Welcome to Steve Jones

by Nancy Debevoise

We are delighted to announce that veteran attorney Steve Jones has joined the WOC staff as our watershed-protection attorney. Steve's work will focus on safeguarding Wyoming's streams, rivers, lakes and groundwater from pollution.

"Preventing and cleaning up water pollution is vital to our state," Steve notes. "Clean water is essential for agriculture, safe drinking water supplies, thriving fisheries, healthy wildlife habitat and quality recreation."

Using law, science and citizen advocacy, Steve will develop and implement water-quality and species-protection campaigns; ensure that development permits and clean-up plans comply with the Clean Water Act; participate in federal land management plans and projects that affect water quality and aquatic species; work with state, federal and private landowners to restore water bodies and watersheds; identify river segments that may be eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System; provide technical and legal assistance to local watershed protection groups; and draft legislation designed to improve Wyoming's water-quality laws.

Steve has devoted much of his career to environmental protection. After earning his B.A. at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1974 and his law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1977, he worked as a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Division of the Wyoming Attorney General's office, where he directed all water-pollution litigation for the state; as the Adopt-a-Roadless-Area Coordinator for the Sierra Club's roadless-area protection campaign on the Bridger Teton National Forest; and as a lobbyist for the Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club. Before joining WOC, Steve spent nine years in private practice in Jackson, specializing in environmental law.

"Creative legal, political and organizing strategies are all needed if we are to preserve the Wyoming we all know and love," Steve says. "WOC knows what it takes to achieve results, and I'm proud to be part of the team."