Community Calendar

Bring Your Outdoor Experiences In and Support Our Inland NW Natural Areas!
See & Collect Paintings of Our Inland NW Natural Areas by Artist LR Montgomery.

Opening Reception, Wednesday, June 24th, 5 PM - 8 PM.
At The MAC's Helen South Alexander Gallery.
Opening Includes Short Talks By Natural Area Leaders & LR Montgomery at 6 PM.

Show Dates - June 24 - July 29, during regular Museum Hours
Designated proceeds from sale of each painting will support Inland NW Natural Areas.

Bring Your Outdoor Experiences In and Support Our Inland NW Natural Areas!
See & Collect Paintings of Our Inland NW Natural Areas by Artist LR Montgomery.

Opening Reception, Wednesday, June 24th, 5 PM - 8 PM.
At The MAC's Helen South Alexander Gallery.
Opening Includes Short Talks By Natural Area Leaders & LR Montgomery at 6 PM.

Show Dates - June 24 - July 29, during regular Museum Hours
Designated proceeds from sale of each painting will support Inland NW Natural Areas.

Bring Your Outdoor Experiences In and Support Our Inland NW Natural Areas!
See & Collect Paintings of Our Inland NW Natural Areas by Artist LR Montgomery.

Opening Reception, Wednesday, June 24th, 5 PM - 8 PM.
At The MAC's Helen South Alexander Gallery.
Opening Includes Short Talks By Natural Area Leaders & LR Montgomery at 6 PM.

Show Dates - June 24 - July 29, during regular Museum Hours
Designated proceeds from sale of each painting will support Inland NW Natural Areas.

Bring Your Outdoor Experiences In and Support Our Inland NW Natural Areas!
See & Collect Paintings of Our Inland NW Natural Areas by Artist LR Montgomery.

Opening Reception, Wednesday, June 24th, 5 PM - 8 PM.
At The MAC's Helen South Alexander Gallery.
Opening Includes Short Talks By Natural Area Leaders & LR Montgomery at 6 PM.

Show Dates - June 24 - July 29, during regular Museum Hours
Designated proceeds from sale of each painting will support Inland NW Natural Areas.

Bring Your Outdoor Experiences In and Support Our Inland NW Natural Areas!
See & Collect Paintings of Our Inland NW Natural Areas by Artist LR Montgomery.

Opening Reception, Wednesday, June 24th, 5 PM - 8 PM.
At The MAC's Helen South Alexander Gallery.
Opening Includes Short Talks By Natural Area Leaders & LR Montgomery at 6 PM.

Show Dates - June 24 - July 29, during regular Museum Hours
Designated proceeds from sale of each painting will support Inland NW Natural Areas.

Bring Your Outdoor Experiences In and Support Our Inland NW Natural Areas!
See & Collect Paintings of Our Inland NW Natural Areas by Artist LR Montgomery.

Opening Reception, Wednesday, June 24th, 5 PM - 8 PM.
At The MAC's Helen South Alexander Gallery.
Opening Includes Short Talks By Natural Area Leaders & LR Montgomery at 6 PM.

Show Dates - June 24 - July 29, during regular Museum Hours
Designated proceeds from sale of each painting will support Inland NW Natural Areas.

Bring Your Outdoor Experiences In and Support Our Inland NW Natural Areas!
See & Collect Paintings of Our Inland NW Natural Areas by Artist LR Montgomery.

Opening Reception, Wednesday, June 24th, 5 PM - 8 PM.
At The MAC's Helen South Alexander Gallery.
Opening Includes Short Talks By Natural Area Leaders & LR Montgomery at 6 PM.

Show Dates - June 24 - July 29, during regular Museum Hours
Designated proceeds from sale of each painting will support Inland NW Natural Areas.

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.

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.