Kristen Boyles

Managing Attorney

Northwest Office

Kristen looks directly at the viewer with a friendly smile. She's wearing a white collared blouse and standing in front of a white backdrop. Her body is angled slightly to the left.

Bar Admissions

WA, CA

Pronouns

she / her

Kristen Boyles

Managing Attorney Northwest Office

Media Inquiries

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

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, gray wolves, and others. Kristen continues to fight 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.” In 2026, the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Oregon, awarded Kristen the David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award. She remains dedicated to the use of the Oxford comma.

Expert Posts & Articles

A close up photo of hands holding small wood pellets and sawdust.
May 29, 2025

The Long Shadow of Drax, a Power Company Masquerading as Green 

The U.K. wood pellet manufacturer pollutes low-income U.S. communities 
Top view of a group of wood pellets for heating.
August 6, 2024

Are Industrial Wood Pellets Renewable, Green Energy? Don’t Believe It for a Second.

Here are 10 reasons why industrial wood pellet production is a false solution to the climate crisis.
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

Media Inquiries

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

On Social Media

@krisboyles

Bar Admissions

WA, CA

Pronouns

she / her

Quoted in the News

July 14, 2026

NPR

Environmental groups sue government to stop a big change to the Endangered Species Act

“Making this kind of dramatic change doesn’t make any legal sense because it goes against the fundamental purpose and spirit of the statute itself.”
July 10, 2026

CNN

Trump administration opens endangered species’ habitats to development, reversing 50 years of environmental law

“Let’s be clear: there is no support for the Trump administration’s rule — no scientific support, no legal support, no public support. We will see the Trump administration in court.”
June 17, 2026

Courthouse News Service

Ninth Circuit sides with Yurok Tribe over Klamath Irrigation Project

“The Ninth Circuit today confirmed what has long been settled law — the Endangered Species Act fully protects threatened and endangered salmon in the Klamath River.”
November 20, 2025

CBS

Trump administration moves to roll back some protections for endangered and threatened species

"The Services are required to prevent harmful consequences to species, not ignore them."
April 18, 2025

Bloomberg Law

Trump Allows Migratory Bird Killings, Cancels Further Protection

“If these proposals are finalized and withstand legal challenges, they will affect migratory birds and listed species by making it harder to protect the habitat that the species need to survive and recover.”
April 17, 2025

KUOW

Trump Administration opens half of national forest land for logging

Kristen Boyles, Managing Attorney of Earthjustice's Northwest Office, speaks with Soundside about the Trump administration's actions on federal forest management

Latest Press Statements

Small bird on a branch
July 14, 2026

Lawsuit Seeks to Protect America’s Wildlife From Trump Administration

Rulemaking claims habitat destruction does not “harm” endangered species
July 10, 2026

Trump Administration Eliminates Habitat Protections for Vulnerable Wildlife

Unprecedented rulemaking suggests habitat destruction does not “harm” wildlife protected under Endangered Species Act
A manatee calf with its mother at Three Sisters Springs in Florida.
November 19, 2025

Earthjustice Responds to Another Trump Administration Attack on Endangered Species

Set of proposed rules would hollow out bedrock environmental law
Southern resident killer whale.
May 19, 2025

Over 150,000 Americans Oppose Trump Administration’s Unprecedented Effort to Eliminate Habitat Protections for Vulnerable Wildlife

Scientists, legal experts, and environmental groups also urge Trump administration to drop proposed rule
June 13, 2024

Community Groups Challenge Permit for Washington’s First Industrial Wood Pellet Fuel Plant

The permit vastly underestimates harmful air pollution from the plant that would cause health impacts to residents in nearby communities
A lone gray wolf howls in the woods of the the upper Midwest
March 28, 2024

Earthjustice Responds to Biden Administration’s Final Endangered Species Act Rulemaking 

Biden administration falls short of fully restoring ESA