Conservation Law Foundation

Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) is an environmental advocacy organization based in New England, United States. Since 1966, CLF's mission has been to advocate for New England's environment and its communities. CLF's advocacy work takes place across five integrated program areas: Clean Energy & Climate Change, Clean Air & Water, Healthy Oceans, People & Justice, and Healthy Communities. CLF's mission statement is to "use the law, science, and the market to create solutions that preserve natural resources, build healthy communities, and sustain a vibrant economy." CLF focuses on promoting renewable energy and fight air and water pollution; building sustainable fishing communities and protect marine habitat; promoting public transit and defend public health; achieving environmental justice; and sustaining a vibrant, equitable economy.

Conservation Law Foundation is a nonprofit, member-supported organization with offices in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

With offices in every New England state, CLF works to solve environmental problems that impact the region's communities. CLF’s strategies of advocacy concentrate on areas of law, public policy, and science. CLF both defends environmental policy through litigation and petitions and creates it through legislative and regulatory advocacy.

As a result, CLF works to bring local environmental concerns to the attention of legislators and policymakers, and serve as a resource for communicating these concerns throughout the region.

Founded in 1966 to stop the development of ski slopes on Massachusetts' highest peak, Mount Greylock, CLF has since expanded its advocacy to address both environmental and community issues in all six New England states.

In 1977, the organization successfully fought the expansion plans for a federal divided highway through Franconia Notch in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Since that time, CLF's legal advocacy has focused on several natural resources cases, including the cleanup of Lake Champlain, the prevention of overfishing of groundfish – cod, haddock, and flounder – off the coast of New England (resulting in a settlement requiring the National Marine Fisheries Service to produce a management plan to eliminate overfishing), and the protection of the Vermont black bear habitat (by obtaining a federal court injunction halting destructive U.S. logging practices in southern Vermont's fragile Lamb Brook wilderness area, marking the first time an environmental group in the Northeast successfully challenges the U.S. Forest Service's clear-cutting policies).

In 1983, CLF sued the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission (a division of the government of the state of Massachusetts) and the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Boston Harbor, which had severely degraded water quality. The result of this and other litigation, including that of the City of Quincy, was to compel the state to comply with federal environmental laws and to build appropriate facilities to properly treat sewage discharged into Boston Harbor, and establish workable governmental mechanisms to finance the new facilities and pay for their continuing operations. The formation of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), taking over the water facilities properties, operations, and legal authority previously held by the Metropolitan District commission, is one byproduct of the litigation. The legal battle was most intense from 1983 into the 1990s.

CLF advocated for increased light rail and public transportation options in Boston, New Hampshire, and Maine. In a pre-suit settlement with CLF, state highway officials in Massachusetts agreed to implement measures to reduce air pollution, including rail and transit improvements, as part of Boston’s Central Artery project (also known as the Big Dig).