Center for Environmental Law & Policy

07/13/2026

We are proud to co host this event for PNW Climate Week!

We hope to see you there!

📅 Tuesday, July 14, 2026

🕠 5:30–7:30 PM PDT

📍 Ballard Branch, Seattle Public Library (5614 22nd Ave NW, Seattle)

Come join us as we connect regional climate science with the water challenges people and ecosystems are already experiencing across the Pacific Northwest. Through presentations and community discussion, we will explore:
🌧️ Changes in precipitation and seasonal water availability
🏔️ Declining snowpack and changing runoff timing
☀️ Drought and water-supply pressures
🌊 Flooding and increasingly variable extremes
💧 Water quality and aquatic ecosystem impacts
🏘️ Community impacts, environmental justice, and local resilience

Featured speakers:
🔹 Guillaume Mauger, State Climatologist with the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group,
🔹 Paulina López Bermúdez, Executive Director of the Duwamish River Community Coalition
🔹 Chris Wilke, Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Law & Policy (co host)

🔹 Cohost and Moderator: Chen Xu, PhD Washington State University Hydrologist and Climate Scientist

Registration info in comments 👇

Understanding Climate Impacts on PNW Water: Connecting Climate Change to Local Water Realities This in-person symposium will connect regional climate science…

05/27/2026

May 28 (Tomorrow!) 9:00am (Pacific)

Rivers for Climate Coalition, along with Living Rivers Foundation and the Water Working Group of the German Forum on the Environment are hosting a webinar: Free Flow - Restoring Rivers for Better Fish Migration, featuring efforts to remove the lower-four Snake River dams in Washington State, as well as other dam removal efforts in Europe.

Kayeloni Scott with the Columbia/Snake River Campaign will join as a presenter!

The event is being held as part of Day - officially May 23 this year, but with events all month long.

Register here: TinyURL.com/FreeFlowWebinar

[ CELP is a proud member of Rivers for Climate ]

05/02/2026

Our Spring Newsletter is out!

Please share!
https://celp.org/2026/05/01/washington-water-watch-spring-2026/

04/23/2026

🌍 Today, for we thought we'd join others in sharing an image of the well-known Climate .

What's different about this image? See below👇

Globally, the last 3 years were the 3 warmest years in history, and the last 11 were the warmest 11! With El Niño returning rapidly, 2026 is unfortunately poised for another run at the records. Stay tuned.

This image is calibrated specifically for our region (based on Seattle data), with data current through the end of 2025.

For the 3 years, and now entering our 4th, we also have state droughts declared due to low mountain snowpack that feeds our streams. This is not a surprise. As the climate continues to warm, models predict this will occur at least 40% of the time by the 2040s and that already tracks with trends we see over just the last few years.

Drought means low stream flows and more pressure on salmon, the ecosystem as a whole, and human systems that rely on natural water availability.
It impacts both water quality and water quantity.

This is why work to protect flows and stream habitat IS important climate work.







Image credit: (Professor Ed Hawkins, climate warming stripes creator)

👀 To view more climate stripes overlays of ours or other regions, visit the University of Reading's page (link in the comments).

🔗 You can link to our site there as well to read about our work!

03/22/2026

March 22 is !

We are taking this day to celebrate Washington's rivers, lakes, bays and coasts and remember that it's up to all of us to protect them.

What waterways are you thinking about today?




📸 Carbon River tributary

03/18/2026

So great to participate in the 44th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) at University of Oregon last week.

Great presentations, learning, collaborations and community! 🙌

We helped lead a panel comparing water law in OR, WA, and CA with Water Climate Trust and Water League.

We also signed up new activists and volunteers! 🌊

Photo: Boardmember Christian Murillo and Executive Director Chris Wilke

02/09/2026

Huge Championship Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks the NFL team with the COOLEST mascot (at least according to local bird nerds we know)! 🏈🏆

Although there is some speculation of other bird species possibly also representing the Seahawk name, we are going with Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) because they are an important species that arrives to our rivers and coastal beaches locally every spring, many times to the same nest. Who will see the first one this year?

They are definitely "champion migrators", with most local birds arriving from their winter grounds in Mexico and Central America (and some locations around the U.S. receiving birds from as far south as Venezuela or Argentina).

We also know they are champion fishers and one of the few raptors that can dive completely into the water, to pluck out a fish beneath the surface and take to the air again. We've even witnessed them plucking small bottom fish out of the surf zone. 🐟

We also love the logo which many acknowledge is a nod to PNW Indigenous art, culture and symbolism. 🙌

One thing both PNW Bird fans or football fans agree on: When I say "Sea".....You say: "HAWKS!"

📸 NASA Kennedy Space Center

02/03/2026

Happy World Wetlands Day!
💙🦆🐟🦐🎣🌳🐸🐢🪿🦋🐝🌿🌎💚

Did you know that half of the wetlands in the lower 48 US states are GONE? This according to archived content from 2024 still available on the US Fish and Wildlife website.

This causes immeasurable losses to water quality, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration and stream flows.

Let's celebrate and defend remaining wetlands!

WASHINGTON — A new report released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reveals wetlands – 95 percent of which are freshwater — covered less than 6 percent of the lower 48 states as of 2019 – which is half the area they covered since the 1780s. The report also identifies that loss rates hav...

01/03/2026

Time is running out! Take action today to defend our waters.

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/dont-let-epas-giveaway-to-polluters-stand-act-now-to-defend-the-clean-water/

Deadline: Monday, January 5, 2026 11:59 PM EST

Say NO to EPA’s Dirty Water proposal: The Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is putting thousands of protected waterways and wetlands at risk from toxic pollution, livestock waste, sewage, or in many cases– complete destruction through fill and alteration. For years t...

12/24/2025

Wishing everyone a healthy, peaceful and happy holidays! ❄️

Thanks for all your support in 2025! We couldn't protect clean flowing waters without you! 🫶

📸 Skagit River, Christian Murillo Photography