Environmental Conservation

In 2023, the firm began a new pro bono relationship with the American Forest Foundation, a nonprofit organization that enables family forest owners to access climate finance from carbon markets, empowering them to help address climate change while earning income from their land. The Family Forest Carbon Program pays enrolled landowners upfront to implement climate-smart forestry practices that go above and beyond what is otherwise common practice. The program also provides landowners with professional expertise and guidance to help them transition to long-term sustainable forest management.

Gibson Dunn lawyers have dedicated their time to advising family forest owners about rights and obligations under the complex contractual structures required to establish the relevant carbon credit relationships and land use restrictions. With the benefit of pro bono legal support, the Program is able to expand enrollment, education, and access to resources, thereby increasing the amount of carbon sequestration in American forests. We are proud to support the Program in this critical mission and look forward to a robust continued partnership in years to come.

The firm is proud to continue its longstanding partnership with The Nature Conservancy (“TNC”), a nonprofit founded in the 1950s to conserve the lands and waters on which life depends. One project we assisted with in 2023 was the Maybell canal project. A group of ranchers in northwestern Colorado dug the 18-mile-long Maybell canal more than 125 years ago to divert about 130 cubic feet of irrigation water from the Yampa River (a tributary of the Colorado River, upstream of Dinosaur National Monument and the Grand Canyon). Located near the town of Maybell, the ranchers use their Maybell Ditch water right to irrigate their hay fields and provide water for livestock. The reach of the Yampa is home to abundant wildlife, including four threatened or endangered fish species, whose free movement depends on healthy flows in this critical part of the river.

The original Maybell headgate structure situated on Bureau of Land Management land away from any road required significant repair to work efficiently, while also maximizing in-stream flows to leave water in the Yampa. TNC organized grants from nonprofits and government sources to fund the significant cost of replacing the Maybell headgate structure and provide cutting-edge remote-control technology for the ranchers to control when the Ditch diverts water. The new headgate and technology also will maximize in-stream flows, helping leave water in the Yampa for increased ecological connectivity, which benefits endangered fish and other species. Lawyers in Gibson Dunn’s Denver office worked with TNC on its oversight of the design and construction for this major project, which was largely completed during the fall and winter of 2023 during low stream flows.

Gibson Dunn’s Singapore office is advising Smart Air, a social enterprise and certified B-Corp established in 2013 that promotes cost-effective, data-backed air filters as a solution to
indoor particulate air pollution, and which also provides open-source data and hosts educational workshops across Asia to teach people how to protect themselves from the harms of poor air quality. The firm advised Smart Air in connection with the development of distribution arrangements to various Asian jurisdictions in the furtherance of Smart Air’s mission to improve air quality for populations in Asia.