Mission Statement
The Environmental Defense Center protects and enhances the local environment through education, advocacy, and legal action.
Focus
Since 1977 we have empowered community based organizations to advance environmental protection. Our program areas include protecting coast and ocean resources, open spaces and wildlife, and human and environmental health. We primarily work within Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

Description:
Programs and Services
For twenty-five years, EDC has worked to protect environmental quality of life on California's Central Coast. To that end, EDC represents citizen groups to ensure that existing environmental laws are enforced. Our cases span the breadth of environmental issues, from protecting the quality of our drinking water, to guarding precious open spaces from development, to preventing species from extinction.

History:
History & Purpose
In 1969 Unocal's oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel focused the nation's attention on the inherent dangers of irresponsible natural resource exploitation, and made Santa Barbara the birthplace of the modern environmental movement. By 1977, an increasingly bureaucratic web of regulations, coupled with a growing polluter sophistication, made necessary the creation of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) as a public interest law firm, dedicated to defending the health of the public and the environment.

For 25 years, EDC has provided legal, advocacy, organizing, and public education services to community groups dedicated to environmental quality and health, regardless of their ability to pay. EDC's staff assists other non-profit environmental groups to ensure that existing environmental laws are enforced. As the only public interest environmental law firm between Los Angeles and San Francisco, EDC focuses its efforts on water quality, biodiversity and endangered species, watershed protection, environmental health and justice, offshore oil and gas development, and access to public lands.

EDC is organized as a §501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation serving Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties.

Contact person: Betsy Weber, Program Coordinator, (phone), (email)

Address:

906 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.edcnet.org

Directions:

Take Garden Street exit from US 101. Heading East on Garden Street, end at 906 Garden Street.