Join us at Celebrate Water 2018 to commemorate yet another successful year of CELP’s work to protect and preserve WA’s waters and to honor our five recipients of the Ralph W. Johnson Water Hero Award!

  • Event: Celebrate Water, hosted by CELP
  • When: Thursday, June 7th
  • CLE Workshop: 4-5pm
  • Reception: 5:30-8pm
  • Where: Ivar’s Salmon House 401 NE Northlake Way, Seattle
  • Tickets: Purchase online or at the door

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

CELP will be honoring Sara Foster, Laura Leigh Brakke, David Stalheim, Eric Hirst and Wendy Harris with the Ralph W. Johnson Water Hero Award at Celebrate Water 2018. 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 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.

The Center for Environmental Law & Policy is a statewide organization whose mission is to protect, preserve and restore Washingtons 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.

CELP will also be hosting a Continuing Legal Education workshop* immediately before the event reception:

  • Speaker: Robert T. Anderson — Charles I. Stone Professor and Director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law, and the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
  • Topic: The Culvert Case at the Supreme Court: Where do we go from here?
  • Description: The United States Supreme Court heard oral argument April 18 in United States v. Washington, a case with broad implications for tribal treaty rights and restoration of salmon habitat. Prof. Anderson will discuss the history of this case and its importance for tribal rights, as well as possible outcomes and their impacts.
  • Register: Online or at the door

*CELP has applied for 1 CLE credit.

Thank you to our sponsors!

River Sponsor

Stream Sponsors

Smith & Lowney, PLLC

Friend of CELP

Columbia Institute for Water Policy

Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team

South Sound Group Sierra Club

The Law Offices of M. Patrick Williams

Non-profit Sponsor

Olympia Urban Waters League

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