Photo credit: National Park Service

We’re excited to share that we’re very close to reaching our Earth Day Challenge goal of raising $41,000 which CLF board members have agreed to match dollar-for-dollar, making your gift work twice as hard! We’d like to extend an enormous thank you to all of you who reached for your credit cards and checkbooks– and for those of you who haven’t, to announce that you’re not too late! Just to be absolutely sure that we meet our goal, we’re extending our Earth Day Challenge deadline until midnight on April 30. You can help push us over the finish line by making a new or increased gift today!

Today, 41 years after Earth Day’s founding, its purpose of shining a spotlight on environmental issues is more poignant than ever. In the past few weeks alone, we have watched with terror as a nuclear disaster unfolded in Japan and, just two days ago, solemnly observed the one year anniversary of the BP oil disaster. Yet, in the current political climate, our national resolve to avert disasters like these and protect our environment is weak. That’s why every day is Earth Day at CLF.

Whether it’s working to ensure that appropriate caution is taken with the proposed Northern Pass transmission project in New Hampshire, or fighting to prevent Vermont’s state lands from being ravaged by ATVs, we shine a spotlight every day on the issues that concern you.

Tackling these challenges – and turning them into victories – is not possible without your help. Thank you in advance for all you do to help CLF protect our New England, today and every day.

Original photo: William Hyler

If you read CLF Scoop or follow fishery management news through other means, you know that since last May, the New England fishing industry has undergone its most significant changes in 30 years. The introduction of the new “sector” management system and new rules for harvesting groundfish like cod, haddock and flounder have been highly controversial in this region and beyond, and never before has a dialogue been more needed to help ensure that New England’s fishermen and the resources they rely upon continue to thrive. While we blog about these issues on the Scoop from time to time, we felt it was important to create a space dedicated to carrying out this dialogue—a forum where science and data meet ideas and experience in an informed, respectful and lively conversation. Today, we invite you to join that conversation at www.talkingfish.org.

At Talking Fish, we will present a wide range of news and views from scientists, researchers, economists, academics, environmental advocates, fishermen, resource managers, foodies and journalists. Our hope is to build a community with a shared goal of a prosperous and sustainable fishing industry and an abundant, diverse fish population for generations to come. We’ll continue to keep our Scoop readers up to date on fisheries management in New England, but we hope that those of you who are interested in delving into these issues further will become frequent readers of www.talkingfish.org as well.

Join us as we Talk Fish by:

• Going to www.talkingfish.org to read, comment, or subscribe to Talking Fish via e-mail or RSS
• Liking us on Facebook
• Following us on Twitter
• Dropping us a line at editor@talkingfish.org

There is no greater honor than to be recognized by your peers for the important work that you do. CLF’s Clean Water and Healthy Forest program director, Christopher Kilian, received such an honor last week at the Charles River Watershed Association’s annual meeting, where CRWA presented him with the 2011 Anne M. Blackburn Award. The award is “presented annually to an individual who has made significant contributions over a career that have resulted in singular improvements for the Charles River, its watershed and our natural environment.”

CLF is extremely proud of the clean water work that Chris and his team have done and continue to do in collaboration with CRWA and numerous other watershed partners. You can read more about this award-winning work elsewhere on our web site (e.g., cleaning up polluted highway runoff and polluted runoff from parking lots and other commercial development, and securing an agreement to prevent super-heated water discharges into the Charles from a nearby power plant). Here, however, I want to share with you some inspiring excerpts from the speech Chris delivered to an appreciative audience at the award ceremony:

We must all stand up for the basic notion of equal access to justice, including the courts, to vindicate the public interest in a healthy environment. I applaud CRWA for its willingness to stand up for clean water, including in the courts when necessary.

But the words of the law ring hollow unless they are connected to people and a place. No organization is more effectively connected to a place on earth than CRWA. Here on the Charles, my own evolving sense that an urban river can be a thriving ecological system and community amenity has been further inspired by the decades of incredible work of CRWA. CRWA’s ideal of blue cities where clean, healthy waters are present even in the densest urban areas, is a vision that is changing the world. Instead of dangerous dumping grounds, our urban waters will cool us as we safely swim in the summer, feed us as we catch fish and shellfish with our children, leave us awestruck in the presence of habitat for nature’s great bird migrations and creatures great and small, and provide a needed release as we sail, boat, and enjoy these great natural amenities.

Some, even government leaders in Massachusetts, say our work to protect clean water is done. They say that clean water is not worth the cost. They say removing raw sewage from our waters (a job that still remains unfinished) is all that the Clean Water Act demanded.  This cannot be the case. It cannot be that the Charles will suffer a fate overrun with toxic metals, raw sewage, and toxic blue green algae blooms. I am confident that with all of you, with CRWA, and CLF working together our waters will not be left degraded. Thank you to CRWA’s supporters, please continue your support. Our work is more important now than ever.

In honor of the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, CLF Board members from across New England have banded together to make an extraordinary $41,000 investment in CLF’s – and our region’s – future. Every new or increased gift you make now through Earth Day – April 22– can be matched, dollar-for-dollar, up to $41,000.

Your gift today will go toward solving the region’s toughest environmental problems, and help us ensure a healthy, thriving New England for generations to come. From Maine to Rhode Island, CLF stands up for your favorite places, for the health of your families and your communities, and for the prosperity of our region. Since the last Earth Day, we:

• Cleaned up the air in Somerset, MA by closing the doors on an old, polluting coal plant
• Won tougher standards for phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain, VT
• Preserved the fragile ecosystem of Great Salt Pond on Block Island, RI
• Saved Mainers millions of dollars on electricity infrastructure
• Helped NH cities and towns save energy and money by increasing energy efficiency

As Earth Day approaches, we are reminded that around the world and right here in New England, our land, our oceans and our air are in peril. On the heels of the 2010 elections, many in the new Congress are pursuing a clear anti-environment agenda, one that cuts directly to the core of the most fundamental protections for our health, safety and well-being. With leadership in Washington sorely lacking, CLF is uniquely poised to take the reins in protecting New England.

Today, we are asking you to help us continue our progress by taking part in our Earth Day Challenge. Your commitment enables CLF to safeguard our oceans, clean up our lakes, rivers and forests, promote clean energy innovations and build healthy, livable communities. We hope you will take part in our Earth Day Challenge by making a donation today to help CLF protect our small but mighty corner of the world.

As part of the national effort to streamline and improve regulations launched by President Obama in an Executive Order the Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting comments on what regulations should be “modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed” — so tell them what you think! They have a webpage that explains what they are looking for and provides an opportunity to submit comments online.

At a recent “listening session” held in Boston CLF offered these thoughts to EPA.  The deadline for comments is April 4, 2011– let your voice be heard !

Over the past several months, CLF Ventures has been participating as a founding member of a new collaborative effort with diverse organizations to improve their social and environmental performance. The Stewardship Action Council is a collaborative multi-stakeholder membership organization dedicated to partnerships that advance environmental performance in the broader context of sustainability. Conceptually, this means continuous improvement at the corporate and facility level to reduce environmental impacts, advance community goals, and report on progress.

CLF Ventures’ goal in joining the SAC is to develop collaborative efforts that drive excellence and raise the bar on sustainable innovation. The unique value of this collaboration is the multi-stakeholder approach where varying levels of experience among participants provide opportunities alternatives for leaders and learners—those that commit to putting an Environmental Management System in place and those for whom an EMS is already functioning. This broad based, multi-sector network of partners and organizations creates a learning network focused on the exchange of ideas, sharing of best practices and implementation of collaborative projects enabling our members to improve their social and environmental performance and includes representatives from the academic, state government, non-governmental organization (NGOs), investment and industrial and services sectors.

CLF Ventures is an Alliance Member and plans to work with our Participating Members to coordinate partnership opportunities, data review and analysis, and best practice development. In particular, we are excited about the opportunity to advance principles of sustainable innovation – that is, how members can efficiently and sustainably develop new products that advance environmental performance. Members will share best practices, participate in discussion forums and research studies, and collaborate on improvement projects.  The founding members of the Stewardship Action Council represent a breadth of NGOs, industry and service sectors, state government, and academic institutions.   Moving forward we will be designing a sustainability standard, to be used by members to both direct and measure sustainability improvements. Additional goals include providing research data to academic institutions, provide a link for students at the participating academic institutions with innovative companies, and link NGOs looking to partner with industry on unique projects.

Please contact me to discuss your interest in collaboration. For additional information about the Stewardship Action Council and how to check out the website at www.stewardshipaction.org .  A webinar providing additional information on membership in the Stewardship Action Council will be held in the next several weeks.

President Obama is accepting questions from the public. Ask him if he will defend the Clean Air Act in the State of the Union. Tell him yourself at YouTube.com/askobama or on Twitter using #askobama

Learn about CLF’s targeted coal plant advocacy with the launch of the Coal-free New England campaign. Find out how CLF is working with Restore America’s Estuaries and local residents to bring New England’s waterways back to health. Hear from new CLF Ventures CEO Jo Anne Shatkin on what’s next for Ventures. And get the lowdown on our new look from CLF President John Kassel. The new issue of Conservation Matters is here.

Download the PDF.

Tell us what you think at e-info@clf.org.

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Conservation Law Foundation issued the following statement in response to today’s release of Massachusetts’ Clean Energy and Climate Plan, which will reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

“The 25 percent target puts Massachusetts on the right trajectory to achieve the greenhouse gas reductions the science says we need to see by 2020,” said John Kassel, president of Conservation Law Foundation. “Setting the target at the maximum authorized by the Global Warming Solutions Act is in keeping with the Patrick Administration’s track record of bold and innovative clean energy and climate policy that recognizes the opportunity in aligning our environmental objectives with our economic ones. The new plan will put in place a diverse portfolio of pragmatic solutions that create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions – a winning formula for the Commonwealth and one that will no doubt be watched closely around the country.”

Kassel served on the Climate Protection and Green Economy Advisory Committee that consulted with state officials on the drafting of the Plan. CLF played a key role in making the statute a reality and has lent its expertise throughout the planning process to ensure a final plan that was aggressive enough to achieve the necessary GHG reductions while still being achievable.

The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) protects New England’s environment for the benefit of all people. Using the law, science and the market, CLF creates solutions that preserve natural resources, build healthy communities, and sustain a vibrant economy region-wide. Founded in1966, CLF is a nonprofit, member-supported organization with offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.