April is Earth Month, which inspires us to reflect on how far we’ve come since America’s first Earth Month more than 50 years ago. We’ve made great progress in passing laws to protect the environment. As a result, our nation’s air and water have gotten cleaner, millions of acres of wilderness have been preserved, and thousands of species have received protection.

Environmental Laws Now Face Serious Threats

But this Earth Month finds us facing serious threats to environmental protection laws. The federal government is trying to revise the Endangered Species Act so that destruction of wildlife habitat is no longer considered “harm” to wildlife. The Trump administration has called climate change a hoax, rolled back EPA pollution rules, and ended the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. It has taken aim at the California Coastal Commission and is trying to revoke the ban on oil drilling off California’s coast. And at the state level, the legislature last year passed a bill that weakens the California Environmental Quality Act.

Progress at the Local Level

At the local level, however, the news is more encouraging.

Green Foothills and our partners continue to achieve important environmental victories – the permanent protection of over 6,000 acres at Juristac this year is just one example. We’re speaking up for policies that protect local shorelines. As local utilities expand electric transmission infrastructure – an important step in the transition to clean, all-electric buildings – we’re making sure it’s done in a way that protects the local environment. We’re advocating for local agriculture to protect farms and our food supply. And we’ve expanded our advocacy to the state level to try to make sure that the California Legislature enacts statewide policies that help, and don’t harm, local nature.

Green Foothills remains steadfast in our commitment to protect our local environment, and we’re confident that we will prevail. Everyone wants to breathe clean air, drink clean water, be safe from fires and floods, and have food to eat, and most people care about animals. Ultimately these are bipartisan issues. In fact, former Green Foothills board member Congressman Pete McCloskey – who co-chaired the first Earth Day in 1970 and co-sponsored the Endangered Species Act in 1973 – was a Republican.

Because these are fundamentally bipartisan issues, we are optimistic that our country will eventually recognize that environmental protection matters to everyone, and we will return as a nation to more earth-friendly policies. Until then, there is much we can do on the local level.

Earth Month Encounters Give Us Hope

This past month we’ve been fortunate to meet and chat with dozens of people at Earth Month celebrations across San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito Counties. Those conversations fill us with hope. The majority of people in the Bay Area support environmental action. Please encourage your friends who care about the environment to support local environmental organizations like Green Foothills. This Earth Month, local support for nature is more important than ever.