RRI is honored to sponsor the work of the following organizations:
Washoe Meadows Community, Lynne Paulson, Director
With support from Defense of Place and the leadership of Lynne Paulson, the Washoe Meadows Community continues to advance its goal to save Washoe Meadows State Park — located in South Lake Tahoe — from the ruinous incursion of a golf course into the Park’s extraordinary natural resources and cultural setting. The proposed development is part of State Parks’ “Upper Truckee and Golf Course Reconfiguration Project,” which originally included the unprecedented downgrade of state park land for economic purposes. So far, the Community has prevailed in multiple judicial decisions and successfully challenged the bid process for the new golf course design so that the process will follow statutory regulations. However, the need for oversight and activism continues, as State Parks has even defied the Parks Commission mandate by introducing a plan that puts the golf course back into Park boundaries. The new year will not bring any diminishment of the Community’s dedication to save Washoe Meadows.
Washoe Meadows State Park | Photo by California State Parks Department
Public Trust Alliance, Michael Warburton, Executive Director
Public Trust Alliance (PTA) uses the legal framework provided by the Public Trust Doctrine to protect and defend our natural resources for future generations. The Alliance works with communities to assert their right to ecologically sustainable and socially just management of resources while holding public agencies accountable as trustees of the public’s land, air, and water. PTA also works to reduce waste of public resources caused by outmoded planning strategies that ignore and deny increasingly severe environmental impacts. With its focus on long-term commitments to larger projects, the Alliance is assisting Monterey County in its effort to design infrastructure for an alternative, regional water supply that would stop dewatering regional rivers and streams, as well as provide immediate assistance and information to community advocacy groups.
Californians for Western Wilderness, Michael Painter, Coordinator
“CalUWild” is a citizens group founded to secure protection for the remaining wilderness areas and other public lands in the western United States. The organization works to facilitate citizen participation in administrative and legislative actions, creating a constituency in California for wilderness across the West. One of CalUWild’s current emphases is protecting public lands through National Monument designations. The administration has dramatically shrunk the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah, despite overwhelming public support for their protection (and other monuments). CalUWild is working with organizations across the country to restore these monuments to their original size and to prevent reductions in any other monuments in the future. An attack on one monument is an attack on all.
Monarch Cave Ruins within Bears Ears National Monument near Bluff, Utah | Photo by Bob Wick – BLM
Granite Chief Wilderness Protection League, Deborah Moskowitz, Interim Director
GCWPL is a coalition of prominent environmental organizations defending a pristine, federally protected North Lake Tahoe area from private development interests. In 1984, Huey Johnson was instrumental in achieving Federal Wilderness Designation—the “highest-level” protections—for the unique Five Lakes Basin. Now, this pristine area is threatened with the construction of a ski gondola and related development that would compromise the Wilderness boundary and a critical habitat for the endangered yellow-legged frog. Two reasons for optimism: 1) GCWPL filed suit to halt the project until proper mitigation and wilderness boundary protections are achieved, 2) the League has participated in the the U.S. Forest Service’s objection process to protect wilderness boundaries are ensure a more thorough review of the impacts of gondola proposal; 3) So far the Forest Service has not granted the needed project approvals, stalling the project so it is now three years behind schedule. To protect and defend this beautiful wilderness, the GCWPL will remain active in local organizing, public education, and the California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act processes. Protect Granite Chief was founded by Daniel Heagerty, who served as the project director until his passing in 2022.
The face of Granite Chief Wilderness | © Chance Cutrano
Generation: Our Climate. Chance Cutrano, Interim Director
A student-run climate action group now in five high schools in Marin and San Francisco, Generation: Our Climate (GOC) was a key organizer of the 2019 Youth Climate Strike. It has hosted numerous Youth Climate Action Town Hall events, and testified at local city council and state-level meetings regarding environmental policy. Most notably, GOC delivered powerful messages to CAL EPA regarding the harmful impacts of the proposed Delta tunnels and to the Bay Area Air Quality Management Board concerning oil refinery pollution. GOC was founded by Daniel Heagerty, who served as the project director until his passing in 2022.
Generation: Our Climate testifying at the California EPA