Monday, Oct. 17 – “Reclaiming Our Public Trust Rights”

North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection and the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition are honored to host a special webinar with author and legal theorist Mary Christina Wood of the University of Oregon School of Law. Professor Wood, the Founding Director of the school’s nationally-acclaimed Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, will speak on “Reclaiming Our Public Trust Rights.” The webinar, free and open to all, takes place on Monday, Oct. 17, at 6:00 p.m. P.T.

To register for the event, go to online talk or at www.healthywatershed.org

This Zoom webinar will explore a fundamental concept in resource protection: the nature of the public trust. Specifically, Prof. Wood will speak on the concept of the public trust as it relates to coastal watersheds. She will discuss how natural resources that forests provide—including clean drinking water and breathable air—belong to the public trust and she will relate this concept to the way in which the extractive practices of industrial forestry (such as clearcutting followed by pesticide spraying) have grave impacts on water, wildlife, and the public health of many communities on the Coast and elsewhere in Oregon.

Mary Christina Wood is an award-winning professor and the co-author of leading textbooks on public trust law and natural resources law. Her book, Nature’s Trust, sets forth a new paradigm of global ecological responsibility. Professor Wood originated the legal approach called “Atmospheric Trust Litigation,” now being used in cases brought on behalf of youth throughout the world who are seeking to hold governments accountable to reduce carbon pollution within their jurisdictions. She has developed a corresponding approach called “Atmospheric Recovery Litigation” which would hold fossil fuel companies responsible for funding an “Atmospheric Recovery Plan” to draw down excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere using natural climate solutions. Professor Wood is a frequent speaker on climate issues and has received national and international attention for her sovereign trust approach to global climate policy.

To register, for this event, go to: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sceitpj4jGt1JEjtK1Rz9wjjpwo7P-7y1. Registration links can also be found on the websites of the sponsoring organizations, www.healthywatershed.org or www.oregonshores.org.

North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection is a grassroots group of concerned citizens advocating for no more logging and no more pesticide spraying near our coastal drinking watersheds, regardless of land ownership. You can sign our petition (https://petitions.sumofus.org/p/healthywatershed .) www.facebook.com/NCCWATERSHEDPROTECTION

Oregon Shores is a 50-year-old organization that works to protect all aspects of the coastal environment, including its forests and water quality. To learn more, go to www.oregonshores.org.