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The Environmental Advocacy Clinic works on a range of state, regional, and national environmental issues concentrated in four program areas: Water, Climate, Wildlife, and Healthy Communities.

Water

The Environmental Advocacy Clinic works to protect and restore surface waters, groundwater, and aquatic ecosystems. We’ve filed citizen suits, challenged agency actions, counseled neighborhood groups, and advocated for regulatory and policy changes in multiple venues. A few examples:

Protecting Alaska’s Most Treasured Salmon Fishery
Suing the Environmental Protection Agency’s action to clear the way for a massive copper mine to be in permitted in the heart of the Bristol Bay watershed, one of the world’s most productive fisheries.

Cleaning Up Polluted Mountain Streams
Appealing a permit issued by Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources that would have allowed Jay Peak Resort to continue discharging sediment into impaired mountain streams.

Protecting Vermont’s Water Quality through Systemic Reform

Petitioning the United States Environmental Protection Agency to either assume control of Vermont’s Clean Water Act program, or to require Vermont to properly administer the Act.

Climate

The Clinic's Climate projects offer student clinicians the chance to work on cutting-edge issues relating to global climate change and energy using a variety of legal tools and strategies. Much of the Clinic's climate work involves the coal and oil industries because of their overwhelming contribution to the climate crisis and harmful impacts on human health and the environment. A few examples:

Protecting Montana Citizens and Ranchers from New Coal Mining Activities
Working with the Northern Plains Resource Council to prevent harmful coal development in Montana's Powder River Basin.

Protecting Jobos Bay and Puerto Rico’s Clean Energy Future
Challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision to approve an offshore liquefied natural gas port and pipeline without the proper environmental impact and endangered species review.

Wildlife

Since its inception, the Clinic has been devoted to protecting wildlife, endangered species, biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and wild places for their own sake and for the benefit of current and future generations. These irreplaceable resources face a wide array of human-induced threats, including climate change, industrial activities, and government programs that encourage rapid development without adequate attention to environmental consequences. A few examples of the Clinic's work:

Halting the Unlawful Roundup of Wild Horses
Securing a legal victory on behalf of Wild Horse Fire Brigade to halt the Bureau of Land Management’s roundup of wild horses from private lands in and around the Pokegama Wild Horse Management Area.

Protecting Canada Lynx from Trapping
Suing the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for issuing an Incidental Take Permit that allows trappers in the state of Maine to harm the threatened lynx species.

Protecting Puerto Rico's Rich Ecosystems from Proposed Via Verde Pipeline

Fighting to protect over 300 acres of wetlands, numerous streams and surface waters, protected natural reserves, unique limestone karst formations, ancient archaeological sites, and more than 40 federally listed endangered species.

Protecting the Gray Wolf in the Northeast
Requiring the United States to maintain Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf.

Saving Passamaquoddy Bay
Challenging the federal government’s failure to properly consider the cultural, spiritual, and environmental impacts of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal on the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s Pleasant Point Reservation.

Healthy Communities

A key component of the Healthy Communities program is to help communities in northern New England address contaminated sites and polluting facilities in their neighborhoods, often in partnership with the New England-based advocacy group Toxics Action Center. This program also includes broader advocacy work directed toward advancing healthy, sustainable policies for the planet. Some examples include:

Advancing Environmental Justice
Partnering with Earthjustice and the Ironbound Community to combat pollution disproportionately impacting communities in Newark, New Jersey.

Protecting Virgin Islands Communities from Hazardous Incinerator Emissions
Protecting the health of U.S. Virgin Islands residents by preventing FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers’ from burning more than 600,000 cubic yards of debris—roughly 200 Olympic swimming pools—following Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Requiring Labels for Genetically Engineered Foods
Providing legal support to advance Vermont’s trailblazing labeling law for genetically engineered foods, and helping to defend the law in court.

Defending Local Communities’ Ability to Protect their Natural Resources
Advising groups how to protect communities from local impacts of large, interstate, and international energy projects.

Opposing Smokestack Industry Next to Residential Community
Representing residents of Graniteville, Vermont, to protect them from air pollution, dangerous traffic, and other threats posed by a new asphalt plant and rock crusher.

Helping Neighbors of Factory Farms
Providing tools to help people who live near factory farms challenge their property tax assessments.