DETROIT - Nathan Inks, a second-year student at Wayne State University Law School, has won first place in the Michigan Environmental Law Journal writing competition.

He will be awarded $2,000 for his first-place essay, "Wetland Mitigation in Michigan: Working Toward the Goal of No Net Loss of Wetlands."

The Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan publishes the Michigan Environmental Law Journal and sponsors the essay contest.

Wayne Law students have done extremely well in the competition, placing among the top three spots for each of the last three years.

Inks, a Lincoln Park resident, has been interested in the environment for many years. He earned a bachelor of science degree in meteorology at Central Michigan University.

"In my last semester there, I took an environmental politics and policy class," he said. "One of the topics that we discussed in that class was wetlands and wetland mitigation. Michigan's wetlands and the laws dealing with them have been an interest of mine since taking the class."

State law requires developers to mitigate - create or restore - wetlands for any impact their projects may cause to existing wetlands.

Inks is interested in practicing either environmental law or elections law after graduation from Wayne Law.

"I chose Wayne Law because it had a reputation for having a good program in the two fields of law that I am interested in," he said. "Additionally, when I talked to other lawyers and law school graduates that I knew, Wayne Law's reputation was by the best among the schools that I was considering."

During his first year of law school, he found his coursework in Legal Research and Writing to be among his most valuable experiences.

"I have always enjoyed writing, and to have Legal Research and Writing during the first year was a great way for me to fine tune my broader writing experiences to be more applicable to the legal field," he said.