Events

Upcoming Events

CELP hosts many events each calendar year.   We hope to see you at one soon in 2021! 
 
 

Celebrate Water

 

Every year we host Celebrate Water to honor a local water hero, reflect on victories for our waters, and raise funds to continue our important work protecting waters in Washington. We are incredibly excited to be planning this year’s event to gather person. We cannot wait to celebrate with you.

This year we will be honoring Sharon Haensly, retired attorney for Squaxin Island Tribe, and Kimberly Ordon, retired attorney for Tulalip Tribes, with the Ralph W. Johnson Award for their careers protecting natural resources and tribal interests. We will also be hosting a 1 hour Continuing Legal Education workshop before the Celebrate Water reception.

When: Thursday, September 9th, 2021

Reception: 5:30pm-7:30pm

CLE workshop: 4pm-5pm (Speaker & Topic TBA)

Where: Ivar’s Salmon House

Purchase Tickets

Reception & CLE: $80

Reception only: $55

CLE only: $35

If you would like to sponsor Celebrate Water to help CELP protect our waters please reach out to Kayla Magers at development@celp.org

Our sponsors help make our work possible. Thank you!

Quinault Indian Nation, Law Office of M. Patrick Williams, Rachael & John Osborn

 
 

Past Events

GiveBIG

What: Washington’s 48 hour online giving event to support nonprofit organizations.
When: May 4th-5th.
Goal: $5,000. A generous supporter is challenging us to raise $5,000 to match their $5,000 donation.
As a small nonprofit, every donation and fundraiser is critical in supporting our work to protect waters in Washington and through the Columbia River basin. Help us create a Washington with adequate, clean, flowing waters to support healthy ecosystems, thriving fish and wildlife, and robust communities. Your support allows us to fight for more sustainable and equitable water policies.
CELP’s goal was to raise $5,000 to continue our work protecting Washington’s waters. Our amazing supporters helped us raise almost $6,000. We are incredibly thankful for donations, especially during this time. Thank you for your commitment to our waters and our mission.

Virtual Water Lobby Week

When: March 1st- March 5th 2021

Partners: RE Sources, North Sound Baykeeper, Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team (DERT), Spokane Riverkeeper, Twin Harbors Waterkeeper, and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance

Priority Bills:

Nooksack River adjudication funding (SB 5092 / HB 1094)

Reducing Plastic Pollution and Improving Recycling (SSB 5022)

Preventing incredibly damaging seabed mining (SB 5145)

Water Re-use (HB 1184)

Visit https://p2a.co/DQIk8yT to reach out to your lawmakers in support of these four critical bills.

Lower Columbia River, Estuary: “One River, Ethics Matter” Conference

 
7th annual conference on ethics and the past and future of the Columbia River

River of Time:  From Canoes to Freighters to 2160 and the 7th Generation

When: Dec 9-10 2020

Where: Virtually on Zoom

Registration: Sign up for free here

Tribal host: Cowlitz Indian Tribe

Academic host: Washington State University, Collective for Social and Environmental Justice

Overview

Winter Workshops: “Where are we now? Water law, tribal rights, and climate change”

Our all day winter Continuing Legal Education workshop is being transformed into three, 2 hour afternoon workshop sessions. Whether you need your CLE credits or you just want to learn more about environmental policy, water law, and tribal interests we have a great line up of speakers and topics for everyone.

When: Dec 1st, Dec 3rd, Dec 7th 2020

2:00pm-4:00pm

Where: Virtually on Zoom. Once you purchase a ticket you will receive a Zoom link.

Speakers and full program here.
 

Celebrate Water

Sponsored by the Tulalip Tribes

Summary: CELP commemorated its 25th anniversary as a nonprofit and celebrated victories for our waters. We presented the Ralph W. Johnson Water Hero Award to Professor Robert Anderson to honor his career as Director of the Native American Law Center, his dedication to natural resources and tribal interests. We also hosted Dr. Gary Morishima for a presentation and discussion of the Chehalis River Basin Strategy.

 
Due to COVID-19 we hosted the event virtually on our Facebook. You can view  recording of the event here.
 
With the help of our sponsors and supporters we raised $20,000 to continue our work protecting waters in Washington. Thank you!

Winter Waters

CELP and Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River Group hosted our annual Winter Waters event at the Patsy Clark Mansion in Spokane on March 6th 2020. This year the event honored the Spokane River and it’s Flow Champions:
American Whitewater- Thomas O’Keefe
ROW Adventures- Peter Grubb
Silver Bow Fly Shop- Sean Visintainer
FLOW Adventures- Jon Wilmot
 
The event also launched a statewide campaign to protect a clean, flowing Spokane River, a Sierra Club initiative.
 
Thank you to our generous sponsors!
 

Clean & Abundant Water Lobby Day Feb. 25th 2020

The Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance coordinated our second annual Clean & Abundant Waters Lobby Day on February 25th. We met with over 46 legislators to advocate for bills that protect our waterways, salmon, and orca. Our six priority bills included the Commerical Water Bottling Bill (ESSB 6278), Reusable Bag Bill (ESSB 5323), Styrofoam Ban (E2SSB 6213), Motorized/Suction Dredge Mining Bill (ESHB 1261), Water & Energy Conservation C-PACER (E2SHB 2405), Ecology’s Drought Legislation (ESHB 1622). Attendees received hands-on advocacy training and met with like-minded community members from across the state.

Special thanks to Puget Soundkeeper Alliance for coordinating lobby day with us. Thanks to Waterkeeper Alliance groups, Columbia Riverkeeper, Spokane Riverkeeper, North Sound Baykeeper, Twin Harbors Waterkeeper, and to Trout Unlimited, RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, the Lewis County Water Alliance, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, and everyone else who made it to Olympia to support clean and abundant water.

 
 
 
 
CELP hosts many events each calendar year.   We hope to see you at one soon!