This is a placeholder page for a handbook on the law for conservation activists. I (Dean Wallraff) am an experienced environmental activist and a law student. In learning about the law I discovered a lot of information of great value to conservation activists.

The three main pillars of environmental activism are:

• Political: directly persuading decision-makers – elected representatives, their staffs and the staffs of government agencies – can do a lot.
• Grassroots: getting a lot of more or less ordinary citizens involved can help persuade the decision makers.
• Legal: this usually means a lawsuit, or a credible threat of one. Legal knowledge is also useful during the course of administrative processes, to help get information in the record that will provide the basis for a legal challenge.

The handbook will provide background information to help with the legal part of environmental activism. The project is roughly outlined in the (non-working) menu at the left. The intent is not to provide a mini-treatise on each subject, but rather a look at the lay of the land, with appropriate references to other Web and printed information. An activist should be able to figure out roughly what can be done with the law in the particular area, and will be referred elsewhere for details on what the law is and how to do it.

The handbook is intended to be useful to activists across the United States. In each subject area it will cover federal law, California state law (California, in most cases, has fairly progressive and complete environmental legislation), and the law of one other state with relatively weak environmental protection. I did a recent poll of Sierra Club chapter conservation chairs, asking which state had the worst or weakest environmental laws, and the results pointed to Alabama. We will discuss the law in California and an environmentally weak state, and provide information on how you can research the law in your own state.

We would be glad to have help with this project. Please contact me if you are interested in helping. I plan to have this done and ready for publication as a Nolo Press-style book by May, 2010