News Archive
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CLC Awarded $150K Grant by Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust
March 31, 2011
The Conservation Law Center was awarded a $150,000 grant by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust (NMPCT) over a two year period to expand its freshwater conservation work, focusing particularly on the Wabash and White Rivers in Indiana. This grant is the third grant awarded to the CLC by the NMPCT.
With the help of this grant, the CLC will be expanding the depth and scope of work on the conservation of water-related resources. CLC President and Director Bill Weeks said, "We are grateful to the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust for its continued support. The freshwater resources of Indiana are among our most globally significant ecological features. By working to maintain the integrity of high quality water resources and improving the quality of degraded resources, we will conserve wildlife, preserve opportunities for outdoor recreation, and help protect the sources of drinking water upon which millions of Hoosiers depend."
Since the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust began its grantmaking in 1998, it has awarded more than $91.7 million to 425 Indiana nonprofit organizations. The Trust has continued to further the causes Nina Pulliam supported during her life: helping people in need, protecting animals and nature, and enriching community life.
CLC Assists Save The River in Filing Rulemaking Petition; NY DEC Joins the Filing
March 31, 2010
On February 5, 2010, Save the River (STR) filed a rulemaking petition with the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC). The petition, which was prepared with the assistance of CLC, seeks a notice and comment rulemaking on the process and criteria that the SLSDC uses to set the spring opening date of St. Lawrence Seaway. The petition addresses the history of the St. Lawrence Seaway opening controversy, the legal and policy requirements for a notice and comment rulemaking, the environmental and safety concerns associated with early spring opening, and the numerous concerns raised by the public to the SLSDC regarding the opening date. On March 31, the the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) joined STR's petition. In his letter to the SLSDC, the DEC Commissioner cites the DEC's historic concern over environmental and safety issues associated with early spring opening dates.
Ensuring Responsible and Environmentally Sensitive Development of Renewable Energy
March 21, 2010
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are critical components of our national strategy to fend off climate change, reduce pollution, and promote energy independence. However, renewable energy development does not come without potentially serious environmental impacts, especially to wildlife. In an attempt to help ensure that renewable energy is developed in an environmentally sensitive manner with minimal impacts to wildlife, CLC attorneys and Clinic interns continue to track and comment on permitting and NEPA processes for proposed renewable energy facilities where there is federal involvement. The CLC recently submitted formal comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding a proposed wind energy facility in Ohio that has the potential to harm endangered Indiana bats.
Animal Migration Seminar
March 21, 2010
CLC attorneys and Clinic interns are participating in the second semester of a year-long series of interdisciplinary seminars on protecting animal migrations, an effort initiated by the environmental program of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Featured guests in 2009 were Holly Doremus, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley; David Wilcove, professor at Princeton and expert on conservation; Paul Cryan, bat expert with the USGS in Colorado; and Peter Marra, bird migration expert at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. This semester the seminar will feature Joanne Vining, professor at the University of Illinois and expert in conservation psychology, and Kathleen Miller, an economist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and expert in climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation.
Ballast Water Treatment Regulations
February 17, 2010
CLC attorneys and Clinic interns advised long-standing client, Great Lakes United, and four other conservation groups in preparing comments on the U.S. Coast Guard's ballast water rulemaking (docket number USCG-2001-10486). The dangers that ballast water poses for the introduction of aquatic invasive species have been recognized for well over a century. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, ocean vessels have become the main way that invasive species, such as the zebra mussel and round goby, have been introduced into the Great Lakes, costing millions of dollars in damage and taking a tremendous toll on the environment.
The detailed comments recognized the rule's strides to ensure ballast water discharges to U.S. waters, including the Great Lakes, no longer introduce aquatic invasive species. However, the comments also note significant weaknesses in the proposed rule. The comments call on the Coast Guard to: strengthen the phase one (first level) standards; shorten the timelines for implementation; tighten the technology practicability review process; verify treatment and technologies will work in a truly freshwater system; address the whole ship, including invasive species carried on anchors, anchor chains, and hulls; and establish a rigorous monitoring and enforcement program for compliance with the new regulations.
CAFO Rulemaking
January 11, 2010
Indiana's Hoosier Environmental Council has asked for CLC's help in advancing their interests in an upcoming rulemaking that will change the way Confined Animal Feeding Operations -- or factory farms -- are regulated. CLC attorneys and Clinic interns will participate in this administrative law process to ensure that the new CAFO regulations adequately protect streams and lakes from pollution.
Animal Migration Seminar and Publication
January 11, 2010
The CLC attorneys and Clinic interns will be participating in the second semester of a year-long series of interdisciplinary seminars on protecting animal migrations, an effort initiated by the environmental program of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Featured guests in 2009 were Holly Doremus, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley; David Wilcove, professor at Princeton and expert on conservation; Paul Cryan, bat expert with the USGS in Colorado; and Peter Marra, bird migration expert at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Prior to the start of the seminar series, Jeff co-authored a paper with Professor Robert Fischman titled "The Legal Challenge of Protecting Animal Migrations as Phenomena of Abundance" which is currently in press.
Antidegradation Rulemaking
January 7, 2010
CLC attorneys and Clinic interns continue the CLC's multiyear involvement in Indiana's antidegradation rulemaking on behalf of client Alliance for the Great Lakes. The rulemaking is required under the Clean Water Act. After more than a year of stakeholder working groups and intense negotiations over the language of the rule, the draft rule issued by the agency is still unlikely to be approved by USEPA. CLC attorneys and interns are currently writing comments in response to the official draft regulations recently issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Prioritization for Federal Conservation Funds
January 3, 2010
We have been asked to advise CEAP (Conservation Effects Assessment Project) -- a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental benefits of USDA-funded conservation programs -- on a geographic prioritization strategy for identifying which watersheds are the best candidates for conservation dollars.
Animal Migration Seminar
and Publication
November 10, 2009
The CLC attorneys and Clinic interns participated in the second in a series of interdisciplinary seminars on protecting animal migrations, an effort initiated by the environmental program of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. David Wilcove, professor at Princeton and expert on conservation, was the featured guest of the October seminar (the featured guest at September's seminar was Holly Doremus, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley; November's guest is Paul Cryan, bat expert with the USGS in Colorado). Prior to the start of the seminar series, Jeff co-authored a paper with Professor Robert Fischman titled "The Legal Challenge of Protecting Animal Migrations as Phenomena of Abundance."
Antidegradation Rulemaking
November 1, 2009
CLC attorneys and Clinic interns continue the CLC's multiyear involvement in Indiana's antidegradation rulemaking on behalf of client Alliance for the Great Lakes. The rulemaking is required under the Clean Water Act. After more than a year of stakeholder working groups and intense negotiations over the language of the rule, the draft rule issued by the agency is still unlikely to be approved by USEPA.
CLC Attorneys Present at LTA Rally
October 22, 2009
In mid-October, CLC attorneys presented workshops at the annual national meeting of the Land Trust Alliance in Portland, Oregon. Bill co-presented the workshop "Conservation Easements in a Changing World - Balancing Flexibility with Permanence." Bill, Andrea, and Jeff, along with Christian Freitag, executive director of our long-standing client Sycamore Land Trust, presented the workshop "Drafting Working Landscape Conservation Easements."
Ballast Water Treatment Regulations
October 15, 2009
CLC attorneys and Clinic interns advised long-standing client Great Lakes United as it prepares comments on the U.S. Coast Guard's proposed ballast water treatment regulations.
CLC Helps Friends of Patoka River Incorporate
October 2, 2009
With the legal assistance of CLC attorneys and Clinic interns, Friends of the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge incorporated as a not-for-profit organization. The Friends' mission is to educate the public about the Patoka River NWF, located in southern Indiana near Oakland City, and to help protect its precious resources.