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The Western Environmental Law Center[1]("WELC") is a nonprofit public interest law firm that works to protect and restore western wildlands and advocates for a healthy environment on behalf of communities throughout the West.
Our lawyers provide free or reduced-fee legal services to conservation groups, communities and individuals, challenging corporations and government agencies that violate environmental laws in the West. WELC's legal advocacy brings about long-lasting protections to preserve the region’s air, water, public lands and forests, wildlife and habitat, and communities.
Since the Western Environmental Law Center’s inception in 1993, the center have worked with over 250 national and local organizations, individuals and local governments to:
* Preserve air and water quality;
* Enforce our nation’s environmental laws;
* Hold our government accountable;
* Empower local communities;
* Protect our public lands and natural resources;
* Be a voice for the public; and
* Promote healthy, livable communities in the West.
We envision a West that has clean air, clean and abundant water, permanent protection for wildlife and wilderness, and healthy communities, through the active and dedicated enforcement of our nation’s environmental laws.
We are headquartered in Eugene, Oregon with offices in Taos, New Mexico and Durango, Colorado and Helena, Montana.
WELC started [2] in the early 1990s by public interest attorneys Michael Axline and John Bonine. It grew out of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Oregon.
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