Kristen Boyles

Managing Attorney Northwest Office

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Media Inquiries

Elizabeth Manning
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
emanning@earthjustice.org

On Social Media

@KrisBoyles

Bar Admissions

WA, CA

Pronouns

she / her

Kristen Boyles is the managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Northwest Regional Office in Seattle, Washington.

For over 25 years, Kristen’s work has focused on conservation issues including Pacific Northwest forestry, Columbia and Klamath River salmon protection, impacts of pesticides on people and the environment, water quality concerns, the national Roadless Rule, and national monuments. She has fought for the protection and recovery of threatened and endangered species — Pacific salmon, marbled murrelets, southern resident killer whales, northern spotted owls, gray wolves, and others. Kristen leads Earthjustice’s team to stop crude-by-rail and other fossil fuel infrastructure expansion in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia and is part of the movement for a just transition to a clean energy future.

Kristen is a graduate of Stanford University and Cornell Law School. Prior to joining Earthjustice, Kristen had the privilege of clerking for Judge Raymond J. Pettine in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island and Judge Robert R. Beezer in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also worked as a staff attorney for Pacific Rivers.

In 2017, Kristen received the Sierra Club’s William O. Douglas Award for “outstanding use of the legal/judicial process to achieve environmental goals, particularly those with national significance.” She remains dedicated to the use of the Oxford comma.

The Latest from Kristen Boyles

March 9, 2023

In the News: The Guardian

New Utah oil railroad by Colorado River raises health and climate fears

“If this goes forward it will be a triumph of corporate greed. The fact that we continue to have disasters like East Palestine and near misses over and over again is a regulatory failure that demonstrates the absolute power of railroad industry lobbying.”
February 17, 2023

In the News: The New York Times

Norfolk Southern’s Profits and Accident Rates Rose in Recent Years

“For years, the railroads have fought all kinds of basic safety regulations — modern braking systems, stronger tank cars for explosive materials, even information about what’s on trains passing through communities — based on an argument that it simply costs too much to protect our lives, health, and our air and water.”
July 5, 2022

In the News: The Hill

Court Nixes Trump-era Rules Loosening Endangered Species Protections

“The whole point of the Endangered Species Act is to give protections to species that are on the brink of extinction. The Trump rules that have today been repealed did nothing to help species and in fact did affirmative harm to how species are protected in this country.”

June 23, 2022

In the News: The New York Times

Trump Definition of ‘Habitat’ for Endangered Species Tossed

“These harmful rules have been in place for almost three years and the Biden administration is still missing in action. And the agencies are, of course, using them because they have to use the regulations that are in place.”

November 12, 2021

In the News: Associated Press

Fight over US wolf protections goes before federal judge

“They cannot take this shortcut. One of the casualties of the Fish and Wildlife Service argument is that we are not here today talking about the key issues of what protections wolves need, where those protections are needed.”
January 13, 2021

In the News: The New York Times

Trump Opens Habitat of a Threatened Owl to Timber Harvesting

“How in the world have they gone from a couple hundred thousand acres to three million acres and it wasn’t announced? That will be a primary focus of any legal challenge, and it will be challenged. There is no question.”
Earthjustice is working to stop Tesoro-Savage, a crude oil shipping terminal proposed for the banks of the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.
August 15, 2016

Gambling with House Money

Go inside the trial of Tesoro-Savage, a crude oil shipping terminal proposed for the banks of the Columbia River.
Recent crude-by-rail accidents are adding fuel to a growing movement aiming to regulate this dangerous mode of oil transportation.
May 6, 2015

Yet Another Explosive Wake-Up Call

Two crude-by-rail accidents earlier this month highlight the urgent need to regulate this dangerous mode of oil transportation, which threatens communities along the tracks.
First Nations Swinomish members participate in a traditional ceremony before oral testimonies on the Kinder Morgan TransMountain Pipeline begin.
March 24, 2015

Testifying to Stop the Salish Sea Pipeline

The proposed Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion threatens the way of life on the Salish Sea, and this First Nations testimony exemplifies why it should be stopped.
Blueberries.
October 1, 2013

AZM Reign of Poisoning Ends

More than 10 years of court fights rids fields of deadly pesticide