Community Calendar

As the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation rise, and we continue to witness as communities of color, Indigenous communities, low income communities and children are placed on the frontlines of environmental pollution and harm, we can no longer rely on federal and state legislation that are designed to accommodate environmental pollution and degradation rather than prevent it. There is a solution: bypass the laws and turn to the ultimate authority—our state and federal constitutions. Green Amendments (now in 3 states with 18 more on the way) provide constitutional recognition of environmental rights as inalienable and give the highest level of legal protection. Learn what a Green Amendment is, what it does, and how it brings transformational change to our US system of laws and governance when it comes to the environment. Learn how you can be a leader in securing meaningful constitutional environmental rights for your community.

Maya K. Van Rossum is the Founder of Green Amendments For the Generations, a grassroots non-profit inspiring the national movement to secure constitutional recognition and protection of environmental rights in every state and ultimately at the federal level. Maya, a licensed attorney, is the author of numerous publications, including her book The Green Amendment, The People’s Fight For a Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment, now in its second edition, in which she coined and defined the term “Green Amendment”. Maya is also the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the 4 state, watershed-based advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for 30 years. She co-hosts Green Genes, an environmental podcast with her daughter. Since launching her Green Amendment movement, New York passed an amendment in 2021, proposals are advancing in 19 additional states, with half a dozen more on the way, and there is increasing use (including with Maya’s assistance) of the Green Amendments that now exist in Pennsylvania, New York and Montana.

“Birds by Design: Creating Landscapes that Support Wildlife and People,“ presented by Christopher Szymberski, will also be available on-line via Zoom link available at www.audubonspokane.org.
Symberski, founder of Theoria Designs Landscapes for Life (www.theorialandscapes.com) based in North Idaho, is a horticulturist and landscape architect focused on ecologically rich and functional landscaping. He will explore how thoughtful planning can create healthier habitat for birds while also enriching the places where people live, work, and gather.

This session will provide an overview of climate-induced migration in the US context, with particular attention to the impacts on and opportunities for local communities. A simple framework will be presented to help guide the conversation and help attendees better understand why it is important for small towns and large cities alike to consider how they might integrate preparedness activities into their comprehensive plans, climate action or adaptation plans, and other guiding documents. Some of the questions to consider during this session: Will climate change bring newcomers to my community and who might arrive? How can my community build capacity to respond? What welcoming infrastructure do communities need to think about to prepare for newcomers? How does welcoming advance or affect resilience and sustainability? What next steps can interested practitioners and local leaders take to advance the local conversation? We’ll leave plenty of time for questions and discussion.

For decades, environmental law in the United States has operated primarily within a conservation framework that regulates pollution and extraction while continuing to treat the natural world as property for human use. As climate disruption intensifies and biodiversity loss accelerates, this model is increasingly criticized as structurally incapable of preventing ecological harm at its roots. This lecture examines an emerging jurisprudential shift: the movement from protecting nature as an object of regulation to recognizing ecosystems as subjects of legal rights. Focusing on Rights of Nature as both a legal and philosophical development, the presentation will explore how this framework challenges anthropocentric assumptions embedded in conventional environmental and property law. It asks what follows when rivers, watersheds, forests, and other ecosystems are understood not merely as resources, but as living systems with interests the law should recognize and protect. The lecture will also consider how this shift reframes the relationship between human communities and the natural world, emphasizing that human health, stability, and flourishing are inseparable from the flourishing of the ecosystems on which communities depend. Alongside developments in Washington State, the talk will situate these questions within a broader global movement, tracing how jurisdictions and communities around the world are advancing new legal approaches to ecological governance. The result is not simply a new environmental doctrine, but a deeper challenge to the assumptions that have long structured modern law.

As climate change drives more extreme heat, drought, flooding, wildfires, and other disasters, frontline communities, especially those already living without running water or functioning plumbing, face the greatest risks. More than two million people in the United States currently live in the water access gap (i.e. without safe water or sanitation in their homes), and millions more are vulnerable to climate-driven water quality degradation, water supply disruptions, and disasters that can quickly wipe out their access to water and wastewater services. This presentation examines how communities, cities, and utilities are working to adapt and build climate-resilient water and sanitation services. It explores key questions: How can communities strengthen their built and natural infrastructure, improve water management and planning, and advance laws and policies that support long-term resilience? What types of funding, technology, and information are available—and accessible—to support these efforts? Drawing on findings from Achieving Equitable, Climate-Resilient Water and Sanitation for Frontline Communities by Pacific Institute, Center for Water Security and Cooperation, and DigDeep, the talk highlights major barriers that hinder equitable climate resilience in the United States, including historic underinvestment, affordability challenges, inadequate data, and gaps in capacity and governance. It also showcases real-world strategies from across the country that center community voices, address historical inequities, enhance climate readiness, and expand access to safe, reliable, climate-resilient water and sanitation.