Our diverse lineup of environmental clinics, externships and experiential learning through the Tuholske Institute for Environmental Field Studies is an integral part of Vermont Law and Graduate School’s academic programs.
With our environmental clinics, including the Environmental Advocacy Clinic, Environmental Justice Clinic, Energy Clinic, Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic, and Food and Agriculture Clinic; environmental field studies; and externships, VLGS students gain real world experience and prepare for a career in law and policy with direct opportunities to practice client counseling, presenting policy research, drafting regulations and legislation, preparing legal memoranda, commenting on environmental or land use plans, advancing litigation, and fieldwork related to wetlands, energy efficiency, local food, and other environmental issues.
Read on for an overview of some of the recent accomplishments and updates from our environmental clinics, the Tuholske Institute for Environmental Field Studies, and our externship programs.
The Environmental Advocacy Clinic
The Environmental Advocacy Clinic (EAC) is an in-house public-interest environmental law firm. Its mission is to inspire the next generation of environmental attorneys with practical, real-world opportunities to learn the skills and strategies of environmental litigation and advocacy. In the EAC, students represent public-interest clients, including leading national, regional, and local nonprofit organizations under the supervision of experienced lawyers, working on cases involving important environmental and natural resource issues. The EAC’s docket included cutting-edge amicus briefs and active federal and state litigation efforts.
Challenging Destructive Logging Plans in New Hampshire and Vermont
In June, the Environmental Advocacy Clinic filed a new lawsuit on behalf of the forest protection group Standing Trees, alleging that the U.S. Forest Service violated federal law by failing to consider vital environmental impacts in approving a destructive commercial logging project in New Hampshire.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the complaint challenges the Sandwich Vegetation Management Project, which was recently approved by the Forest Service in the Sandwich Range, one of the most popular areas of New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. Read more about this lawsuit here.
Also on behalf of Standing Trees, the EAC helped file an important new state court case to enforce the State of Vermont’s public trust obligations in its management of public lands, including the threatened and wild Worcester Range.
An Important Victory for Water Quality
Together with its clients, the EAC celebrated a favorable federal court decision that supports state-based efforts to protect water quality around the country. The EAC authored an amicus brief in the case.
Announced in May, the D.C. Circuit ruled in Village of Morrisville, Vermont v. FERC that states do not lose the right to enforce water quality requirements for federally-licensed projects under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act–like hydroelectric dams–when dam operators delay the process by withdrawing and resubmitting their applications.
Briefs to Support EPA’s Clean Car Standards
The EAC, on behalf of six leading climate scientists, filed amicus briefs with the D.C. Circuit, explaining the urgent dangers from climate change. Filed last December and January, these briefs urged the court to uphold the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s vehicle emissions standards that require vehicle manufacturers to phase in technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
EAC Supporter Shares His Story
Saul Costa, executive director of the Li-Costa Foundation, was inspired to support the Environmental Advocacy Clinic after reading an article about its work to protect public lands in his home state of Vermont.
Last year, the foundation awarded the EAC a $250,000 grant to advocate for the protection of Vermont’s scenic Worcester Range and a new direction for the management of Vermont public lands.
“The clinic is a model that I would love to see more schools adopt,” said Costa in a recent interview. “I think it aligns beautifully with the character of Vermont, and it’s not only a way to provide students with a real-world experience—which is incredible—but also an opportunity to make a statement as a school. These are the types of projects that we want to see play out within a legal space.”
The Environmental Justice Clinic
At the Environmental Justice Clinic (EJC), students represent and partner with disenfranchised communities fighting racial and economic disparities in the distribution of polluting sources, while also fighting for a say in decisions affecting their future. EJC students gain experience working on law and policy issues at the nexus of environment, race, and policy, while also learning essential community lawyering skills.
The 2024-25 Year in Review shares compelling stories of EJC faculty and student clinicians and their recent work across the country with its community partners and clients, including tribes and local environmental justice organizations.
Amicus Brief Filed with New Mexico Appellate Court
An amicus brief filed by the EJC on behalf of a coalition of 27 environmental law and constitutional law professors and experts urged the New Mexico Court of Appeals to uphold the people’s right to a clean environment safe from oil and gas pollution under the state’s constitution. There are 70,000 oil and gas production sites in New Mexico, contributing to some of the worst air quality in the country and harming the health and well-being of New Mexico communities. After the Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiffs earlier this year, the New Mexico Supreme Court announced it would consider reviving the case.
Comments on Impact of Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project
The EJC filed comments on the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project Final Environmental Impact Statement on behalf of the Bishop Paiute Tribe. The Bishop Paiute is a federally recognized Tribe whose ancestral territories extend throughout California and Nevada, including the project. The Tribe’s comments focused on the potential impacts to environmental, biological and cultural resources, water resources, the local economy, including housing, and the lack of adequate government-to-government tribal consultation.
A Student Clinician’s Perspective
As a student clinician in the EJC, Charlotte Bieri JD/MELP’25 worked alongside impacted communities to advocate for equitable and lasting solutions to environmental harms. Charlotte reflected on being a community advocate and her journey to becoming committed to public interest work and community-centered advocacy.
The Energy Clinic
The Energy Clinic provides opportunities for our students to progressively develop the knowledge, skills, and values integral to the field of energy law and policy, while also helping our clients meet local energy needs with reliable, clean, and affordable resources.
Breaking Ground on Community Solar in New Hampshire
Pine Gate Cooperative, a resident-owned community in Plymouth, New Hampshire, broke ground in October on its community solar array. The array will provide renewable energy to the electric grid and financial and economic benefits to the coop members through New Hampshire’s Group Net Metering program. The Energy Clinic wrote the grant application, led educational meetings, secured key permits, and negotiated contracts on behalf of resident-owners and energy consumers. The clinic has already completed three similar community solar projects at mobile home cooperatives in New Hampshire, and it has three more in varying stages of development.
Energy-Resilient Local Affordable Housing
The Energy Clinic partnered with the Randolph Area Community Development Corporation in Vermont to help secure permits and grants, advise on and secure tax credits, and draft zoning amendments that were critical in securing a 21-unit energy-resilient housing development at Salisbury Square.
The development will include a DC microgrid and appliances, Level 2 EV chargers, battery storage in every unit, and a 150 KW solar array for which the Energy Clinic helped secure a $40,000 tax credit.
Building a Solar and Energy Efficiency Project in a Local Community
The Town of Tunbridge, Vermont, received a $255,411.20 grant from the Vermont Municipal Energy Resilience Program for energy efficiency improvements. The Institute for Energy and the Environment provided legal and policy assistance for the grant and will help oversee energy efficiency improvements and the development and construction of a 10.7 kW solar array to power the town offices and town hall.
The Food and Agriculture Clinic
The Food and Agriculture Clinic (FAC) provides students with the opportunity to engage in food system law and policymaking in a practical setting. The clinic has developed law and policy resources focused on food and farm business organization and structure, food security, labor laws and protections for food system workers, and compliance with complex federal and state laws affecting the food system. To explore its comprehensive library of law and policy resources, click the button below.
Food and Agriculture Student Clinicians Coauthor Issue Brief
Student clinicians Emily Starobin JD’25 and Laura Ataa Agyekumhene LLM’25 researched “fair labor” claims on food labels for CAFS’s Labels Unwrapped project. They coauthored the issue brief “Are Fair Labor Labels Trustworthy? Unpacking the Truth Behind Ethical Claims,” with Food and Agriculture Clinic Director Emma Scott.
Contributing to Urban Agriculture
Student clinicians Whitney Roth JD’25 and Christina Karem JD’25 contributed to the research behind “Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production: A Guide to Local Policy,” a CAFS guide that scans local policies in cities across the country that impact urban food production.
Adding Resources to the Farmland Access Legal Toolkit
Food and Agriculture student clinician Christina Reiter LLM’25 worked with CAFS Senior Staff Attorney Fran Miller LLM’17 to publish “State Incentives to Clear Title and Facilitate Property Transfer: A Focus on Vermont” through CAFS’s Farmland Access Legal Toolkit. This resource highlights how the State of Vermont helps property owners resolve property inheritance issues and offers incentive examples for other similarly rural states with higher rates of heirs’ property.
The Tuholske Institute for Environmental Field Studies
The Environmental Law Center and the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment at Vermont Law and Graduate School offer students a range of opportunities to travel and learn outside the classroom, including field study courses through the Tuholske Institute for Environmental Field Studies.
VLGS’s environmental field courses allow students to diversify their learning experience as they explore different landscapes and gain cultural competence and understanding of environmental injustices. This year, VLGS students explored Montana and Vermont.
Montana Field Study in Public Lands Management
This year, the field study course in Public Lands Management traveled to Montana, where they spent two weeks immersed in the complexities of public land management. The course included hiking into the wilderness, exploring a roadless area whose management fate is undecided, and visiting restoration logging sites, among other experiential education opportunities.
VLGS students discussed forest management while being present, sitting amid clear-cut acreage, a visual patchwork of old harvests, burned areas, and potential new wilderness areas. This course explores themes of resource utilization versus preservation, the changing legal framework for public land management, current controversies over salvage logging, motorized vehicle use, conflicts between wildlife management and recreationists, ecosystem restoration, the role of fire on public lands, and the impacts of climate change.
Vermont Field Study in Ecology
For students seeking to explore the ecological dimensions of environmental law, there is no better classroom than Vermont Law and Graduate School’s backyard. Field courses venture into the forests and hills of Vermont during the summertime to learn about ecology, forestry, and more.
“Ecology: Principles and Applications at the Landscape Level,” a three week, field-based course, provides aspiring environmental professionals with a solid introduction to the science behind biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, and other issues in the context of increasing climate instability.
Rather than relying on textbook examples of ecological concepts, students spend time exploring the White River and Ottauquechee River watersheds, where they gain a greater understanding of the impacts of European settlement and 20th-century land use and explore strategies for better stewardship and restoration.
Environmental Externships
VLGS’s graduate and JD externship program is an integral part of our environmental degree programs. Students gain real-world experience as they explore environmental law, science, and policy in a wide variety of settings, both locally and worldwide.
Students have participated in more than 80 environmental externships, gaining hands-on experience while working with organizations such as the ASPCA, Catawba Lands Conservancy, Climate Defense Project, Earthjustice – Ocean Program, Food Tank, Northwest Animal Rights Network, NYC Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.