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Advocates for the West has a long track record of assisting our partners in sustaining healthy human, plant, and animal communities by increasing the legal capacity of conservation organizations and Tribes. We’re thrilled to further that commitment through a new partnership with Central Oregon LandWatch, whose mission is rooted in the idea that vibrant communities…

As Congress continues to consider the “Big, Beautiful” reconciliation legislation, Advocates for the West has joined conservation allies nationwide in signing a unified position paper opposing any potential provisions within the bill to transfer or sell public lands. While western legislators in the House of Representatives successfully removed such provisions from the House version of…

Advocates for the West recently joined Earthjustice and conservation organizations from across the country to raise objections to the Department of the Interior’s Emergency National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Procedures, announced on April 23, and to the Council on Environmental Quality letter of the same date authorizing those alternative arrangements. The Emergency Procedures are premised on…

Lauren Block  Summer Law Clerk Lauren (she/her) is a rising 3L at the University of Washington, where she serves as Co-President of the Environmental Law Society and is the incoming Executive Managing Editor of the Washington Law Review. She spent her 1L summer clerking for the Washington Attorney General’s Office in the Environmental Protection Division, assisting…

This winter solstice, we hope you enjoy the literary excerpt and poem contained below, graciously shared by our friend and supporter Marina Richie. Marina is a proud tree hugger, wilderness advocate, and author of Halcyon Journey, In Search of the Belted Kingfisher, winner of the 2024 John Burroughs Medal and a 2022 National Outdoor Book Award. Her articles, essays,…

Wyoming’s Powder River Basin The massive Converse County Oil and Gas Project in the Powder River basin of eastern Wyoming threatens the survival of sage-grouse and birds of prey and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants. We won a significant victory halting the 5,000-well project until the Bureau of…

By Leonardo Aleksander Ryan The Columbia River Basin is easily one of the most integral parts of the Pacific Northwest because of the cultural and historical significance it holds. In a recent press release, the Nez Perce Tribe heralded a new federal analysis of Columbia River dams’ impacts on Tribes of the area as reinforcing…

Advocates for the West is pleased to provide learning experiences for future environmental leaders through ongoing internship, externship, and clerkship opportunities. We spoke with Meridian Wappett, former Advocates for the West extern and current University of Montana law student, about her passion for, and connection to, the West. Advocates for the West: Will you please…

The literary excerpt contained below was graciously shared by our longtime friend and supporter Pat Cary Peek (pictured at right). Pat’s book, One Winter in the Wilderness, recounts a winter spent with her husband, Dr. James Peek (pictured at left), at the University of Idaho’s Taylor Ranch Field Station within Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return…

Sage-Grouse in Idaho Advocates for the West won a significant victory to protect the small and declining eastern Idaho sub-population of the imperiled greater sage-grouse when a federal judge fully vacated a set of approvals by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorizing development of the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine. Phosphate from the mine was slated to be used by…