Webinar on the Public Trust and Watersheds

Submitted By: phillip@oregonshores.org – Click to email about this post

Two coastal conservation groups are joining forces to host a webinar which will explore a fundamental concept in resource protection: the nature of the public trust. North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection and Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition are teaming up to host a virtual talk by Mary Wood, a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law and author of “Nature’s Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age.” She will speak on the concept of the public trust as it relates to coastal watersheds. This event takes place on Monday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m. It is free and open to all.

Professor Wood will discuss how natural resources that forests provide—including clean drinking water and breathable air—belong to the public trust. She will relate this concept to the way in which extractive practices of industrial forestry (such as clearcutting followed by pesticide spraying) have grave impacts to water, wildlife, and the public health of many communities on the coast and elsewhere in Oregon.

Mary Christina Wood is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Law at the University of Oregon and the Faculty Director of the law school’s nationally acclaimed Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center. She is an award-winning professor and the co-author of leading textbooks on public trust law and natural resources law. Her book, “Nature’s Trust,” sets forth a new paradigm of global ecological responsibility.

Prof. Wood originated the legal approach called Atmospheric Trust Litigation, now being used in cases brought on behalf of youth throughout the world who are seeking to hold governments accountable to reduce carbon pollution within their jurisdictions. She has developed a corresponding approach called Atmospheric Recovery Litigation which would hold fossil fuel companies responsible for funding an Atmospheric Recovery Plan to draw down excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere using natural climate solutions. Professor Wood is a frequent speaker on climate issues and has received national and international attention for her sovereign trust approach to global climate policy.

To register, for this event, go to: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sceitpj4jGt1JEjtK1Rz9wjjpwo7P-7y1. Registration links can also be found on the websites of the sponsoring organizations, www.healthywatershed.org or www.oregonshores.org.

For more information, contact Nancy Webster, (971) 386-3788, rockawaycitizen.water@gmail.com.