Meet OGC Mission Fund Recipient: Western Environmental Law Center
The climate is quickly changing, and the world is seeing severe impacts because of those changes. The climate needs a staunch protector, and it’s found that in the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC).
In a highly publicized recent climate case, Held v. State of Montana, WELC worked with partners and 16 Montana youths to sue the state to protect Montanans’ constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. At court, the young plaintiffs shared the devasting effects that wildfires, drought and floods have had on their lives. And they won the case! Now, thanks to this victory, the state must disclose the true climate impact of its decisions and take the environment into account when making future decisions. For the first time in U.S. history, these experts and many others laid out the scope and severity of the climate crisis in a trial setting.
This is just one of the projects that WELC has taken on to protect our planet and fight climate change. WELC is also working hard to fight pollution in the Puget Sound in Washington, protect gray wolves in the Pacific Northwest, oppose permits to drill for oil and gas throughout the western U.S., challenge one of the largest logging proposals on public lands in decades in Oregon, and more. In the long-term, WELC aims to eradicate reliance on fossil fuels in the western U.S. and uphold the Endangered Species Act and other bedrock environmental laws, while ensuring those laws evolve with the times.
In 2023, OGC gave WELC a Mission Fund Grant. That donation went into the pot of unrestricted funds that WELC utilizes between program-specific grants to accomplish their goals. You can learn more about WELC at westernlaw.org.
“At the end of the day, we rely on unrestricted funding to achieve our mission of fostering thriving, resilient western U.S. lands, waters, wildlife and communities,” shared Jenna Kloeppel, Development Director at WELC. “Our success as an organization is dependent upon donor support, and we are grateful for how much we can accomplish as a pro bono, public interest law center because of those donors.”
OGC’s Mission Fund Grant Program helps grow the organic agriculture movement and protect the climate by supporting hard working growers, customers and mission-aligned organizations working toward a healthier more sustainable food future. Western Environmental Law Center is just one of the many organizations the Mission Fund supported in 2023. Find a list of all our recent grant recipients here.
