About Us
Learn more about LD 928, The Pine Tree Amendment.
Pine Tree Amendment Action
The Pine Tree Amendment (PTA) adds language to the Bill of Rights in the Maine Constitution that will protect the rights of all people in the state, including present and future generations, to
a clean and healthy environment and to the preservation of the natural, cultural and healthful qualities of the environment. The PTA serves as a check on government authority and makes clear the government's duty to protect the state’s natural resources.
Through grassroots organizing with our lead partner Down to Earth Storytelling, we are working to build a growing coalition
of organizations, indigenous leaders, youth leaders, civic leaders, legislators, and dedicated residents to take action and ensure this right for all of Maine’s people.
This legislation is sponsored by Rep. Margaret O'Neil(D-Saco) and Sen. Rick Bennet( R-Oxford).
LD 928 Language
Article 1, Section 25. Environmental rights. The people of the State have the right to a clean and healthy environment and to the preservation of the natural, cultural and healthful qualities of the environment. The State may not infringe upon these rights. The State shall conserve, protect and maintain the State’s natural resources, including, but not limited to, its air, water, land and ecosystems for the benefit of all the people, including generations yet to come.
The Pine Tree Amendment meets the criteria for a Green Amendment: a Bill of Rights Amendment that recognizes and protects the rights of all people in the state, including present and future generations, to clean air and water and a healthy environment.
Maine’s Pine Tree Amendment is a leader in the national movement called Green Amendments For The Generations seeking to secure the Bill of Rights protection for environmental rights in every state across our nation and ultimately at the federal level.
We occupy, work, farm, and fish on the unceded territory of the Wabanaki People.
We welcome and foster relationships with the tribes who have sustainably stewarded this land for millennia. We acknowledge and lament the history of and ongoing violence and the many forms of taking that result from Colonization and systemic white supremacy. We commit to supporting the efforts of Wabanaki People to restore their cultural lifeways and relationship to this beautiful place now called Maine.