Local environmental group Wilderness Workshop hosted an event with the legal non-profit Earthjustice last week. The panel discussion was titled “Resistance: in the courts and on the ground.” Elizabeth Stewart-Severy was there and spoke with producer Christin Kay about the event.
The advocacy event was meant to rally local people who care about the environment and to discuss what concerned citizens can do on a grassroots level.
Drew Caputo, an attorney with Earthjustice, discussed recent lawsuits that the firm has filed against the Trump administration.
“The value of litigation not only is to force everybody to follow the law,” Caputo told the audience of about 60, “But it’s to make people pay attention to what’s going on.”
Wilderness Workshop conservation director Will Roush spoke about how the environmental movement has evolved and professionalized. This has meant significant progress for the environmental lobby, but Roush said there’s a downside too.
“I think we’ve also lost something of power of citizens, of people who aren’t professional environmentalists taking action,” Roush said.
Wilderness Workshop is working to energize average people to take action.
