Welcome to the home page for the ABA SEER’s Public Service Task Force. The Public Service Vice Chair for each substantive committee of the Section is a member of the Task Force.

I am very excited about working with you to promote and implement our goals, share our knowledge, combine our resources, and come up with creative ways to serve the public and benefit our communities. The Section’s leadership and members continue to demonstrate their unwavering commitment to our public service programs that benefit local communities, schools, and neighborhoods.

The Section continues to focus its public service efforts in eight project areas: 1) educational instruction in schools, 2) development of model regulations, 3) public education pamphlets, 4) pro bono services to conservation and environmental groups, 5) promotion of recycling and reuse, 6) electric industry restructuring impacts on low-income consumers, 7) assistance to law school clinical programs, and 8) Earth Day/Law Day projects. We are open to any new ideas or directions and especially love creative ideas.

Lawyers for One Million Trees Inaugural Planting - What better way to kick-off ABA SEER's nationwide campaign "One Million Trees Project - Right Tree for the Right Place at the Right Time" than to volunteer to plant a tree (or two!). This nationwide public service project’s goal is to plant one million trees across the United States in the next five years. We had the opportunity to plant trees where trees are needed most... our cities. As part of the 17th Section Fall Summit in Baltimore, the Alliance for Community Trees and their local affiliate, Parks & People Foundation, organized a tree planting event that also served as the launching point for NeighborWoods Month. October is NeighborWoods Month-a community service campaign to heighten awareness for trees in cities all around the nation. Sixteen lawyers, several community volunteers, and school children joined forces on the morning of September 23, 2009, at Franklin Square Elementary/Middle School in West Baltimore to plant 15 large trees, weed, mulch and plant flowering beds. October is a great time to plant trees and a time when all ABA members around the country can get out and plant trees locally in their communities. Please visit the One Million Trees Project home page for more information.

View contact information for our tree partners.

The Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources ("Section") is deeply committed to having its members actively reach out in the communities where they live to share their environmental, energy, and resources legal knowledge and experiences. To that end, the Section created the Public Service Task Force ("Task Force") during the 1995-1996 Bar year to determine the Section's public service goals and assist its members in meeting those goals.

Please see the Section's current public service areas of focus in the right navigation.

The following committees are involved in public service projects:

• Air Quality Committee
• Environmental Transactions and Brownfields [One Million Trees Project]
• Forest Resource Education Kit
• Innovation, Management Systems and Trading
• International Environmental Law
• Renewable Energy Resources Committee
• Science and Technology Committee
• Special Committee on Smart Growth and Urban Policy

Other Projects of Interest:

• Paul Bunyan Mock Trial
• Public Interest Environmental Law Conference

Chair:
Francine Marie Ffolkes

Vice Chairs:
Michelle Diffenderfer

Scott J. Sachs

Jonathan R. Schutz

Dean B. Suagee

Vicki Wright