As a lawyer with a strong environmental background, Christopher D'Ovidio, the new director of Rhode Island advocacy for the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), should have plenty of action in taking on environmental degradation, the creeping infestation of sprawl, and similar blights.

The addition of D'Ovidio, 36, who started on the job in November, promises to strengthen CLF's capacity. The Boston-based group, which bills itself as the largest regional environmental organization in the US, has had a presence in Rhode Island since 1967. CLF has been active in a variety of local environmental issues, from opposing Governor Lincoln Almond's quest for a container port at Quonset Point to successfully challenging plans to build an industrial park in an environmentally sensitive part of Exeter. But because of the lack of a full-time legal presence in Rhode Island, CLF has often had to turn for help to its Boston office.

"We really set out to find someone who was a Rhode Islander," says Jennifer Cole Steele, the energetic coordinator of CLF's Rhode Island office. "I think we really lucked out with Mr. Rhode Island."

D'Ovidio, a Warwick native who now resides in East Greenwich, became interested in environmental issues as a youth, in part because of his mother's involvement in a Warwick Community Action cleanup of Mary's Creek. He studied natural resource development at URI before working as a soil conservationist, hydrologic technician, wildlife research biologist, and environmental scientist, with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. D'Ovidio obtained a law degree from the Golden Gate University School of Law before returning to Rhode Island to practice environmental law.

His priorities at CLF include aiding citizen-based lawsuits to ensure compliance of environmental laws and supporting the improvement of cities and neighborhoods through sustainable growth. The outlook on the latter front is particularly encouraging since governor-elect Don Carcieri emphasized the special quality of Rhode Island's environment during his campaign. "Based on what he's said so far, I think we can count on him to support environmental protection," D'Ovidio says. "We don't want every community to look like a Route 2 in Warwick."

The new position in the Rhode Island office was funded through a challenge grant. After being picked from among more than 30 applicants for the job, D'Ovidio says he was attracted by the opportunity to put his legal skills to work for a like-minded organization like CLF, a non-profit public interest group (www.clf.org) supported by thousands of members. "CLF is a progressive environmental organization, a New England-based progressive environmental organization," he says. "Their philosophy and culture really meshes with my philosophy of environmental protection."

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.

Issue Date: December 13 - 19, 2002