Advocacy

Conservation Advocacy

A major strength in being entirely run by volunteers is that we owe nothing to major corporations, business interests, or governmental agencies. We can focus on our mission of ecological sustainability without worrying about the loss of corporate sponsorship or about trying to raise sufficient funds to cover a large payroll. We can freely speak our minds to agencies that develop policies. Conservation advocacy through administrative and legal processes has become a major program area. We have become a watershed-wide voice for volunteer conservationists in legal and other advocacy efforts.

We are fortunate to have some pro-bono assistance from Earthjustice, a national legal firm that focuses on ecological sustainability. Earthjustice has worked with LSPWA and other partner groups to require that agencies follow all laws and Acts of Congress before granting permits to a private corporation that wants to build an "instant city" on the San Pedro River. This "instant city" plan would rely upon massive amounts of groundwater withdrawal.

Recently, we have joined with Cascabel Conservation Association and other groups and individual donors to engage the services of Tully Bailey, LLP to help with our effort the stop the development of a proposed new industrial-scale infrastructure corridor though 33 miles of the most remote and ecologically sensitive portion of the San Pedro River ecosystem, the middle San Pedro conservation zone. Here is the link to the most recent filing related to that effort:

https://docket.images.azcc.gov/0000208180.pdf?i=1671128470595