Christopher M. Bzdok

Chris is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law where he teaches Environmental Law and Water Law and coaches the Environmental Moot Court team.

Chris is also a City Commissioner in Traverse City, and a member of the Grand Traverse County Board of Public Works.

Chris received a Bachelor of Science with high honors from the University of Michigan, and is a cum laude graduate of Wayne State University Law School. He also studied biology and freshwater chemistry at the graduate level at Wayne State.

Chris is a member of the Governing Council of the State Bar of Michigan's Environmental Law Section, and the vice-chair of the Membership Committee. He is also a member of the Real Property Section's Committee on Zoning and Land Use.

He has published in the areas of environmental protection and regulatory takings, was the author of the environmental chapter of the Wayne Law Review’s 1998 Survey of Michigan Law, and wrote a column on environmental litigation for the Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club. He has lectured on conservation biology, environmental citizen suits, and non-point source pollution, and taught ecology and statistics to senior undergraduates.

E-mail: chris@envlaw.com

Reported Decisions

Chris has appeared as a co-attorney of record in the following reported decisions:

• Kyser v Kasson Twp
  ___ Mich App ___
  (2008)

• Houdek v Centerville Twp
  276 Mich App 568
  (2007)

• Manistee Saltworks Development Corp v City of Manistee, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians & Manistee Citizens for Responsible Development
  ___ F Supp 2d ___, 2005 WL 2600428 (WD Mich)
  2005

• Glen Lake–Crystal River Watershed Riparians v Glen Lake Ass’n
  264 Mich App 523; 695 NW2d 508
  (2004)

• Campaign for Family Farms v Veneman
  229 F Supp 2d 772 (WD Mich); affirmed 348 F3d 157 (6th Cir 2003), vacated and remanded, 125 S Ct 2511
  (2005)
  

• Nemeth v Abonmarche Development Co
  457 Mich 16
  (1998)
  
  
• K & K Construction Co v Department of Natural Resources
  455 Mich 570
  (1998)
  
  
• Burt Twp v Department of Natural Resources
  459 Mich 659
  (1999)
  

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Publications

• Case comment, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v Nestle Waters NA
  33 Mich Real Property Rev 56
  (Spring 2006)

• Where will the water go? A snapshot of recent changes in Michigan water law
  33 Mich Real Property Rev
  (Fall 2006) (with Ross Hammersley)

• Takings Claims Against Municipalities After Del Monte Dunes
  17 Michigan Defense Quarterly No. 3, p. 4 (2000)
  
  
• Environmental Law Chapter, Annual Survey of Michigan Law
  45 Wayne Law Review 843
  (Fall 1999)
  
  
• "The MEPA Lives: In Northern Michigan and Beyond"
  with James M. Olson
  Michigan Bar Journal
  (May 1999)
  
  
• Columns on environmental litigation, air and water pollution, wetlands, takings, natural resource protection, environmental justice, oil and gas, and other topics
  The Mackinac — newsletter of Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club
  (1997 to present)
  
  
• Columns on wetland banking, the environmental audit privilege, and non-point source pollution
  Landsculptor Magazine
  (1997)

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Professional Presentations and Other Instruction

• Association of State Wetlands Managers Legal Symposium: Using Dispute Resolution in Wetlands Cases
  Traverse City, MI
  (August 2006)

• University of Florida College of Law Environmental Speakers Series Anatomy of a Citizen Suit
  Gainesville, FL
  (January 2006)

• Michigan State University College of Law
  Adjunct Professor, Environmental Law
  East Lansing, MI
  (January 2003 to present)
  
  
• Great Lakes Bioneers Conference: Protecting the Commons - Waters of the Great Lakes.
  Traverse City, MI
  (October 2004)
  
  
• Michigan State University - Detroit College of Law
  Guest Lecturer, Natural Resources Law & Wetlands Law
  East Lansing, MI
  (January & September, 2000)
  

• Michigan State Bar Surface Water Committee:
  Citizen Standing after Laidlaw
  Lansing, MI
  (June 2000)
  
  
• Wayne State University:
  Law and the Science of Ecology
  Detroit, MI
  (June 2000)
  
  
• Michigan Land Use Institute:
  Great Lakes Oil Drilling and the Public Trust
  Manistee, MI
  (September 1998)
  
  
• University of Michigan Biological Station:
  Conservation Biology in the Law
  Pellston, MI
  (August 1998)
  
  
• Wayne State University, Department of Biological Sciences:
  Teaching Assistant, Biology 312, General Ecology
  (Fall semester 1997)
  
  
• Metropolitan Detroit Landscapers Association:
  What is Non-Point Source Pollution and Why Should You Care?
  (March 1997)
  
  
• Michigan Land Use Institute:
  The Impact of the K & K Construction Case on Regulatory Takings in Michigan
  (August 1996)
  

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Professional Associations

• Michigan Bar Association (MBA)
  • MBA Environmental Law Section, Governing Council and Vice Chair of Membership Committee
  • MBA Real Property Section, Zoning & Land Use Committee
  • MBA Appellate Practice Section
    

• American Bar Association (ABA)
  • ABA Section on Natural Resources, Environmental & Energy
    Law

   

• American Society of Limnology & Oceanography

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