Let's Talk Human Rights

By Sarah Naughton

When I first got the interview call-back from one of the directors from the Oregon office, I had no idea truly what to expect from Environment America. I knew that the campaign was about protecting old growth and mature trees, and having grown up in the Poconos, Pennsylvania, where there were more trees around me than people, it was easy to say, “I can rock with trees for a summer!”, and agreed to take the position. Once I got to Washington, D.C., and realized I was working right on 600 Pennsylvania Ave., I got especially excited to start this new chapter. 

Canvassing 

My first day was nerve-wracking. I got into the building, went up to the fourth floor, and looked at the other three people there for their first day. In the onboarding email, I was sent the

‘rap’ – I did NOT bother to memorize it until the day before, whereas the others around me had it down-pat. While I felt a bit behind, I didn’t let it stop me from doing my best. The way it works is that, on Observation Day, if you don’t have the rap memorized, you go home. So, of course, I was pulled to the side and told I should come back tomorrow. I did NOT want to start a day late, so I said to Will Sherwood, “I know I ad-lib a lot, and in practice I’m rusty, but trust that once I’m at the door, I will succeed.” – and he let me stay for the first day. Once out on turf, my trainer, Nate, who’s now one of my closest friends, would have missed his quota if I had not been there – I got $250 in donations day one, and I’ll never forget that feeling. 

By my third day, I was promoted to Field Manager, which meant while I was still canvassing, I would also be using Evergiving to cut turf for canvassers, run training, and overall, support the canvassing directors. I really liked it, but I cannot deny that when I knocked on a door, started my spiel, and was responded with something along the lines of, “I just lost my job” or “I want to support this but I don’t have the means to right now”, I really struggled. I loved canvassing, but I hated asking people for money, especially where you’re encouraged to push as much as possible for those donations. The only way I was able to keep going was reminding myself that this money I’m raising will result in better laws, policies, and regulations for these old growth trees nation-wide, and at the end of the day, after seeing deforestation take place in my hometown, I was able to stay motivated. 

While I only canvassed for three weeks, on the second week I went on a ‘Camping Canvas’ to Richmond, VA. We had five of us – one being Nate, who trained me, another being a girl who I later in the summer went to NYC with, and the others are very good friends as well now. I mean, how can you sleep in tents for a week straight with people you just met and not

become super good friends? While after my third week I would no longer be canvassing, I will never forget the experience, and just how connected you become to your coworkers. 

Legal Research

After having three successful weeks of canvassing, I switched over to work on the Old-Growth Amendment Document that the National Forest Service (NFS) released in June 2024. This contained 400 pages total, from the four alternative options, to the socioeconomic and cultural analysis, and I read all of it. My goal in reading through this document(s) was to figure out which alternative proposed by the NFS would be most supported by Environment America. After writing a 14 page document on the different alternatives and legal approaches, as well as loopholes within the document, I met with Len Montgomery - the middle-woman between the canvass office and the legal team, to see if I had hit the mark. Turns out, the NFS’s alternative three, which “prohibits all commercial logging”, has loopholes to allow commercial logging industries to maintain “proactive stewardship” – this would still result in unnecessary cutting down of old growth and mature trees. This research and policy was very interesting to me, as I had never really looked into environmental law before this internship. 

Lobbying for advocacy day 

With all of the work and efforts on the Old-Growth and Mature tree protection was done, the office shifted to focusing on the Plastic Pellets Free Water Act. What do you know about nurdles!? Because I knew nothing. Nurdles are these tiny, lentil-sized plastic pieces that companies have been DUMPING into our waterways, without being held accountable. THEIR scientists said, “it’s basically sand!” and Environment America and the public says, “no it is NOT.”. Instead of doing research on the legal end and policies as I did for the Old-Growth Amendment, I was tasked with setting up for Lobby Day. This meant going through all of the Representatives and Senators from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and seeing where they stand, what they’ve supported in the past, and, if they were republican, how much

they enjoy fishing! A large part of my final days of this internship involves finding a way to convince every single representative to sign on to S.2337, learning their background and if they haven’t supported similar legislation before, if I can take on a personal angle to convince them. 

From getting shooed off a member’s property with a ‘Blue Lives Matter’ flag hanging, to being told by a stock broker that he, “doesn’t care about our cause but loved our act”, this summer was an incredible experience to get insight on how The Fund for the Public Interest, the overarching organization of Environment America, not only raises funds, but how their legal team functions to analyze these policies brought forward, sometimes even resulting in lawsuits against big corporations funded by those canvassers. The best part of this experience was the people: while the HRC is incredibly diverse, working as a canvasser attracts a certain group of people, and I loved every single one of them. I would recommend everyone to canvas at least once in their lives, and if you care about the environment, Environment America is a great place to start.

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My name is Sarah Naughton, and I’m a senior International Studies major concentrating in Global Migration and Economic Development. I picked up four minors - pre-law, political science, human rights studies, and anthropology. I’m from the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, and started working at the HRC my sophomore year. I’ve always been a major advocate for social justice issues, and I hope to continue doing impactful work post-grad.