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NAWM American Wetlands Month Webinar: Talking about the Clean Water Act Without Getting Bogged Down in the Reeds
Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - 3:00-4:30 p.m. EDT
PRESENTERS
- Jim Murphy, National Wildlife Federation
- Lacey McCormick, National Wildlife Federation
ABSTRACT
The National Wildlife Federation is pleased to present the Waters Storytelling Toolkit. The toolkit is meant to be used by local advocates of every stripe -- Tribes, community members, policy experts, etc. -- to help tell the story of why protecting wetlands and smaller streams in their area is important. The presentation gives an overview of the Clean Water Act and the 2023 Sackett Supreme Court decision that revoked protections for streams and wetlands long protected by the law. The toolkit also provides messaging recommendations and describes a variety of potential story frames. Each section has a succinct slide deck and an accompanying video with more discussion and detail. NWF’s ultimate goal is to create a broader base of public support for strong water protections at the local, state and federal levels.
BIOS
Jim Murphy is the Senior Director of Legal Advocacy with National Wildlife Federation (NWF) where he advances National Wildlife Federation’s legal engagement with the judicial, administrative, and legislative branches of government in order to protect wildlife, with a focus on water, energy, and climate issues including advancing regulatory solutions to carbon pollution, protecting the nation’s waters and wetlands, and promoting clean, wildlife friendly renewable energy. He also serves on several boards, including the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute, the Vermont Advisory Board for the Conservation Law Foundation which he currently chairs, and is Chair of the Montpelier Roxbury School District Board of Directors. In collaboration with NWF, he directed the Vermont Law School Environmental Advocacy Clinic from 2019-2022 and was an assistant professor at the law school. He has an LL.M., summa cum laude, in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, a J.D. from Boston College Law School, and B.A. in Political Science and History from the University of Vermont.
Lacey McCormick leads the National Wildlife Federation’s Clean Water Act defense messaging. Over her two decades at NWF, she has led messaging on a number of other water issues, from the Federation’s years-long effort to hold BP accountable for the Gulf oil disaster to the need to ensure enough water flows in Texas’ streams. She has a master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Austin, TX with her husband and two sons.