By Sarah Naughton

When I was first interviewed by one of the directors of the Oregon office, I had no idea what to expect at Environment America. I knew the campaign was about protecting old and mature trees, and having grown up in the Poconos in Pennsylvania where there were more trees than people around me, it was easy for me to say, “I can rock with trees for a summer!” and I agreed to take the job. When I arrived in Washington, DC and found that I was working right at 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I was especially excited to start this new chapter.

Customer acquisition

My first day was nerve-racking. I entered the building, went up to the fourth floor and looked at the other three people who were spending their first day there. In the onboarding email I was sent the following:

‘Rap’ – I did NOT bother memorizing it until the day before while everyone around me knew it by heart. Even though I felt a little behind, I did not let that stop me from doing my best. The thing is, on observation day, if you do not know the rap by heart, you go home. So of course I was taken aside and told to come back tomorrow. I did NOT want to start a day late, so I said to Will Sherwood, “I know I improvise a lot and am rusty in training, but trust that once I get in the door, I will get it done” – and he let me stay for the first day. Then once we were on the field, my coach Nate, who is now one of my closest friends, would have missed his quota if I had not been there – I got $250 in donations on the first day and I will never forget that feeling.

On my third day, I was promoted to Field Manager, which meant that while I was still campaigning, I would also use Evergiving to mow lawns for campaigners, conduct trainings, and overall support campaign managers. I really liked it, but I can’t deny that I had a really hard time knocking on a door, starting my speech, and getting responses like “I just lost my job” or “I want to support this, but I don’t have the means to do so right now.” I loved campaigning, but I hated asking people for money, especially when you’re encouraged to get as much as you can for those donations. The only way I could keep going was by reminding myself that this money I’m raising will lead to better laws, policies, and regulations for these old growth trees across the country, and at the end of the day, after seeing forests being cut down in my hometown, I was able to stay motivated.

Even though I only promoted for three weeks, the second week I went on a “camping trip” to Richmond, VA. There were five of us – one was Nate who coached me, another was a girl I went to NYC with later that summer, and the others are now very good friends as well. I mean, how can you sleep in tents for a week with people you just met and not

become super good friends? Even though I stopped working as a door-to-door salesman after my third week, I will never forget this experience and the bond you build with your colleagues.

Legal research

After three successful weeks of canvassing, I began working on the Old-Growth Amendment document that the National Forest Service (NFS) released in June 2024. It totaled 400 pages, from the four alternative options to the socioeconomic and cultural analysis, and I read it through in its entirety. My goal in reading through these documents was to determine which alternative proposed by the NFS would be most supported by Environment America. After drafting a 14-page document on the various alternatives and legal approaches, as well as the loopholes in the document, I met with Len Montgomery—the middleman between the canvassing office and the legal team, to see if I had hit the mark. It turns out that the NFS’s third alternative, which “prohibits all commercial logging,” contains loopholes that allow the commercial logging industry to maintain “proactive management”—this would still result in unnecessary logging of old-growth and mature trees. This research and policy was very interesting for me as I had never really dealt with environmental law before this internship.

Lobbying for Advocacy Day

After all the work and efforts to protect old-growth and mature trees were completed, the office turned its attention to the Plastic Pellets Free Water Act. What do you know about nurdles? Because I knew nothing. Nurdles are these tiny, lentil-sized pieces of plastic that companies dump into our waterways without being held accountable. THEIR scientists said, “Basically, it’s sand!” and Environment America and the public say, “No, it’s NOT.” Instead of researching the legal side and the policies like I did for the Old-Growth Amendment, I was tasked with preparing Lobby Day. That meant contacting all the representatives and senators from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia and seeing where they stood, what they’d supported in the past, and, if they were Republicans, how much

they like to fish! I spend a large portion of my final days of this internship trying to figure out a way to convince each and every congressman to sign S.2337, learn their background, and if they haven’t supported similar legislation before, whether I can convince them from a personal perspective.

From evicting a member from a property where a Blue Lives Matter flag was flying to having a stockbroker tell him he “didn’t care about our cause but thought our action was great,” this summer was an incredible experience to gain insight into how the Fund for the Public Interest, Environment America’s parent organization, not only raises money but also how their legal team analyzes these proposed actions, sometimes even leading to lawsuits against large corporations funded by these poll workers. The best part of this experience was the people: Although the HRC is incredibly diverse, poll worker work attracts a certain group of people, and I liked every single one of them. I would recommend being a poll worker at least once in your life to everyone, and if you care about the environment, Environment America is a great place to start.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

My name is Sarah Naughton and I am a senior studying International Studies with a concentration in Global Migration and Economic Development. I have four minors – Law, Political Science, Human Rights Studies, and Anthropology. I am from the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania and started working at HRC in my sophomore year. I have always been very passionate about social justice and hope to continue doing impactful work after I graduate.