Rick Eichstaedt, Associate


rick@bnd-law.com

Areas of Practice
Environmental, land use, and Indian law


Representative Experience
Extensive litigation experience in the fields of state and federal environmental, land use, and Indian law and has represented environmental organizations, citizens groups, individuals, and tribal governments in a wide variety of administrative and judicial forums. Rick has represented neighborhood groups, citizen groups, and individuals in a variety of Growth Management Hearings Board matters and in subsequent appeals. Rick has assisted clients with a variety of federal matters that involved the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Power Act, CERCLA, and other federal environmental laws. Rick has provided legal representation to tribal clients in a variety of matters including taxation issues, tribal employment matters, cultural resource issues, federal contracting, water resource management issues, and other environmental/natural resource issues, such as hydropower relicensing, water rights litigation, Superfund cleanup issues, the development of tribal environmental and utility programs, land use issues, and federal forest management issues.

Rick has appeared before a number of different state and federal administrative bodies, including Washington's Growth Management Hearings Board, Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals, Washington's Pollution Control Hearings Board, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, and the Interior Board of Land Appeals. He has appeared before the Washington Court of Appeals, the Oregon Court of Appeals, Federal District Courts in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Rick also currently serves as the founding Spokane Riverkeeper working to protect and restore water quality of the Spokane River.

Rick had the honor of representing the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho for seven years on a variety of environmental, natural resource, cultural resource, and treaty-right protection cases.

Publications

  • Co-Author, Water Quality Standards & Hydropower Dams: Finding Concrete Solutions, THE WATER REPORT, November 15, 2007, at 19.
  • Co-Author, More Dam Process: Relicensing of Dams and the 2005 Energy Policy Act, THE IDAHO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION ADVOCATE, June/July 2007, at 33. (Available at http://www.law.uoregon.edu/faculty/aamos/docs/moredamjune2007.pdf)
  • Contributing Author, Treaties: Nez Perce Perspective (2003).
  • Co-Author, Federal Implementation of the Clean Air Act in Indian Country, THE IDAHO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION ADVOCATE, February 2003, at 16.
  • Save the Whales v. Save the Makah: The Makah and the Struggle for Native Whaling, 4 ANIMAL LAW 145 (1998).

Bar and Civic Activities

  • Washington State Bar Association
  • Idaho State Bar Association
  • Oregon State Bar Association
  • United States District Court, Western District of Washington
  • United States District Court, Eastern District of Washington
  • United States District Court, District of Idaho
  • United States District Court, District of Oregon
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • Member, Washington State Bar Land Use and Environmental Section
  • Member, Idaho State Bar Environmental and Natural Resource Section
  • Licensed to practice in Nez Perce Tribal Court
  • Board of Directors, Idaho Rivers United, 1998 to present.

Education

  • J.D., Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resource Law (1997).
  • B.A., Majors: Political Science and Anthropology, Hamline University (1994).

Selected Lectures/Presentations

  • The Hells Canyon FERC Relicensing, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, February 1999.
  • Water Law and Indian Water Rights, Falmouth Institute, June 1999, March 2000, June 2000, March 2001, & August 2003.
  • Nez Perce Tribal Water Claims in the Snake River Basin, Idaho State Bar Annual Meeting, July 1999.
  • Indian Hunting and Fishing Rights Law, Falmouth Institute, January 2000, March 2001, October 2001, & July 2002.
  • Challenges to Environmental Regulation in Indian Country and Snake River Dam Removal, National Tribal Conference on Environmental Management, May 2000.
  • Tribes and the Endangered Species Act, Celebration 2000: Washington State Bar Association Annual Meeting, September 2000.
  • Environmental Issues Impacting Indian Reservations, Environmental Crimes Conference, October 2000.
  • Water Quality Jurisdictional Issues, Columbia River Basin Tribal Water Quality Conference, November 2000.
  • Dam Breaching: A Tribal Perspective, Western Water Law Conference, February 2001.
  • Columbia Basin Water Quality Processes, Columbia River Basin Tribal Water Quality Conference, October 2001.
  • The Freedom of Information Act and Implications to Tribes, Pacific Northwest Tribal Air Network Quarterly Meeting, October 2002.
  • Tribal Perspectives on Dam Breaching, University of Idaho, School of Law, April 2003.Tribal Water Quality Standards: Protecting Tribal Waters and Beyond, River Rally 2003, May 2003.Salmon Recovery and Environmental Justice, University of Idaho, School of Law, October 2003.Dam Relicensing 101, Sierra Club/The Lands Council Educational Event, May 2005.Guest Lecture on Tribal Water Rights, Gonzaga Law School Water Law Course, Fall 2005.Perspective on the Clean Water Act Use Attainability Analysis Process, EPA Workshop on Designated Uses and Use Attainability Analyses, July 2006.