Environmental Law Pioneer

Byron Sher, veteran lawmaker who shaped California's landmark environmental laws, dies at 98.

Byron Sher, a respected Stanford University law professor who wrote many of California's landmark environmental laws over a three-decade career, has died at the age of 98. Known for his easygoing manner, Sher rose to prominence in the state Legislature and passed dozens of groundbreaking bills that made California a national leader in environmental policy. Among them were the California Clean Air Act in 1987, the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1989, and a deal with former Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 1999 to preserve thousands of acres of old-growth redwoods at Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County. Sher also authored legislation in 1983 that cleaned up more than 10,000 leaking underground gasoline and chemical storage tanks across Silicon Valley and other parts of California. Although he left the Legislature in 2004 due to term limits, Sher served on the board of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and later the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency until 2013.

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