If you read recent articles about changes in federal regulations around clean air and forest management practices, you’re probably wondering what happened to Oregonian’s right to a healthy environment. We actually are not guaranteed that right, because we don’t have a statutory or constitutional right to an environment that sustains and nourishes life.

Should Oregonians be guaranteed the right to a healthy environment? Despite Oregon being green and beautiful, there’s plenty of evidence that people here are suffering from polluted water, extreme heat, fire and smoke events, and other preventable environmental harms around the state.

The Oregon Coalition for an Environmental Rights Amendment (OCERA) seeks to help remedy this through a ballot measure, targeted for the 2028 general election cycle. This may seem far in the future, but we need to hear from and connect with people throughout the state in order to kick off this grassroots effort. Over recent months, the federal government has launched a series of campaigns that target the health or our environment. These include overturning the 2009 Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gas emissions represent a threat to our health and environment, overturning the Roadless Rule that protected old growth forest ecosystems from excessive logging and promoting the “Fix Our Forests Act,” which is a transparent effort to use wildfire protection as a ruse for increasing logging of public forests. The message from Washington is that states need to establish mechanisms to protect their own natural resources because the federal government will not do it.

This spring, the Oregon Coalition for an Environmental Rights Amendment (OCERA) is kicking off an educational campaign for a state Environmental Rights Amendment with a listening tour around the state. Participants are invited to share their stories about how climate impacts and environmental harms affect their lives and livelihoods. Attendees will also discuss what remedies have worked or haven’t worked, and whether an Environmental Rights Amendment would help.

Hear more at these upcoming events featuring Melissa Martin, OCERA director.

Tuesday, March 31 at 6 p.m. in the Medford Public Library.

Wednesday, April 1 at 4 p.m. in the Science Auditorium on the Southern Oregon University campus in Ashland.

Thursday, April 2 at 5:30 pm at Troon Vineyard and Farm (co-sponsored by Troon) 1475 Kubli Rd., Grants Pass.

Learn more at www.OCERAUNITED.org.

Larry Cooper lives in Ashland.