CELDF is proud to announce the launch of our 8 part video series highlighting our grassroots work with our partner communities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Oregon.
Episode One: Home Rule in Grant Township, Pennsylvania
In 2015, Grant voters adopted a new rights-based Home Rule Charter – a local constitution – and reinstating a court-overturned ban on injecting frack waste into the same ground from which they draw drinking water. In 2016, in a first-in-the-world action, the Township passed a law legalizing nonviolent direct action to protect the community from being poisoned if the courts again stripped them of their democratically enacted local law.

In 2017, Grant Township was sued by its own state “environmental protection” agency – the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Why would an environmental agency sue a community for attempting to protect their environment?

Answer: because the state protects corporate profits before people and ecosystems.
"You have to start where you live and basically, you have to protect what you love - and that is what we are trying to do."

Judy Wanchisn, East Run Hellbenders Society
Lake Erie Bill of Rights Lawsuit Heats Up
 as Algal Bloom Grows!
The City of Toledo exposes serious errors and misrepresentations in Drewes Farms Partnership’s (DFP) federal lawsuit against the City of Toledo and the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR). The City argues DFP’s rush to overturn LEBOR suffers from “fatal procedural flaws,” misrepresentations, and defects that require the lawsuit’s dismissal.

Citing the ongoing landmark court case  Juliana v. United States , the City has come out in favor of “Toledoans’ due process rights to a clean and healthy environment.”
In These Times:
Op-Ed from CELDF's Mari Margil
Mari Margil, leader of the International Center for the Rights of Nature, and Ryan Dickinson, CELDF legal intern, take a look at the state of Ohio's actions to suppress Rights of Nature. Lessons from past movements dictate that we must act now to maintain our power and rights in the face of oppression and ecological collapse.
"History doesn’t tend to look kindly upon state-sponsored suppression of people’s movements. With over a million species on the brink of extinction, coral reefs bleaching and dying off, and the last five years the hottest on human record, we don’t have time to wait for history’s blessing."
Thank You From All of Us at CELDF
CELDF is grateful for your continued support. We'd like to say thank you with a special gift when you make a donation during the month of August. Help us defend groundbreaking laws like the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, stop chemical trespass in the Pacific Northwest, and protect the right to self-govern in communities like Grant Township. Your contribution makes a big difference to us and our partner communities.
Community Rights News and Events
Labor Day Retreat and Skills Share Weekend in Delton, MI
Join LEBOR activist for presentation on Sept. 2
Democracy School: Igniting a Rights Movement for Communities and Nature
Oct. 11 -12 Harrisonburg, VA
Can a River Be a Person? Presentation by Mari Margil at the University of Illinois
on Nov. 1

CELDF uses your donation to help communities across the country and around the world, as together we advance the growing Community Rights and Rights of Nature movements.
Please give today!