Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast from CELDF — the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. If you would like to follow, you can subscribe for free. Or, if you’d like to pledge monetary support to these efforts, please either donate to CELDF or sign up for a paid subscription. Thank you.

In this episode, we learn about an effort to bring rights of nature to the watersheds of Lane County in Western Oregon.

Community organizers in Lane County have been working towards rights of nature and community self-determination for over a decade. In this interview, CELDF’s Kai Huschke, who has worked with the group since it’s founding, speaks with Rob Dickinson and Michelle Holman of Community Rights Lane County.

They discuss their latest organizing effort, Protect Lane County Watersheds, a proposed ballot initiative to secure the Right of Waters and Watersheds in Lane County. The initiative would protect the right to sustainable recharge, flows sufficient to protect native fish habitat, and clean water unpolluted by any activities of corporations, governments, and other business entities.

As CELDF often notes, this type of law is illegal under the U.S. Constitution and existing case law. But movements for change must be bold, pushing forward despite barriers that exist. This effort is an act of collective civil disobedience — a rebellion against unjust systems of law in favor of sustainability and sanity. And it’s just one step in a broader program of comprehensive, transformative, revolutionary social change.

The video version of this podcast can be viewed here:

Links and Resources

* Protect Lane County Watersheds

* Community Rights Lane County

* Oregon Community Rights Network

About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast

In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.

This show can be found on the following platforms:

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About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.

Get full access to Truth and Reckoning at celdf.substack.com/subscribe