A half-decade at CLF's helm.

• Author: Warburg, Phil
• Position: Conservation Law Foundation

After five years as CLF President, Phil Warburg is leaving CLF to pursue some long-contemplated independent writing. We'd like to share with you his parting reflections:

When I joined CLF a little over five years ago, my daughters Tali and Maya--then 11 and nine--knew New England through the very limited lens of brief family gatherings at their grandmother's home in Connecticut. We had spent most of the previous decade in the Middle East.

Since our return, Tali and Maya have grown to know and love summer swims at Walden Pond, occasional forays to the White Mountains, Lake Champlain and Cape Cod, and--of course--their home team, the Red Sox. For me, reconnecting to my New England roots has been a joy, and leading CLF through a very important phase in its development has been a privilege.

Long a lawyerly powerhouse, CLF has reinforced that reputation over the past half-decade. We successfully sued the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to secure important new commitments to build public transit in Boston, and have backed the New England states in fighting off automakers' challenges to state-level greenhouse gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles.

In the water realm, we prevailed at trial against the Massachusetts Highway Department, compelling that agency to get serious about cleaning up the stormwater pollution that flows unabated from its roads and parking areas into adjacent waterways. Through another CLF win, the City of Portsmouth will substantially reduce nitrogen pollution from its sewage plant--a major threat to New Hampshire's Great Bay. And in Vermont's Environmental Court, CLF closed the biggest loophole in the Clean Water Act by requiring existing big box stores and strip malls to rein in stormwater runoff by installing low-impact development measures.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

These are but a few examples of CLF's legal victories over the past half-decade. But CLF's achievements have extended far beyond the courtroom. Over the past several years our advocacy teams have carefully shaped our strategic priorities to be sure we are addressing New England's most important environmental problems--not simply those that have a clear litigation angle. Armed with this broader definition of advocacy, we first define the change we seek and then rally the resources we need to achieve that change.

CLF's advocates today are as determined and persuasive at legislative and regulatory hearings as in courts of law--and we have important new...