CLC announces the launch of the organization’s Environmental Legal Aid Program to serve the environmental legal needs of local residents, advocates and community groups in Gary, Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago (“the Region”). The new program builds on CLC’s mission of providing free representation to environmental non-profits tackling critical environmental health and justice issues, as well conservation organizations engaged in protecting natural resources, water quality, and wildlife habitat.
Question: Explain why natural land conservation is capacity issues and opportunities for important to address climate change?
McCrea: Natural land conservation serves as the cornerstone of the global effort to preserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems. It starts at the local level with place-based decision- making and culminates into regional efforts that connect vast areas and ecosystems. This creates corridors for ecosystem-based adaptation to build resiliency to climate change.
The Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape (SISL) partnership is excited to announce approval of a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) for the 3.5-million-acre SISL area.
Conservation Law Center is incredibly excited to announce that the Efroymson Family Fund has awarded us a generous grant to support our mission and marketing efforts. The Efroymson Family Fund helps support nonprofit organizations across Central Indiana. Their gift to us will help fund the positions of several critical full-time staff members, build out new and existing conservation programs, and bolster our day-to-day operations.
The CLC is proud to announce that the Brabson Family Foundation has continued to support our work with a grant of $20,000. This generous grant will help CLC to update its existing conservation easement (CE) template, as well as create two additional templates for use by land trusts that will benefit Hoosiers statewide.
We are proud of the progress that has been made in our landscape this past year and the bright future ahead. None of this could be possible without the hard work and time commitment from all of you, including both landowners dedicated to conservation and partnering organizations and agencies.
The team at CLC, along with our partners, have been working hard to successfully launch the SISL program. Our first six months have been packed full of planning and outreach. Here are a few of the activities we have been focused on.
The Conservation Law Center is proud to announce the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust has continued their support of CLC’s Clean Water Indiana Program with a grant of $180,000. This grant represents a longstanding partnership between the Pulliam Trust and CLC, with a shared goal of improving water quality in the state of Indiana.
The Conservation Law Center is excited to announce the creation of a new position - the Constance and Terry Marbach Conservation Attorney. Indiana University Maurer School of Law Class of 2021 Alum Kacey Cook has accepted this inaugural position.
The Conservation Law Center seeks applications for a Program Coordinator to join our team based in the beautiful Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. This is an exciting opportunity to join an organization and broad partnership focused on providing solutions to some of the most important and challenging conservation and environmental issues in Indiana. The Coordinator will work with a diverse group of public and private partners to achieve various natural resource conservation goals within the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape geographic boundaries. These goals include land and soil conservation, water quality and riparian corridors, threatened and endangered species, and the critical goal of maintaining military readiness in southern Indiana’s four defense bases.
Conservation Law Center seeks applications for the Landscape Conservation Attorney to join our team based in the beautiful Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing public interest law firm working on some of the most important and challenging conservation issues in the US and beyond. The Landscape Conservation Attorney will focus primarily on land conservation and habitat protection projects, with a particular focus on the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape project. We are bringing landscape-scale conservation to the heartland, and the Landscape Conservation Attorney position will be a key player in the effort.
Conservation Law Center is excited to announce the creation of a new position for the organization—the Constance and Terry Marbach Conservation Attorney. Connie and Terry Marbach have been conservation vanguards for decades, with a long history funding the conservation of important natural areas for wildlife habitat, water quality, and biological diversity in Indiana and across the country. This support has resulted in thousands of protected acres, including some of Indiana’s most biologically important areas. Their work with the Pacific Crest Trail Association and other important initiatives to connect people with nature have been invaluable to the successes of those projects.
In 2020, Conservation Law Center partnered with Hoosier Environmental Council and the Indiana Audubon Society in a suit against Natural Prairie and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Contrary to its name, Natural Prairie is a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) with over 4300 cows in the bed of the former Beaver Lake…
And they’re off, south for the winter! As birds head toward the winter home, they travel follow specific paths called “Flyways.” Along the way, they have to handle plenty besides the long journey alone, including urbanization, pollution, and changing conditions related to climate change. Throughout the years, Conservation Law Center has worked to preserve the migratory habitats the birds need to survive.
How do we help land trusts? We give pro bono advice on matters of conservation easement drafting and enforcement, complex real estate transactions, property liabilities, and countless other matters related to running a nonprofit organization.
George Rogers Clark Land Trust and the Center made history with the closing on Indiana’s first farmland easement under the USDA’sAgricultural Conservation Easement Program.
