Courting Liberty

PLF's Director of Communications Harold Johnson leads a discussion with PLF Senior Attorney Tony Francois about how Duarte Nursery, its president John Duarte, and Pacific Legal Foundation and their co-counsel have agreed to a settlement with the United States in the federal government’s nearly five-year enforcement action over Duarte’s routine action of plowing its property to plant wheat in late 2012. Under the agreement, Duarte would admit no liability, pay the government $330,000 in a civil penalty, purchase $770,000 worth of vernal pool mitigation credits, and perform additional work on the site of the plowing.