Trish Rolfe, CELP Executive Director; Sara Foster; Dave Monthie, CELP Board member.
Photo credit: Yelm Community Blog, Oct. 15, 2015.


– Editor’s Note:
Congratulations to Yelm’s Sara Foster for her perseverance in bringing crucial water issues to the forefront in a statewide conversation. While often derided as a City of Yelm combatant, such is far from the case as Foster stood for her own property’s rights. Those in Yelm City Hall calling Ms. Foster or anyone a “city combatant” or “against growth” because they challenged the city in raising issues and asking pertinent questions about Yelm’s use of Ecology-allocated water, stand with no backbone, as this city lost two major water rights cases in the Supreme Court, though changes in the Hirst decision may bring the city more water rights in the future. This kind of denigration from city officials similarly occurred in the JZ Knight vs. City of Yelm, et al case, as well.
Bravo to Sara Foster for holding her head high!


– “Congratulations to Our 2018 Ralph W. Johnson Water Hero Award Honorees!”
Sara Foster, Lauren Leigh Brakke, David Stalheim, Eric Hirst & Wendy Harris

“On June 7, 2018, the Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CELP) will host its annual Celebrate Water event to commemorate another successful year of CELP’s work in Washington State and present the Ralph W. Johnson Award.”

“We will be recognizing these five individuals for their activism and involvement in the Hirst and Foster cases brought before the Washington State Supreme Court, which ultimately resulted in improved protections and management of our state’s rivers and streams.

“The Ralph W. Johnson Water Hero Award is given in honor of CELP’s founder, Professor Ralph W. Johnson, a law professor at University of Washington Law School who established the legal discipline of Indian Law and advanced legal understandings of protections for public waters. Past recipients of the award include Dr. John Osborn; University of Washington Law School Professor Bill Rodgers; Billy Frank Jr., on behalf of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission; Swinomish Indian Tribal Community; and Upper Columbia United Tribes.”
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– About CELP
“The Center for Environmental Law & Policy is a statewide organization whose mission is to protect, preserve and restore Washingtons (sic) waters through education, policy reform, agency advocacy, and public interest litigation. Indeed, with climate change reducing our glaciers and threatening our groundwater supply and a growing population spurring more development, water is becoming increasingly scarce in Washington. That shortage makes CELP’s work of promoting sustainable use of our water resources more imperative than ever. We hope you can join us on June 7, and raise much-needed funds for CELP’s important work in Washington!”
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