The theme of this year’s 43rd annual NAL Conference (National Advocacy Leadership) was “Get in Gear—Act for the Planet.” Kathy Fernbacher and Yoni Mayeri represented OGC, spending three action-packed days hearing speakers discuss the environmental priorities of the GCA and how we can get back on track to pass legislation to protect our planet.

We met in person with Mark DeSaulnier, our U.S. Representative for the 11th District, and Senator Adam Schiff, California’s U.S. Senator, as well as with an assistant to Senator Alex Padilla.

As California delegates, we are fortunate that our representatives support the legislation we advocated for—reducing PFAs, reinstating regulations on harmful pesticides, and increasing funding for our national parks. Even though not every member of Congress supports these proposals, our takeaway was that there is broad agreement that climate change is real, and now we must work to find common ground to pass meaningful legislation addressing this urgent issue.

As always, it was an amazing and inspirational conference.