Louise Dunlap Honored By Citizens Coal Council

The Citizens Coal Council and Hurricane Creek Keeper recently honored Louise Dunlap (and her husband and partner Joe Browder) for a lifetime of devotion to the creation and implementation of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation act. (SMCRA).  See video below for the ceremony.

Louise Dunlap was the first woman to become chief executive of a major U.S. national environmental organization. From 1976 until 1986, she was President of the Environmental Policy Institute and Environmental Policy Center, groups she co-founded in 1972 and which under her leadership grew into the largest public-interest environmental lobbying organization in Washington.

Louise Dunlap

She created and led one of most effective campaigns in the history of the US environmental movement: the seven-year national citizens' effort to enact federal legislation, the Surface Mine Control & Reclamation Act of 1977, requiring the coal industry to protect valuable farmlands, streams and wetlands and to reclaim all surface mined lands. Louise continues to be a principal strategist and advocate for community groups throughout the U.S. working for reclamation of abandoned mines and enforcement of surface mining laws. (Dunlap & Browder)