Eugene, Ore. — (March 4, 2015) – Land Air Water is reducing its carbon footprint by discontinuing the printed form of the Western Environmental Law Update (WELU) while maintaining its online presence.

WELU is an annual publication of short articles detailing recent developments in environmental and natural resource law and their effect on the West. The pieces are all student written and may be written specifically for WELU or adopted from papers used to satisfy class or graduation requirements.

Volume 1 of the 2015 WELU we be available online starting Friday, March 6, 2015. The update can be found at http://pielc.org/western-environmental-law-update/.

The update is currently accepting submissions for Volume 2 until April 3rd. Those interested in publication should write an article which focuses on pertinent, timely, legal issues affecting the environment on a local, regional, or international level.

The submission should be between 1000 and 2500 words long. Citation format should follow Blue Book or ALWD Citation Manual and should be located in endnotes.

For additional details, please contact Jesse Hardval at jhardval@uoregon.edu.

EUGENE, Ore. –(December 30, 2014)– Malia Akutagawa will give a keynote presentation at Changing Currents: the 33rd Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, held at the University of Oregon.

Malia Akutagawa is an Assistant Professor of Law with both the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law and Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge.

Malia is part of Hui ʻĀina Momona, a consortium of scholars throughout the university community charged with addressing compelling issues of indigenous Hawaiian knowledge and practices, including the legal regime and Native Hawaiian rights associated with mālama ʻāina, and with focus on cross-disciplinary solutions to natural and cultural resource management, sustainability, and food security.

She has served in many various outlets, from Director of the Molokai Rural Development Project, to staff attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation where she worked on Hawaiian access, gathering, burial, land use and water rights cases.

Malia coordinated the 1993 Molokai Subsistence Study which served as the impetus for passage of Act 271 by the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in 1994 allowing for the designation of “community-based subsistence fishing areas” and a successful pilot project run by Hawaiian Homesteaders of Hui Mālama O Mo`omomi of an important traditional subsistence fishery on Molokai’s northwest shore.

Malia’s work focuses on the integration of Hawaiian traditional ecological knowledge and best practices into natural resource management at the local level and in collaboration with government. She has presented testimony as an invited panelist before the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs’ Oversight Hearing on Impacts of Environmental Changes on Treaty Rights, Traditional Lifestyles, and Tribal Homelands.

Changing Currents: the 33rd Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference will take place March 5-8, 2015, at the University of Oregon School of Law in Eugene, Oregon. More information can be found at www.pielc.org.

A historic look at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference held at the University of Oregon School of Law. This is a premier annual gathering for environmentalists worldwide. The oldest and largest of its kind, the Conference historically unites more than 3,000 activists, attorneys, students, scientists, and concerned citizens from over 50 countries around the globe to share their experience and expertise.