Grantee Profiles
< profile listEarthjustice Defending the right of all people to a healthy planet
Web site: http://www.earthjustice.org/
Earthjustice is dedicated to protecting our planet's magnificent places, natural resources and wildlife, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. These days, it's a tall order. The Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the Northwest Forest Plan and other bedrock environmental laws and regulations are under siege on many fronts. In funding Earthjustice, the Brainerd Foundation recognizes the role that this organization plays in implementing and defending laws and shaping programs that are important to the larger conservation community.
As it has since its founding (as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) in 1971, Earthjustice continues to serve as a pivotal and effective voice for conservation in the courts. Earthjustice represents hundreds of public interest clients, large and small, without charge. Through its work in the courts, it plays a critical role in shaping and implementing environmental laws. In Washington, D.C., it plays a central role in defending those laws against the efforts of special interest groups to undermine them. In acknowledgment of the critical role Earthjustice plays in so many causes, the Brainerd Foundation awarded a general support grant to the organization in 2005.
Supported by more than 100,000 contributors, Earthjustice brings about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations and communities. Earthjustice has been instrumental in developing case law in support of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act and other federal environmental statutes.
During the past four years, Earthjustice has successfully litigated to hold the line against many regressive environmental initiatives. Earthjustice has already mounted legal challenges to many of the administration's latest attempts and is laying the legal and scientific groundwork for additional lawsuits to safeguard the region's ecosystems.
In the Northwest, Earthjustice represented conservation groups in the precedent-setting cases that led to the development in 1994 of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP), the historic, science-based ecosystem management plan that reduced the logging of national forests by more than 80 percent and protected 24 million acres of public land from clearcut logging practices.
Earthjustice continues to be involved in cases to make sure the NWFP is implemented as written. Millions of acres of old-growth forest and untold miles of salmon streams in Washington and Oregon are still at risk due to administration and timber industry efforts to end-run or gut the Plan. Earthjustice is part of a coalition of forest groups crafting responses to the efforts to roll back the NWFP, and Earthjustice is back in court challenging these amendments.
On another front, Earthjustice has won a number of court cases on behalf of species protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the most powerful of our environmental laws, and has been at the forefront of efforts to defend and strengthen it. The organization has also played a leadership role in rallying public support for the Act. This ability to marry legal and communications strategy is one of the great strengths of this organization.
Earthjustice's work on this issue is now more important than ever: the Endangered Species Act is in greater peril now than at any time in its 30-year history. Earthjustice is tracking threatened changes to the ESA and related regulations and is challenging them in a comprehensive manner that is unique. In the Northwest, Earthjustice continues to litigate to preserve or obtain ESA protections for species such as salmon and Yellowstone cutthroat trout that are strategically important to protecting ecosystems throughout the Northwest.
"When we choose cases, we're looking for ones that will catalyze broad environmental protection, empower the environmental movement, prevent irretrievable losses, and ensure that the laws already on the books stay there and are put to work," noted staff attorney Todd True. "I see progress. As many battles as we've had with the Northwest Forest Plan, for instance, we're still moving forward. We're logging 80 or 90 percent less in the Northwest's old-growth forests than we were 10 years ago. Our litigation has played a critical role in bringing about that change."
Upcoming work in the region will include litigation to restore the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, preserve the Northwest Forest Plan's key ecosystem protections, protect old-growth reserves and roadless areas of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area from logging, and protect Northwest species threatened by industry and administration efforts to undermine the Endangered Species Act. It is an unfortunate commentary on the historical period we live in that the work of Earthjustice is so urgently needed.
Day in and day out, Earthjustice brings to all its tasks a talented staff marked by outstanding legal ability, sound judgment and an ability to work with others. Committed to a long-term vision of strong environmental laws, an engaged public and a rich, sustainable and diverse natural heritage, it is a valued partner in the conservation movement.
Profiled 2006