Pete Lavigne, M.S.E.L., J.D. is an environmental attorney, organizer educator and writer. In July 2006 he was appointed Director of the Colorado Water Workshop and Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies at Western State College of Colorado. An avid sea kayaker and mountain climber, Peter founded and still teaches in the Watershed Management Professional Program of the Executive Leadership Institute and is an adjunct Associate Professor in the Public Administration Graduate Program and in the Leadership for Ecology, Culture and Learning Program at Portland State University, where he teaches a variety of intensive courses in sustainability, natural resources, and water policy.

He is co-founder and a board member of the Rivers Foundation of the Americas, (www.riversfoundation.org) where he served as the first president and CEO from 2000-2005. Among his efforts at the Rivers Foundation was co-authoring the article ReThinking Green Philanthropy with David W. Orr.

Pete is author or co-author of dozens of articles and presentations on environmental and other issues, in publications as diverse as The New York Times, the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy and River Voices. He is co-author of a book on land use and aesthetic preservation, Vermont Townscape, and has chapters in the books Voices for the Watershed: Environmental Issues in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Drainage Basin and Forest Communities, Community Forests.

He has served as executive director of the Merrimack River Watershed Council, as Northeast Coordinator for American Rivers, executive director of the Westport River Watershed Alliance, as Deputy Director of For the Sake of the Salmon, and as legislative lobbyist for the Vermont Natural Resources Council. He also has extensive experience in political campaigns including several presidential primary campaigns in New Hampshire.

Let's welcome Pete, as our Guest Speaker, for the 2007 Friends Of the River Town Hall Meeting.