Commentary

Senior Counsel

Peter has been an environmental, land use, and consumer attorney and advocate since 1983. He has held various roles in Washington, DC including Of Counsel at the Center for Food Safety; Vice President for U.S. Government Policy at Conservation International; Director of International Conservation at Defenders of Wildlife; and Staff Attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Additionally, he worked as a contracted consultant on endangered species recovery efforts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Turner Endangered Species Fund in New Mexico. Prior to that, he served as an Attorney and Policy Analyst for the U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, and was also in private law practice. His career has centered on bringing the best science to bear in environmental protection efforts; he has specialized in working with scientists so their findings can inform good policy, as well as in federal litigation. Most of his work has been in aid of wildlife conservation in the fields of pesticides, genetically modified organisms, invasive species, wildlife disease prevention, international trade, land use conflicts, and other areas. Peter received his law degree from the University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University) School of Law and also has a master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, with a focus on conservation biology.

Park Service Lack of Transparency Created Its Huge FOIA Backlog

by Jeff Ruch | November 18, 2022
The National Park Service is drowning in FOIA requests - the backlog has nearly doubled during the past two years ...

COMMENTARY | Saving Species Under Threat

by Tim Whitehouse | November 15, 2022
Protecting biodiversity and endangered species such as the North Atlantic Right Whale is one of the great challenges of our time ...

COMMENTARY | Home on the Range: Wild Horses on Public Lands

by Chandra Rosenthal | November 9, 2022
Wild horses are given a bad reputation for damaging public lands but BLM data shows that livestock are the real problem ...

COMMENTARY | Countering the Western War on Wolves

by Jeff Ruch | November 2, 2022
A science-based approach to wolf and predator management is the key to restoring ecological balance in America’s Western lands ...

COMMENTARY | House Gives Hope to Federal Whistleblowers, Senate Must Step Up

by Colleen Zimmerman | October 27, 2022
In order to ensure that the Whistleblower Protection Improvement Act stands a chance of becoming law, voters must keep their Senators accountable ...
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