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CLC has drafted five policy proposals focused on PFAS regulation, wetland protection, and the establishment of an Indiana Water Authority.
A recent International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health report on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the United States highlights a disturbing truth: large-scale industrial farming is poisoning our air, water and communities.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Policy
- Issues: Land, Water
Water, essential to all life on the planet, is an abundant resource in Indiana. This alone puts Indiana in a resilient position as we navigate toward a climate-changed future.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Climate Change, Water
Megan graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in International Studies and worked in her home state for the Illinois House of Representatives for two years before attending Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. During law school Megan interned with the Conservation Law Center and after graduation, joined CLC as the Nancy C. Ralston Graduate Fellow Attorney.
CLC 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 $484,000 over the next two years. The Pulliam Trust and CLC have a long-standing partnership to improve water quality in the state.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Water
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.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Climate Change, Water
Today, the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) wishes a warm farewell and many thanks to its long-time Senior Attorney, Kim Ferraro, who is leaving HEC after 11 years to become the Senior Staff Attorney at the Conservation Law Center (CLC), effective August 1st.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Legal Education, Nonprofit Support, Partnerships, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Land, Public Trust, Water
Conservation Law Center appreciates our long-standing relationship with the Herbert Simon Family Foundation and are proud to acknowledge their continued support of our efforts. This year, the Herbert Simon Family Foundation will be aiding us in our land conservation work which includes our ongoing support of Indiana land trusts as well as our new Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape program.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Partnerships, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
The Conservation Law Center is excited to announce the creation of a new position—the Nancy C. Ralston Conservation Law Fellowship. Through a nation-wide search, Megan Freveletti has been selected to start in August 2022. The fellowship will cover a broad spectrum of responsibilities including litigation-related research, land protection transactions, advising conservation clients, policy analysis, and outreach.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Water
Last year, Governor Holcomb created the state’s first Wastewater Task Force to address issues of Indiana’s water management and water quality. Co-chairs Senator Eric Koch and Representative Ed Soliday currently lead this important review of Indiana’s water infrastructure and causes of water quality impairment, including issues that are CLC’s priorities like drainage reform and failing septics.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Climate Change, Water
There's nothing spooky about bats. 🦇
Although they are often accused of being pests, these winged friends actually play important roles in pest control. Here in Indiana, bats can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes an hour. Bats also enjoy snacking on beetles, gnats, flies, moths, and other insects providing a safe, natural form of pest control. Not only does this help protect humans from these pests, it also helps farmers protect their crops from damage and our land and food from toxic insecticides.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Climate Change
Clean water is vital to our health, our collective agricultural needs, and the needs of our environment. August is #NationalWaterQualityMonth (https://nationalwaterqualitymonth.org/) and here at CLC we work to identify and implement solutions to water issues vital to all Hoosiers, including direct piping of raw sewage into Indiana streams and rivers, failing septic systems across the state, and updating the state drainage law.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Climate Change, Water
In 2016, with support from Nina Mason Pulliam Trust, CLC completed a 45-page report, Water and Quality of Life in Indiana, giving 14 recommendations on how to improve the state of Indiana’s water quality. Indiana is naturally endowed with great rivers, streams, and lakes. These freshwater systems are essential for drinking, for industry, for agriculture, and for economic development.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Water
Having safe and reliable access to clean drinking water is something easily taken for granted by most Americans, but in reality, 2018 data showed that nearly 30 million Americans were consuming unsafe drinking water.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Climate Change, Water
Due to loss of habitat, disease, pesticides, and climate change, the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, Bombus affinis, has been classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. These insects are home in grasslands and prairies, but much of this land has been lost, degraded, or fragmented in recent years. Among these various threats, climate change is one of the biggest.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity
And they’re off, south for the winter! As birds head toward the winter home, they 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.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
Thank you to the Herbert Simon Family Foundation who has awarded the Conservation Law Center a $60,000 grant to further our work in water quality and land conservation.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Land, Water
The Duke Energy Foundation recently awarded Conservation Law Center a grant for $20,000 to help improve water monitoring and management of Lake Monroe.
This past June, I accepted an invitation from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and Ocean University of China to participate in the 2019 Public Affairs Governance Workshop in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Policy
- Issues: Land, Water
On August 25, Hoosiers will gather in Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Monroe County to celebrate Water Quality Day. As part of National Water Quality Month, Water Quality Day is a day to bring the focus closer to home. The month is dedicated to celebrating Indiana’s abundant waterways. In Indiana, freshwater supports a billion-dollar resource economy, making it vital to Hoosiers’ quality of life.
August is Water Quality Month (#WQM17). What’s on tap? A reminder to celebrate Indiana’s bounty of rivers, lakes and streams. They support a billion-dollar recreational economy and are central to our health, industry and agriculture.
Carol Kugler, a reporter for The Herald-Times in Bloomington, IN, attended CLC's recent presentation at Green Drinks Bloomington.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Policy
- Issues: Water
In response to the recommendation of the Indiana Sustainable Natural Resources Task Force, and in collaboration with members of the Indiana General Assembly, the CLC developed legislation to update Indiana's water management policies.
CLC attorneys and Clinic interns advised long-standing client, Great Lakes United, and four other conservation groups in preparing comments on the U.S. Coast Guard's ballast water rulemaking (docket number USCG-2001-10486).
- Services: Legal Education, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Water
The CLC attorneys and Clinic interns will be participating in the second semester of a year-long series of interdisciplinary seminars on protecting animal migrations, an effort initiated by the environmental program of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
- Services: Legal Education, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity
CLC attorneys and Clinic interns continue the CLC's multiyear involvement in Indiana's antidegradation rulemaking on behalf of client Alliance for the Great Lakes.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Policy
- Issues: Water
We have been asked to advise CEAP (Conservation Effects Assessment Project) -- a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental benefits of USDA-funded conservation programs -- on a geographic prioritization strategy for identifying which watersheds are the best candidates for conservation dollars.
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