Question: Explain why natural land conservation is capacity issues and opportunities for important to address climate change?
McCrea: Natural land conservation serves as the cornerstone of the global effort to preserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems. It starts at the local level with place-based decision- making and culminates into regional efforts that connect vast areas and ecosystems. This creates corridors for ecosystem-based adaptation to build resiliency to climate change.
The CLC is proud to announce that the Brabson Family Foundation has continued to support our work with a grant of $20,000. This generous grant will help CLC to update its existing conservation easement (CE) template, as well as create two additional templates for use by land trusts that will benefit Hoosiers statewide.
We are proud of the progress that has been made in our landscape this past year and the bright future ahead. None of this could be possible without the hard work and time commitment from all of you, including both landowners dedicated to conservation and partnering organizations and agencies.
In July 2019, the Hoosier Environmental Council, the Indiana Audubon Society and a handful of residents filed a complaint against Natural Prairie. The plaintiffs asserted the defendants violated the Clean Water Act by blocking the ditches.
The team at CLC, along with our partners, have been working hard to successfully launch the SISL program. Our first six months have been packed full of planning and outreach. Here are a few of the activities we have been focused on.
The Conservation Law Center is proud to announce the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust has continued their support of CLC’s Clean Water Indiana Program with a grant of $180,000. This grant represents a longstanding partnership between the Pulliam Trust and CLC, with a shared goal of improving water quality in the state of Indiana.
The Conservation Law Center is excited to announce the creation of a new position - the Constance and Terry Marbach Conservation Attorney. Indiana University Maurer School of Law Class of 2021 Alum Kacey Cook has accepted this inaugural position.
Conservation Law Center appreciates our long-standing relationship with the Herbert Simon Family Foundation and are proud to acknowledge their continued support of our efforts. This year, the Herbert Simon Family Foundation will be aiding us in our land conservation work which includes our ongoing support of Indiana land trusts as well as our new Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape program.
Conservation Law Center is making that investment each day by working to protect and improve the health, diversity, beauty and resilience of the planet and defend our shared natural heritage in Indiana and beyond.
The Conservation Law Center seeks applications for a Program Coordinator to join our team based in the beautiful Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. This is an exciting opportunity to join an organization and broad partnership focused on providing solutions to some of the most important and challenging conservation and environmental issues in Indiana. The Coordinator will work with a diverse group of public and private partners to achieve various natural resource conservation goals within the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape geographic boundaries. These goals include land and soil conservation, water quality and riparian corridors, threatened and endangered species, and the critical goal of maintaining military readiness in southern Indiana’s four defense bases.
Conservation Law Center seeks applications for the Landscape Conservation Attorney to join our team based in the beautiful Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing public interest law firm working on some of the most important and challenging conservation issues in the US and beyond. The Landscape Conservation Attorney will focus primarily on land conservation and habitat protection projects, with a particular focus on the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape project. We are bringing landscape-scale conservation to the heartland, and the Landscape Conservation Attorney position will be a key player in the effort.
Conservation Law Center seeks applications for a Senior Staff Attorney to join our team based in the beautiful Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing public interest law firm working on some of the most important and challenging conservation issues in the US and beyond. The Senior Staff Attorney will be involved in all aspects of CLC’s work, including advocacy and litigation on the organization’s substantive focus areas, and helping teach students in the Conservation Law Clinic at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. While CLC engages in multiple kinds of conservation advocacy, roughly one-third to one-half of CLC’s work involves litigation. The Senior Attorney will be expected to contribute to CLC’s ongoing projects while also developing their own base of clients for CLC. This full-time position is open to practicing attorneys with seven or more years of experience.
The designation of more than 3.5 million acres in southern Indiana as a Sentinel Landscape will protect critical habitats and species, conserve natural resources, strengthen military readiness, and help the state prepare for environmental change. Southern Indiana is one of 3 new additions to the federal program, bringing the total to 10 nationwide.
Conservation Law Center is excited to announce the creation of a new position for the organization—the Constance and Terry Marbach Conservation Attorney. Connie and Terry Marbach have been conservation vanguards for decades, with a long history funding the conservation of important natural areas for wildlife habitat, water quality, and biological diversity in Indiana and across the country. This support has resulted in thousands of protected acres, including some of Indiana’s most biologically important areas. Their work with the Pacific Crest Trail Association and other important initiatives to connect people with nature have been invaluable to the successes of those projects.
In 2020, Conservation Law Center partnered with Hoosier Environmental Council and the Indiana Audubon Society in a suit against Natural Prairie and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Contrary to its name, Natural Prairie is a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) with over 4300 cows in the bed of the former Beaver Lake…
Thank you to the Herbert Simon Family Foundation who has awarded the Conservation Law Center a $60,000 grant to further our work in water quality and land conservation.
