Letter from the President.

• Author: Kassel, John
• Position: Letter to the editor

Dear CLF Friends,

It is useful to take a look back now and again. It provides a chance to take stock of what you've done, measure results and think about what worked and what didn't. For me, the most valuable part of looking back is the perspective it provides. It helps me appreciate the full scope of effort, progress and success that's hard to see in the day to day. This is especially true at CLF. CLF's work is about change. It doesn't happen overnight. Often it takes months and even years of research, planning, education and coalition-building to move the needle.

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When I look back at CLF's accomplishments in 2009,1 marvel at our advocates'tenacity. The sea-change in fisheries management that CLF helped usher into law last year resulted from decades of pressure to base catch limits on science. Our effort to shut down Somerset Station, a coal-fired power plant in southern Massachusetts, which powered down indefinitely on January 2,2010, began in 2007. As part of the Mystic River Watershed Collaborative, a relatively new initiative for us, CLF completed a second year of building relationships and trust with community members, essential groundwork for success in environmental justice cases. And even as I write this letter, our years of painstaking work to clean up Lake Champlain are bearing new fruit as the EPA re-examines the 2002 clean-up plan for the lake--setting national clean water precedent in the process--giving us hope that our work will at last pay off.

As CLF members, you rightly share our pride in these accomplishments. I hope you will take a few moments with this special issue of Conservation Matters to savor them.

Now, onward. Every day, CLF is continuing to tackle New England's toughest environmental challenges, state-by-state and region-wide. As we look into 2010 and beyond, here are some of the areas where we see opportunities for CLF to make a difference:

Ocean Conservation: CLF will continue its work in the Gulf of Maine to model ecologically-based ocean planning and management, while continuing to press the Obama administration for action on a national ocean policy for federal waters. With more focus on near-shore pollution sources, CLF will lead New England in ocean conservation from the...