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Pete Lavigne

Pete Lavigne, M.S.E.L., J.D. , is an environmental attorney, educator and writer living in Sitka, Alaska. He is the founder and a board member of the Rivers Foundation of the Americas. He has served as executive director of the Westport River Watershed Alliance and the Merrimack River Watershed Council; co-founded the Coalition For Buzzards Bay and the New England Coastal Campaign; worked for American Rivers in the Northeast coordinating issues in Quebec, New England and New York; was Deputy Director of the Pacific regional group For the Sake of the Salmon, and has worked in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Bolivia and Turkey.

Peter was also director of River Network’s national River Leadership Program where he spent four years organizing river watershed protection and restoration organizations in the United States and Canada. At River Network he helped establish over twenty statewide and regional river watershed protection organizations from New England to Alaska. An avid sea kayaker and mountain climber, Peter founded and teaches in the Watershed Management Professional Program of the Executive Leadership Institute and is an adjunct Associate Professor in the Public Administration Graduate Program at Portland State University. He holds a B.A. in Government and Geology from Oberlin College, along with a Juris Doctor, and Master of Studies in Environmental Law cum laude from Vermont Law School.

Peter taps a personal network of several thousand environmental protection and restoration experts throughout the world. He is known and respected for strategic vision, love of innovation, skill in implementation, and for sensitive and effective work with students, educators, indigenous organizations, government agencies, businesses, and local activists everywhere. The Rivers Foundation of the Americas is a public operating foundation dedicated to conservation, protection and restoration of clean water, biodiversity and human health in the Americas. RFA supports innovative approaches to protecting and restoring rivers by supporting people working on human health, population stability, biodiversity protection, and social change www.riversfoundation.org.

Exxon Mobil Records 10 Billion in Quarterly Profits

Pete Lavigne | January 31, 2006
Days after Exxon appeared in federal court in San Franciso to argue for a reduction in punitive damages for its still damaging 1989 Alaska oil spill in Prince William Sound, from 4.5 billion to just $25 million, the company reports $10.7 Billion in quarterly profits. Meanwhile, Sound Truths, Corporate Myth$ author Riki Ott, Ph.D., again goes on tour with a major speech coming up at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.
The Drowning of New Orleans

Pete Lavigne | November 18, 2005
Three months after Katrina, the verdict on the drowning of New Orleans begins to emerge.
Seen from Sitka

Pete Lavigne | September 24, 2005
Changes in Rivers Foundation operations bring a whole new perspective to work and play.
Losses and Gains

Pete Lavigne | June 08, 2005
Comments on the life and passing of Carey McWilliams as well as the latest from Brock Evans.
On the Road in Arizona

Pete Lavigne | May 12, 2005
Colorado river specialists gather in Arizona to collaborate on protection and restoration effiorts in the U.S. and Mexico along with musings on wilderness politics in the first decade of the 21st Century.
Moving Forward on Water Policy

Pete Lavigne | April 19, 2005
The now five year long drought in the highly urbanized West is in many ways a blessing. Glen Canyon is back among the living, the bankruptcy of U.S. water policy is starkly revealed, and hope for positive changes in water law and policy springs anew. Also updates on dam removals, and Oregon politics.
Early April Updates

Pete Lavigne | April 06, 2005 | 4 comments
Check here for the Ott Watch, the latest on GCI's Glen Canyon National Park proposal, and RFA's new film Passion for Rivers by Dennis Burkhart.
Economics Anonymous

Pete Lavigne | March 04, 2005
Books across my desk this week include three interesting works on economics. The message of all three books is not that we need to or can return to some mythically perfect earlier age and mode of operation; rather it is a question for rationally altering our course for a more generative economics, better health and quality of life.
Thanks to Staff and Volunteers

Pete Lavigne | March 03, 2005
We are living in exciting times! Wolves are being re-introduced to the West; Glen Canyon on the Colorado River is reappearing and coming alive for the first time in forty years as the Lake Powell reservoir retreats; dam removals are bringing back fish and river recreation throughout the United States; and today's newspaper shows there is even hope for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.
To New Beginnings

Pete Lavigne | January 07, 2005
Welcome to the beta version of the RFA's new website. Look here in the future for commentary on current events, environmental action, policy analysis, book reviews and other odds and ends. On behalf of our hardworking staff and volunteers I invite you please to "check out our website." There is much more to come. We look forward to

Explore Our Watersheds

Copper River

The Copper River Delta has the largest concentration of nesting shorebirds in North America, is an important nursery for prized salmon and other fisheries, and is a relatively unspoiled wilderness area with keystone predators including wolves and grizzlies.

Columbia River

The Columbia River watershed is a critical link in the mega-linkages of the Pacific flyway and predator migration corridor. It is the nerve center for salmon restoration, and one of the world's most highly manipulated great river systems.

Colorado River

The Colorado River system flows 1,450 miles through nine states and Mexico; the Grand Canyon was created by its waters. The aridity of most of this region has made its water into a valuable commodity, and the fragile desert, canyon, and delta ecosystems it supports have suffered as a result.

RFA Programs

Clean Water, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice Initiative

This initiative links RFA's policies of supporting indigenous peoples, drumming home the common sense linkages between clean healthy water for human use, strong biodiverse and healthy ecosystems, and environmental justice for indigenous peoples and economically disadvantaged people throughout the Americas. Continue reading below for more about this initiative, or go to Global Water Policy Initiative to learn about RFA's other main initiative.

Global Water Policy Initiative

This initiative works at the heart of water policy issues, especially the global debate on the privatization of fresh water resources and growing water supply controversies throughout the United States and the hemisphere. We believe that all children and all people deserve clean water, and that access to a subsistence level of water is a basic human obligation. Continue reading below for more about this initiative, or go to Clean Water, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice to learn about RFA's other main initiative.

Donating to RFA

The Rivers Foundation of the Americas is a public foundation dedicated to promoting and funding the protection and restoration of rivers in the Americas. Your passion for environmental preservation and social justice is a passion shared by all RFA board and staff members and by the organizations the Rivers Foundation helps to fund.

Make a Donation Today!