The Earthrise Law Center’s East Coast Office kicked off 2025 with a series of high-impact advocacy efforts.
On January 17, 2025, in conjunction with EarthJustice, Earthrise filed a Comment on behalf of its client, Standing Trees, raising objections to a proposed logging project in the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont that would log old growth and in roadless areas. Clinical student Ella Devine has played a key role in advancing the case throughout the academic year.
In February, Earthrise assisted the Connecticut River Conservancy in submitting comments on a draft Water Quality Certification for the relicensing of two hydroelectric facilities—Turners Falls Dam and the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station—on the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts. Clinical students, Maggie Baker and Ian Connolly, and legal fellow Zach Nacev, were instrumental in developing arguments that the water quality certification must have stricter conditions to protect aquatic life, including federally endangered shortnose sturgeon.
On March 14, 2025, Earthrise partnered with American Whitewater in filing a Petition for Review in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision to deny American Whitewater’s motion to intervene in a license surrender application for a dam on the Niangua River. Clinical students Courtney McCoy and Riley Sanders have carried the laboring oar on this case and our other work with American Whitewater and its Deadbeat Dams Law Project.
On March 24, 2025, Earthrise filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in the Massachusetts Appeals Court in a case that could shape the future of water conservation policy in the state. Representing eleven environmental organizations—including longtime clients Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, Ipswich River Watershed Association, and Parker River Clean Water Association—Earthrise addressed the escalating risks of water withdrawals during drought conditions, particularly in the era of climate change. Clinical student Alicia Loecker and legal fellow Lydia Dexter carried the ball on our brief, which focuses on the synergistic harms of excessive water withdrawals in combination with the ever-increasing impacts of climate change.
From protecting river systems to preserving old-growth forests, Earthrise continues to provide essential legal support to environmental organizations working to safeguard ecosystems across the United States.
