Author Description
Laura Ziemer is the Director of Trout Unlimited ’s (TU)Montana Water Project. She opened the Montana Water Project office in August of 1998.The Western Water Project works in six states (Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and California) to restore and maintain streamflows for coldwater fisheries by addressing water allocation issues. In Montana, Laura has expanded TU ’s water leasing program through legislative improvements to the program as well as completing a number of conversions of irrigation water rights to instream flow rights. In addition to water leasing and other initiatives, she helped close the Bitterroot River Basin to new diversions, initiated a successful drought response plan on the Blackfoot River, and obtained a favorable ruling from the Montana Supreme Court recognizing instream flow rights under the prior appropriation doctrine. Before joining TU, Laura practiced public-interest environmental law since 1993 as an attorney with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund) out of Seattle, Washington and later in Bozeman, Montana. With the Legal Defense Fund, Laura litigated a variety of public lands issues, including protecting grizzly bear habitat, managing northern spotted owl habitat, and challenging the dioxin discharges of the pulp and paper industry. She tackled litigation over water rights in the Methow Valley of arid eastern Washington, weighing in on water transfers and development that impacted fish and wildlife. Also in Washington State, Laura challenged the grant of groundwater pumping permits, which affected instream flows in nearby streams and rivers. Prior to working with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Laura served as a judicial clerk for two years to the Honorable Barbara J.Rothstein of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, graduating cum laude from the Law School while earning a Master ’s Degree in Resource Ecology from the School of Natural Resources.
