Keeping the Issues Alive Students organize world's largest environmental law conference. By Ted Taylor They soon will arrive -- in silk suits, ragged sweatshirts, traditional dresses, dreadlocks, Native American braids and crew cuts. People of all ages and stages from more than 30 nations are packing their bags for Eugene. It's time for the 19th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. The PIELC March 1-4 is sponsored by Land Air Water (L.A.W.) at UO and Friends of Land Air Water (F.L.A.W.) It will include participation this year by members of Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW), and several other groups are planning their annual meetings so that their members can also attend the PIELC. Co-directors this year number four, twice as many as in previous years. Jennifer Soice, Jeff Adams, Erin Landis and Matt Hartman, all second-year law students, are scrambling day and night to organize a monumental 130 panel discussions, more than a dozen keynote speeches, meals, housing, entertainment and registration for an expected 3,000 attorneys, students, scientists, activists and concerned citizens. The volunteers are barely able to keep up with their studies these weeks. "At spring break, it's going to be just me and the library," says Soice. "Keeping the Issues Alive" is the theme this year. "The theme came from the poem by Ed Sanders that talks about the segregation of the movement," says Soice. "It's split up in so many different parts. Everyone has their own little battles they are trying to fight, but we realize it's a bigger movement than that." This will be the first year when the opening address will not be by the visionary conservationist David Brower, founder of Friends of the Earth and former executive director of the Sierra Club. Brower died Nov. 5 at the age of 88 and his life work will be honored at the conference. Scott Beckstead is the director of Oregon's Central Coast Humane Society and a director of Humane Oregon, a statewide political action committee formed to advance pro-animal legislation and defeat anti-animal candidates. As an attorney, he has advocated for animals in the court and in the political arena. His co-authored Animal Law is the first case book ever on the subject. Ward Churchill is co-director of the American Indian Movement of Colorado, vice-chair of the American Anti-Defamation Council, and national spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. He is an associate professor of American Indian Studies and Communications at the University of Colorado, and author of several books including, Indians Are Us, Fantasies of the Master Race, and Struggle for the Land. William B. Gould IV is a professor at Stanford Law School since 1972 and has specialized in labor law, comparative labor law, and employment discrimination law. He is currently writing a book about his great-grandfather, an escaped slave who served in the U.S. Navy during the War of the Rebellion (Civil War).   Julia Butterfly Hill. .   Julia Butterfly Hill in late 1997 climbed an ancient redwood tree to prevent its being cut. Ultimately she lived for 738 days 180 feet above the forest floor, garnering media attention to the plight of the world's ancient forests. While living in the branches of the tree she named Luna, Hill founded the Circle of Life Foundation to promote awareness. Recently, Luna was attacked with chain saws and arborists are working to save her.   David Korten. .   David Korten is president and founder of the People-Centered Development Forum, a global alliance dedicated to the creation of just, inclusive and sustainable societies through voluntary citizen action. He is a writer, teacher, and consultant specializing in alternative development theory, and author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World. Nat Quansah is a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for 2000. By developing the Integrated Health Care and Conservation Program in Madagascar, Quansah has linked environmental conservation with health care .His advocacy for the use of local medicinal plants in the treatment of certain diseases has helped the Malagasy people understand the importance of preserving their island's resources. Karin P. Sheldon is director of the Environmental Law Center, Vermont Law School. She was previously president of the E-LAW U.S. Board and general counsel and acting president of the Wilderness Society. Sheldon has litigated precedent-setting cases in natural resources and energy law as a staff attorney with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, and as a partner in one of the first private public-interest law firms in the nation. Justice Paul Stein of the New South Wales Court of Appeal in Australia has been one of the pioneering judges in Australian environmental law. He previously served 12 years on the NSW Land and Environment Court, one of the few environmental courts in the world. His extra-judicial work includes training judges in Indonesia and being a patron of Earthrights U.K., a public-interest law firm (E-LAW England and Wales). Paul Watson is founder of Sea Shepherd International and founding director of Greenpeace Foundation. He has a long history as a defender of the environment and as a protector of the high seas, and has become internationally renowned for his daring tactics. Under his leadership, Sea Shepherd has been in the forefront of marine wildlife conservation, and is known for its aggressive confrontation and use of the media to bring attention to conservation and environmental issues. Terry Tempest Williams is one of the best-known nature writers in the country. Her books include Refuge: An Unnatural History of Place, Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape, and Leap. She has served as a naturalist-in-residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Williams has also been the recipient of numerous awards for her dedication in protecting the West. Her writing reflects her intimate relationship with the natural world. Lottie Cunningham Wren is a Miskito lawyer and the Nicaragua legal field officer for the International Human Rights Law Group. She conducts human rights training for indigenous and community leaders, and works to protect indigenous communities regarding transformation, sale, and exploitation of land. She is a professor in the Law School of the Bluefields Indian Caribbean University and teaches at the Urracan University. She previously was a public prosecutor for the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. Beverly Wright is a sociologist and leading scholar on environmental and economic justice, and public policy. She is the founder and director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Xavier University in New Orleans. For more than a decade, she has directed grassroots, community-initiated health surveys, evaluated community buyouts, and supervised community development initiatives around contaminated sites. Palo Zilincik is one of the first environmental lawyers in Central Europe, co-founding Slovakia's Center for Environmental Public Advocacy and founding E-LAW Slovakia. He represents residents who live in the path of planned dam projects, citizens seeking to prevent excessive logging, groups concerned with protecting wolves and other wildlife, and the human rights of activists confronting the power of the state. Linking Up The PIELC is "a tremendous gathering of a cross-section of people," says Doug Heiken, an attorney with the Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC) in Eugene, and himself a former UO law student. "It's billed as an environmental law conference, but really its value is in linking up scientists with lawyers with activists, because none of them can effectively advocate without the others." Pete Frost, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) in Eugene, has attended PIELC for many years and was an organizer when he was in law school. "It has taken on a life of its own and it is many things to many people," says Frost. "It's an important gathering of activists and public interest attorneys. It's also a spiritual celebration of where the conservation movement is and may go." Frost says the conference brings together "a range of experts across a range of natural resource issues, whether they are attorneys, media people, scientists or grassroots activists." International Flavor The PIELC, founded in 1983 by Mike Axline and John Bonine, has drawn environmental attorneys from other countries for many years, but this year E-LAW will be sending 62 people from 31 countries, according to Bern Johnson of Eugene, E-LAW's U.S. executive director. E-LAW will have its conference in Yachats just before the PIELC, and will contribute keynote speakers from Slovakia and Nicaragua. "It adds a real international flavor to the conference," says Johnson. E-LAW helps coordinate and support the efforts of lawyers around the world in defense of the environment. Heiken is also enthusiastic about the gathering of like-minded people from many countries. "It's a technology transfer," says Heiken. "We can figure out what tools are working in one part of the world and see if there is some way to spread these tools around." Extraordinary Sacrifice "The coordinators are wonderful, wonderful people," says Frost of this year's leadership group. "They are bright and energetic and doing a marvelous job with this year's conference 4 it promises to be one of the best." He says coordinating the conference requires "an extraordinary sacrifice of time, but I think it's also very rewarding." UO Law School Professor and Associate Dean James O'Fallon agrees. "We have nothing but admiration for the students and their energy," he says. "This is the largest student-organized program of any sort that I am aware of ... and the substance of the program is a significant educational opportunity, not just for the students but for the larger community as well." One of the greatest challenges for the students involves organizing the panel discussions and keynote speakers. There's no shortage of ideas, says Hartman. "Students come up with ideas," he says. "They have a particular interest in an area and they know somebody working in the field and they research it." Ideas also come from people in the community. "People want to talk about what they're doing," says Soice. "We stopped taking panel ideas a month ago and people are still calling in, and they are so disappointed that we have no spots for them." The panel discussions include international law, urban sprawl, pesticides and salmon, primate research, hazardous wastes, sacred living, global warming, mining laws, eco-taxation, national parks, biotechnology, indigenous and tribal rights, wilderness zoning, salvage logging, oil and gas litigation, suing multinationals, alternative media, population, free trade, whaling, Lane County land use, and direct action. Passionate Politics Not all the interactions at past conferences have been cordial and polite. Heated discussions have erupted in panel sessions over tactics and methods. Tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill was heckled and interrupted last year during her keynote talk, and a distraught young woman came up on the stage to confront Hill for "selling out" to a timber company, a reference to a financial arrangement that ended Hill's tree-sit and saved the ancient tree she had occupied. "The Julia Butterfly Hill incident was very well handled by the organizers," says Frost. "The next day, the young woman apologized to Julia, and Julia will be opening the conference this year." Frost says, "If we do not have conflicts among us, then we are probably not thinking and fighting hard enough to get done what we should do. "In so many other places, that conflict would have erupted into something very different, but in Eugene that conflict was recognized as a legitimate outpouring of passion," says Frost. The student organizers say they are not hoping for a replay of the Hill incident. "We ask that people respect the speakers we bring to the conference and let them air their opinions," says Landis. He says questions and public input are expected, especially during the panel discussions. "We welcome all people that come, no matter what their views. A lot of the people who come are part of the 'rowdy bunch' and they traditionally contribute a lot to the conference." O'Fallon says he hesitates to call the passionate activists "rowdy." "It's quite an eclectic collection of people and they come in very large numbers, so that by itself leads to crowds, but they are generally quite respectful of the space." O'Fallon notes that the conference is too large for the Law School building and sessions are spread out across the campus with keynote talks held in the Erb Memorial Union Ballroom. An Uneasy History The UO Law School saw conflict and controversy over environmental law in the late 1970s when WELC was operating on campus, effectively challenging timber sales in the Northwest. Timber baron Aaron Jones of Seneca Lumber and others threatened to withdraw their financial support for the university, claiming the small but effective organization (then called the Western Natural Resources Law Clinic) was not a "legitimate" academic program. "The timber industry fought hard," says Frost, and got the clinic moved off-campus in 1981, two years before the first PIELC. "But what they got in the end was the formation of an independent non-profit with a greater number of attorneys 4 in three offices in three states 4 and it continues to supervise clinic students." Today, Frost says, "there may be some residual friction, but I think the school faculty and administration realize this conference helps keep this school on the world map, and highlights and celebrates the good work of its natural resource faculty." "There's enough of an environmental community there at the Law School and this conference is such a big thing that nobody can deny its success or value," says Heiken. "They might be gritting their teeth tolerating it, but it's gotten too big to put back in the bottle." The coordinators of this year's conference agree. "L.A.W. is an independent student organization," says Landis. "We are not funded directly by the Law School and our views don't necessarily fall in line with the Law School's views on all the issues. They don't contribute to the ideals of the conference, but they definitely support the conference taking place." "How can you be opposed to environmental protection, really?" asks Landis. "There's economics arguments, but when it comes down to it, everybody needs clean air, clean water and a piece of dirt to live on." "Well," responds Adams, "You can argue about how you get there."  How To Participate The PIELC begins Thursday afternoon, March 1 and continues through Sunday brunch. PIELC registration for attorneys and professionals is $95, for students and citizens the suggested donation is $20 to $50. A registration fee of $5 is asked per workshop attended. Childcare is available for a suggested donation of $5 to $15. Registration forms and an updated schedule of events are available on-line at www.pielc.uoregon.edu or at the front steps of the UO Law School, beginning Thursday afternoon, March 1. For information, call L.A.W. at 346-3828. Keynote speeches are free and open to the public at the EMU on campus; however, seating is limited. Julia Butterfly Hill and David Korten are scheduled keynote speakers at 7 pm Thursday. Judge Paul Stein and Bill Gould IV are keynote speakers at 12:40 pm Friday. Ward Churchill and Paul Watson are keynote speakers at 7 pm Friday. Karin Sheldon and Beverly Wright are keynote speakers at 11:45 Saturday. Nat Quansah and Terry Tempest Williams are keynote speakers at 7:30 pm Saturday. Scott Beckstead and Palo Zilinck are keynote speakers at 12:40 Sunday. Please check the updated schedule for panel discussion times and places, and possible changes and additions. -- TJT Table of Contents | News & Views | Arts & Entertainment Classifieds | Personals | EW Archive