Our colleague Gen. (Ret) Tom Sands is a larger-than-life figure in the Army Corps of Engineers, having been Commander of the New Orleans District and Commander of the North Atlantic and Lower Mississippi Valley Divisions. So it’s wonderful to see that the New Orleans District recently honored him by naming its Executive Conference Room after him. Tom was New Orleans District Commander from 1978 to 1981 and he was Mississippi Valley Division Commander from 1985 to 1989. Als

This Independence Day, Dawson & Associates celebrates the enduring ideals that have defined our nation for nearly 250 years: freedom, service, innovation and the belief that together we can build a stronger future. When the Declaration of Independence was announced in 1776, many in Europe viewed the Colonist revolt as the work of a select few who led a largely deluded populace in an effort doomed to fail. The American Revolution was merely the work of “John Hancock’s money

In April, Court of Federal Claims Senior Judge Loren A. Smith ruled in favor of Houston landowners downstream of the Addicks and Barker Dams who had sued claiming that the release of floodwaters by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during Hurricane Harvey resulted in a taking of their private property under the 5th Amendment. Judge Smith dismissed all of the government's arguments in defense of its actions including the argument that the releases were driven by the emergency g

Dawson & Associates is pleased to announce that Col. (Ret) John Hurley, former District Engineer and Commander in the US Army Corps of Engineers, has joined our firm. John is the 19th Corps of Engineers Commander to join Dawson. John will be a part of Dawson & Associates’ practice areas on environmental permitting, ecosystems restoration, river restoration and federal contracting. A West Point graduate who spent 30 years in the US Army, primarily the Army Corps of Engineers,

On March 30, 2026, Judge Jon Tigar of the US District Court of Northern California issued a summary judgment invalidating four provisions of the current ESA Section 7 regulations and directing the government to use the pre-2019 versions of those regulations in their stead. What will be the impact on infrastructure and other projects concerned about Endangered Species Act approvals? I spent 25-years at the US Fish & Wildlife Service including 22 years with the Division of Law

This week, an editor at Bloomberg News called our colleague Larry Liebesman about the Endangered Species Act and how the Trump Administration’s proposed Waters of the US (WOTUS) rule and the Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett ruling will impact development and infrastructure permitting. Larry has an extensive background on ESA legal issues, having spent 10+ years as a Justice Department environmental litigator and professor in environmental law at George Washington Law School. He