WWP’s Montana Legal Counsel
Summer Nelson is Western Watershed Project’s Montana Legal Counsel. Originally from western Washington, she has a Bachelor of Science degree in Resource Conservation from the University of Montana. In college, Summer held various seasonal field positions, including wilderness trail work and as a summer avian field research assistant in the Missouri Ozarks. After college, she worked in wilderness therapy for at risk/adjudicated youth, tree planting restoration, and intermittent organic farming. She has done volunteer work for the Buffalo Field Campaign, Schools of the Americas Watch, and other grassroots environmental campaigns.
It was while working for these activist campaigns that Summer realized that what many of these organizations needed was dedicated legal representation. With that goal in mind, she returned to the University of Montana where she graduated from the School of Law in 2008. While in law school, Summer was an intern with Earthjustice in Bozeman, Montana for a summer and also did research for professors and for other environmental attorneys.
Summer is dedicated to living a life style of environmental and social justice. She commutes by bicycle, lives in a converted passenger train car with her cat Oblio, and is developing a self sustaining garden. In her spare time, Summer occasionally paints and draws and is learning to weave and play the banjo.
