Lane County voters to consider watershed rights May 19

Presenter: KEPW interviews Michelle Holman about a ‘rights of nature’ ballot measure in Lane County this spring. Producer of ‘Legalize Survival’ and ‘Water Is Life,’ Jana Thrift:

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Today I’m here with Michelle Holman from Community Rights of Lane County, and I am excited to talk more about where they are in the process of protecting our local waters. So will you tell us about the ballot measure that you guys managed to get all the signatures for and we’re going to be able to vote on?

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): I would love to, and thanks for having me, Jana. I really appreciate it. Well, after two years of collecting signatures, we jumped through all the hoops and the county said ‘Yes’ and gave us a ballot measure number. So we are Measure 20-373, and this is the Protect Lane County Watersheds Bill of Rights, granting rights of nature to our watersheds.

It is exciting because this is our second try at getting on the ballot to protect the natural world and to create an opportunity for Lane County voters to weigh in on rights of nature. It’s actually a global movement, the rights of nature movement, and it’s been going on for many, many years.

And when we first got started, this is back in 2012, ‘rights of nature’ was kind of a risky phrase to use. People didn’t understand it, but it’s 2026 and ‘rights of nature’ is more of a common phrase to use when referring to the Mother Earth.

So our ballot measure is our attempt to give legal rights for all the watersheds in Lane County. It would also give residents the rights to clean drinking water, and it would do so by preventing corporations and governments from violating these rights.

It’s really interesting work in that it’s a unifier. So whether you are on the right, if you’re on the left, if you’re in the center, somewhere on the continuum, clean water should be available to all of us, including nature. So one of the foundational premises is that nature has a right to exist, persist, and flourish for her own sake. I’m going to say her. That’s not exactly how we view nature, but that’s how I like to refer to it.

So yeah, it gives nature standing regardless of the humans in the picture. So we humans seem to think that nature exists for us, and in part, yes, she does, but wholly nature exists for her own sake.

And so this treats the interdependence and intradependence on nature. It elevates its stature. So it’s a really like a paradigm shift. It says nature will become a plaintiff in a court of law if corporations harm her, and that’s where our measure comes into play. Our measure says that once this is passed, the county is actually responsible for protecting nature.

It elevates nature above corporate privilege and rights. So this is a different way of approaching things. It gives protective laws that don’t exist right now. So it’s a big change and we know it’s legal to damage nature, to damage our waterways. We know that’s all legal. The EPA says we can have certain parts per million of certain compounds and that that’s okay, but I don’t remember being asked if I thought that was okay.

And I don’t think that the electorate was ever asked if that was okay. So we’re challenging that we like to say just ’cause it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Yeah, I think that that is very true. I went to school for a paralegal degree very early on in life, and the teacher used to say, ‘What’s moral is not necessarily legal and what’s legal is not necessarily moral.’ And he held that all these years as one of the major issues I think there is in the whole system.

You know, if we base our laws upon what we think is morally right but we don’t require a moral result, then something is wrong. 

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): I feel you. I mean, it used to be legal to own slaves, and it used to be legal to keep women from the ballot box. Those laws were changed, so that’s how we view the work we’re doing. When we see an unjust law—in this case, it’s how our waters are treated—then we’re going to replace it with a just law, with justice for the waterways.

And here in Lane County, this May, the May 19 ballot 2026, we the people will be able to weigh in on whether we think we should protect our watersheds for ourselves here and now and into perpetuity for our kids and grandkids and theirs.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): It’s so important. I mean, if there’s anything that really matters in the world, we understand that water is life and without it, we can’t survive. We must have clean water. And we’re so lucky in so many ways. There’s a lot of places in this nation alone, let alone the whole world, where the waters have been utterly destroyed.

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): Right now, pollution and degradation, destruction of our waterways occurs on the daily. This measure, while it may seem radical to some, we look at it as sanity. This is sanity. We are the people bringing ‘We the people’ and not just talking about us, us who wrote this piece, this law, it’s we the people who bring sanity to an insane situation.

And we cannot wait for our government or corporations to come to this same place. You know, greed and corporate profits are a massive motivator, and those folks don’t really want to see us do this work.

Well, here we are. We are doing it. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors who did this kind of work. We have the moral high ground. We’re fueled by our righteous indignation. We know we’re on the right path. And we want to win at the ballot box, so we’re getting the word out and we definitely need more folks to join us.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Yeah, definitely. Just letting our listeners know that this is an amazing opportunity to really make your vote count towards helping our waters stay clean. Even though they’re not all clean right now, but we certainly are in a better position than many places.

And the idea of protecting it now so that our future generations have the same blessing that we have with being able to have water that we can drink it out of our tap. I mean, look at Flint, Michigan and their water’s catching on fire, it’s crazy!

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): Yeah, it’s crazy. They say nothing makes an activist quicker than when you turn on your tap and you can ignite it.

So we have four discreet teams in this campaign. We have the fundraising team, we have the education and events team, we have a communications team and a coalition building and endorsements team. We need folks to help us. Join these teams and help us get the word out. If I know that folks have skills, almost everybody has a role to play here.

We’re going to at some point (in probably March and April) get our ground game going. So we’ll have field opportunities where people can go in their neighborhoods and hang information on people’s doorknobs if they’re not there, or talk to people one-on-one. If you’ve got skills in the social media realm, we could use you.

And if you’re just one person who wants to do one thing, get onto our social media, we have Instagram and Facebook, and like and share our posts. It’s a tool that in 2026 is crucial. We have to use social media. So we always ask people to do that first. It’s an easy thing to do.

You can also go to our website, which is yes on Measure 20-375. You can also get there by just typing in ‘Protect Lane County Watersheds.’ So, that’s an easy thing to do. 

You can endorse our work. Just go online to that same place. You can go either to Protect Lane County Watersheds or Yes on Measure 20-373 and click on the ‘Endorsement’ tab. All you have to do is put your name there. It just adds to the critical mass.

We are certainly looking for funds. If you have money to donate, please, please, please. We are up against a very well-financed opposition. You know, the timber companies and the big corporations that are harming our watersheds have beaucoup money. They have massive legal teams. And so it’s really kind of a David and Goliath story.

But we like being where we are. We feel like we have ethics on our side, and if you can help us with the money, then we can get more advertising out there. We really could use your donations.

And yeah, we’re doing house parties. If you want to invite me, I’ll come to your house and I will make a little presentation and you can have your friends come and tell them to bring their wallets and we can do this thing, but we can only really do it with your help.

They have the money, they have the big legal teams, but we have the numbers. We really do. We know that we’re positioned well because this is a very popular notion to protect what it is we have. 

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Yeah. I think us as Oregonians really appreciate our beautiful waters and the nature that we have here, and hopefully it’s very obvious to most people how important it is, especially now with so many corporations kind of having the rules and regulations go away. Like there’s a lot of encouragement to let even worse things be done when it comes to our environment right now.

So this, it’s like a breath of fresh air to me to see us forwarding something that’s so important and can kind of counter the movement of the federal government to make it possible for a lot of destruction to be allowed that already has been damaging things just the way it was letting more deregulation occur. 

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): You’re 100% right on that, Jana. You know, currently our environmental laws regulate destruction rather than protecting our waters. And so, it’s up to us. We are part of the government. 

Another part of this work is that we are acknowledging that our democracy is not really a democracy. Democracy really means that the people make decisions. And we’ve been kind of X-ed out of the quotient. We’ve X-ed ourselves out of the quotient.

So here we are empowering ourselves to be active members in creating democracy where we live, you know? And one way is through the initiative system. It is a way that the people can legislate.

You can go to Washington, you can go to Salem, you can beg your electeds and some of them will listen, but mostly their campaigns are paid for by big corporations. They’re really not positioned to actually do the work that we the people know must be done. 

This is a great time to insert yourself into the mess. This is a mess (Yes.) and it’s up to us to help clean it up. You know, I feel like this is my purpose and I would love to see other folks grab that themselves.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Yeah. I mean, so much love and work has gone into getting us far enough along where people can go to their ballot box and vote for this measure. I just have to really give so much appreciation to all of the work that’s been done to make it possible for us to be able to vote on this.

I love that you have, really simple things that people can do, like going to the website and just putting your name in as somebody who cares. 

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): If you go to our website ProtectLaneCountyWatersheds.org. You can actually read the ordinance, it’s a one-pager and it’s beautiful. It’s an elegant document and we’re very proud of it. This is not just theoretical. This comes from our heart. We know we want to protect the Earth.

We care about each other and the natural world. This is crucial work, and you won’t be disappointed if you join us. Not only are we dedicated and committed, but we’re a lot of fun too.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Nice, nice. And I know Community Rights Lane County has been around for quite some time. And you guys meet monthly too as well, don’t you?

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): Yeah, every third Monday of the month, we have a Zoom meeting. We invite the public to come. If you’re interested, you can go to CommunityRightsLaneCounty.org and click on Community Rights Action.

Jana Thrift (KEPW): It’s really wonderful. I mean, I just really appreciate living in a community where organizations like Community Rights Lane County are doing such excellent work and doing what is necessary to make it possible for my future generations, for my grandkids and their grandkids, to hopefully have the blessings that I have with enjoying our beautiful nature of the Northwest.

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): Well, I just want to big up KEPW for being the voice of reason in our community. You really play such an important part. You’ve always been an ally to the good work, to the good fights, environmental democratic rights, worker rights, gender rights, whatever the issue is KEPW has always been on the right side. 

And I’m super grateful to you all. Don’t ever go away. We need you. The community really needs you. And so thanks, thanks so much for the platform. 

Jana Thrift (KEPW): Thank you Michelle, and for all your hard work and I look forward to celebrating the win May 19. Everybody, go out and vote.

Michelle Holman (Community Rights Lane County): Go out and vote. Thanks again, Jana. 

Presenter: KEPW’s Jana Thrift interviews Michelle Holman for the Lane County Watersheds Bill of Rights. Your skills may be just what’s needed to win the vote this May. You can help with fundraising, education and events, communications, and coalition-building and endorsements. For more, see the website ProtectLaneCountyWatersheds.org..