News & Updates

Conservation groups intervened today in a lawsuit brought by the timber industry and counties seeking to strip northern spotted owls of protections for their critical habitat across millions of acres of forests in California, Oregon and Washington. The industry...

Today, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and The Conservation Angler, represented by attorneys at the Western Environmental Law Center, notified Tacoma Power the groups intend to challenge in court the utility’s failure to provide safe and effective downstream passage past...

The New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) today adopted a rule that prohibits the discharge of “produced water” to New Mexico’s ground and surface waters. Produced water is a waste byproduct of oil and gas operations and contains hundreds of known and...

Oregon and Washington released the results of state wolf surveys for 2024 this week, presenting a contrast in how the species is recovering in the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, wolf population increased 14% in 2024 over 2023 levels while in Washington, wolf population...

New Mexico community groups today express their strong support for the revival of a 2023 bill backed by the state’s entire Congressional delegation to codify into law a 10-mile buffer zone restricting new oil and gas extraction around Chaco Culture National Historical...

Rule would allow dangerous exception for “pilot projects” to discharge 84,000 gallons per day of treated fossil fuel waste to groundwater, risking public health   Following a day and a half of deliberations, the Water Quality Control Commission is poised to adopt...

Today, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed SB 21, now a law to provide critical protections for New Mexico waters. Following rollbacks to federal clean water protections in recent years, up to 95% of New Mexico’s streams and up to 88% of New Mexico’s wetlands have lost...

In response to a challenge brought by Cascadia Wildlands and the Western Environmental Law Center, an Oregon federal district court on Monday held that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the law in authorizing the N126 Late Successional Reserve Landscape...

Today, the House voted 43-25 to pass SB 21, a bill to provide critical protections for New Mexico waters. It will next go to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to be signed into law. Following rollbacks to federal clean water protections in recent years, up to 95% of New...

Today, the House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee voted 5-4 to pass SB 21, a bill to provide critical protections for New Mexico waters. It will next go to the full House for a floor vote. Following rollbacks to federal clean water protections in...