What is a "navigable water"? What is an ephemeral stream? How do we define a wetland in the United States? Recently, the EPA has made a landmark decision to rollback a 2015 Obama era rule, eliminating 18% of US streams and 51% of US wetlands from federal oversight. How will this impact the future of environmental monitoring in the US, and what are the pollution risks? Additionally, I dive into the related issue of forestry management and carbon sink development. Where are we at now and where are we going? Article 1 ("WOTUS"): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/23/trump-clean-water-protections-rule-rollback. Article 2 ("Forestry"): https://www.wired.com/story/we-might-not-be-planting-the-right-kinds-of-forests.  For transcripts and show notes, visit on the web at: http://www.iiress.com/planetary/podcasts.