarely taken advantage of. That must change. We are faced with rapidly shifting environments and can no longer afford to adhere to a stepwise process.

In their new Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management article, Leveraging natural resource damage assessments in the face of climate change, Annie Gibbs and Mike Johns explain why now is the time to quantify damages and develop restoration-based settlements simultaneously.