Conservation Leaders Network

Programs: We continued to organize county officials to advocate for clean water nationally. We generated letters from county officials in a successful initiative to urge the obama administration to initiate the clean water guidance process and then gathered letters from county commissioners expressing support of clean water during the epa's public comment period. We hosted "local officials for clean water" receptions during the national association of counties' legislative conference in washington dc in march and annual conference in portland or in july. We initiated a clean water email alert to keep county officials members abreast of progress at the national level. We continued to work on marine conservation. We advocated to protect gray whales from wave energy facilities in oregon. We also solicited letters in support of ecosystem based management from coastal officials in wa, or and ca for the pacific fisheries management council. We worked on renewable energy on federal lands, generating letters to the department of interior regarding solar development on blm lands. We brought our "conservation makes sense" booth to the national association of counties' annual conference in portland or. We also worked with pro-environment members of the national association of counties public lands and environment, energy and land use committees. One accomplishment was helping to get a "good samaritan" resolution passed unanimously through both committees, which supports allowing volunteer efforts to clean up abandoned mines. We hosted "local officials for clean water" receptions with the national wildlife federation in march and oregon wild in july. Our newsletter, "networker", went from quarterly to monthly publication; we provided members with notices of funding opportunities for counties.