Stop Asking
for Permission.
Build the Law.
This is the organizing framework for bringing Rights of Nature to your community—through local ordinance, state legislation, and the legal infrastructure to make it stick. Here is how to start, what to expect, and who to work with.
Local Ordinance and State Legislation. Both. At Once.
You do not have to choose between working locally and pushing at the state level. Both tracks run simultaneously and reinforce each other. Local wins prove it can be done. State legislation makes it permanent.
Working With CELDF
CELDF offers direct consultation to communities facing corporate harm. Before you organize, before you draft, reach out. Their 30 years of experience will tell you what works, what does not, and what to expect when you start pushing back.
CELDF can help draft Rights of Nature ordinances tailored to your community, your state's legal environment, and the specific harm you are facing. They have done this hundreds of times. You do not have to start from scratch.
When your ordinance gets challenged—and it likely will—CELDF provides strategic direction on how to respond, how to document the challenge, and how to use every court ruling as evidence that the system needs to change.
When They Ban the Fight, Keep Fighting
This section reinforces what is covered in depth on the Know the System page. Understanding preemption is so central to organizing strategy that it belongs here too—as context for the paths around it.
After Toledo passed the Lake Erie Bill of Rights in 2019 and a federal judge struck it down, the Ohio state legislature passed a law specifically designed to prevent any future Rights of Nature legislation in Ohio. In 2025, Wisconsin Republican legislators introduced a statewide ban on all local Rights of Nature ordinances—directly in response to Green Bay's 9 to 1 vote to begin drafting a resolution. Every preemption bill is a map of what the opposition is afraid of.
The Charter Amendment Path
Ohio's preemption law did not stop Cincinnati. They moved forward with an Ohio River Watershed Ecosystem Bill of Rights through a city charter amendment process—a path the state preemption law does not clearly close. When the front door is locked, find the door the preemption law forgot to lock. Charter amendments, home rule authority, and municipal constitutional provisions are all tools that preemption statutes do not always reach.
The Citizen Initiative Path
In the five Basin states with citizen initiative rights, a state constitutional amendment passed by voters can override a preemptive state statute. This is the highest-leverage path because it goes over the legislature entirely. A corporate-captured legislature can pass a preemption law. It cannot override the will of the voters expressed in a constitutional amendment. This is the 2026 target in initiative states.
State passed preemption law after Toledo. Cincinnati responded with a charter amendment process for the Ohio River Watershed Ecosystem Bill of Rights. The fight moved from the ballot to the charter, and it is still moving. The preemption law did not end the organizing—it redirected it.
Green Bay voted 9 to 1 in 2025 to begin drafting a Rights of Nature resolution. Republican legislators introduced AB421/SB420 within weeks to ban all local ordinances. Governor Evers is expected to veto it. Milwaukee County's 2023 resolution stands. The Ho-Chunk Nation and Menominee Indian Tribe have Rights of Nature written into their tribal constitutions—beyond the reach of the state legislature entirely.
The Candidate Pledge
Start or Join a Local Working Group
One Basin. Eight States. One Fight.
This movement only works if it works everywhere. A victory in Michigan matters more when Ohio knows about it. An ordinance in Wisconsin strengthens the case in Illinois. We are connecting organizers, advocates, and community members across all eight Great Lakes Basin states into a single, coordinated coalition—so no community fights alone.
You do not need a budget, a nonprofit, or a formal organization to be part of this. You need to show up. Whether you are organizing around Rights of Nature, data center opposition, utility accountability, or any of the campaigns connected to this work—we want to connect you to the people already moving in your state and across the Basin.
Join the Coalition
Tell us your state, your community, and what you are working on. We will connect you with organizing resources, legal support through CELDF, and the other organizers in your Basin state who are already moving.
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