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November 03, 2014

The Sierra Club and the Military: A Long and Fruitful History

By Stacy Bare, Sierra Club Outdoors Director

On Veterans Day -- and for several days leading up to and after Veterans Day -- we celebrate those women and men who have served their country in uniform. We're lucky at the Sierra Club to have a high percentage among our members and activists. Based on available demographic data, we estimate that 10 percent of the Club's overall 2.4 million members and supporters are veterans. By contrast, only 5 percent of all Americans have served in the Armed Forces. For me as a veteran, it's pretty special to be in a place where more than double the percentage of the general population chooses to continue serving their country.

There are a few broad generalizations of veterans that hold pretty true across the board, though there are always exceptions. The generalizations that I believe draw those of us who have served in uniform and now at the Club are a commitment to service, team, something bigger than yourself, a sense of mission, and the protection of our democratic values.

At the end of the day, ensuring that we have access to public lands -- the very physical incarnation of our drive for equal rights and freedom -- and clean air and water (basic human rights if ever there were any), are right in line with the belief system of the men and women who have served. We as veterans are represented at the Club through far more than our award-winning Sierra Club Military Outdoors program, but with outings as the heart and soul of the Club, its no surprise we have former Army Major and Silver Star recipient Joshua Brandon leading one of the biggest engagement programs for service members and veterans throughout the Club, with more than 13,000 veterans and military families served this year.

People often times ask me when the Sierra Club held its first military outing. The answer is 1903, on a three-night campout that John Muir shared with U.S. veteran President Theodore Roosevelt. PBS reports this "…could be considered the most significant camping trip in conservation history." It led to the creation of Yosemite National Park.

You'll find men and women who have worn the uniform throughout the Club's: people like the Beyond Coal campaign's Daniel Sawmiller, Ohio Chapter Chair Bob Shields, and rock star ICO volunteer Melaina Sharp. And there are thousands more, as well as those who served as military kids and spouses.

So this Veterans Day, as you consider the long and fruitful history with the Club and the men and women who have served, get outside and march or cheer alongside the veterans in your local Veterans Day parade; take some time to volunteer with your local outings group to reach out to local veterans; or just get out onto our public lands and enjoy the things we fought to protect -- and that you as a Sierra Clubber are still fighting for.

Watch this video about Stacy Bare's personal journey of recovery once he returned from active duty in Iraq.

Posted at 12:20 PM in Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 19, 2014

Club President David Scott Addresses National Wilderness Conference

The National Wilderness Conference, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from October 15-19 -- the largest gathering of the wilderness community since the Act was signed in 1964.

Among the keynote speakers was Sierra Club President David Scott, above.

"I'm honored to have been part of Wilderness 50 in Albuquerque last week, where more than 1,200 people celebrated the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Act," Scott says. "That landmark law has protected 757 wilderness areas with a total acreage the size of the state of California.

"Numerous heroes of past wilderness protection fights joined present and future activists, telling the crowd not just how we got to where we are today, but what we need to do if wilderness protection is to meet the challenge of climate change, if we're going to make nature more accessible to all, and if our environmental movement is going to be more open and inclusive, as it must be. I'm proud of the strong Sierra Club contingent at this celebration, and glad I had a chance to join them."

From Scott's remarks at the conference:

As Sierra Club founder John Muir told us, "The battle we have fought, and are still fighting … is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it."

In this golden anniversary year of the Wilderness Act, my hope is that we all leave this celebration not only proud of what has been accomplished, but rededicated to meet the enormous challenges of the future. I hope we leave this celebration prepared to not only protect more wild places on a map-- important as that is -- but to also meet the enormous challenge of climate disruption, to make our environmental movement and our society more broad, more just, and more inclusive, and to leave for future generations the beautiful, wild and livable planet that is their birthright.

Read Scott's full speech, and learn more about the Sierra Club's Our Wild America campaign.

Posted at 09:00 AM in Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2014

New National Monument Sweet Victory for Sierra Club Board Member

Among those taking the greatest pride when President Obama formally designated the 346,000-acre San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in Southern California on October 10 was Susana Reyes, a member of the Sierra Club's Board of Directors since 2012. That's Reyes, above, speaking at the community celebration held immediately after the signing ceremony.

Formerly the Director of Human Resources with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, last year Reyes joined Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's Sustainability Team, where she is a senior analyst.

The Planet spoke with Reyes just hours before President Obama dedicated the nation's newest national monument.

Planet: You've been championing a San Gabriel Mountains National Monument for years. What does today's designation mean to you?

Reyes: Greater visibility for these mountains has a real power to affect the lives of people in the community. Studies show that it's a de-stressor to connect with the outdoors. We're protecting these mountains forever so that future generations will be able to enjoy them.

I'm a local; I've lived in Glendale, right up against the San Gabriels, for more than 20 years, and I've been a Sierra Club activist since 1999. I think one of the most gratifying things about the new San Gabriel Mountains National Monument is what it will mean to the diverse communities who will now have greater awareness and access to this amazing resource. These are communities that have traditionally been underserved in terms of access to the outdoors.

The San Gabriels contain about 70 percent of the open space in Los Angeles County and provide a third of its drinking water. The mountain range receives about 3.5 million visitors a year, many of them from L.A.'s Latino community. But the visitor experience has been lacking due to inadequate maintenance and services. The San Gabriels are a majestic backdrop to Los Angeles, but they have long been neglected. Even though some 17 million people live nearby, many low income communities and communities of color haven't been fully aware of the incredible resourse these mountains provide.

Planet: Why do you think this is?

Reyes: Recreational and wilderness resources in the San Gabriels have been poorly maintained because the U.S. Forest Service has lacked an adequate budget. Now the National Park Service and the Forest Service will be co-managing the national monument. Public access will be improved, as will the visitor experience. Many of the communities closest to the San Gabriels are socio-economically underserved, and haven't felt they had a real decision-making stake in the San Gabriels. Many of them use the San Gabriels for recreation, but until recently they haven't been organized in making their experience there a better one. But that has been changing, in large part due to the Sierra Club.

Planet: Tell us about the Sierra Club's role in helping bring about this change.

Reyes: The Sierra Club's role in this has been hugely important. We've been involved for more than a decade -- for the last several years as a member of the San Gabriel Mountains Forever Coalition, which formed when President Obama began designating national monuments and Congresswoman Hilda Solis was championing greater protections for the San Gabriels. Once Solis became the U.S. Secretary of Labor, her successor Judy Chu took the lead in Congress for enhancements and national monument status for the San Gabriels.

Sierra Club volunteer John Monsen, Congresswoman Judy Chu, and Reyes at the community celebration following the national monument signing ceremony. Reyes was among the featured speakers at the community celebration.

The Sierra Club hosted or co-hosted many, many community meetings to promote the national monument and recruit local champions from the community. The Club paid many times for buses to pick people up and get them to the meetings. We've worked closely from the get-go with the Latino community, faith, groups, and environmental justice groups. Sierra Club volunteers and staff translated campaign materials into Spanish. Organizers like Juana Torres, Fabiola Lao, Bill Corcoran, Sarah Matsumoto, Hop Hopkins, Eva Hernandez-Simmons, and Nidia Erceg really connected with the Latino community and helped bring them into the coalition.

Planet: What has your own involvement been?

Reyes: When the Sierra Club or the San Gabriel Mountains Forever Coalition gave presentations, I would be there to support the team. I've been a liaison with Congresswomen Solis and Chu. I was in contact with them whenever there were efforts to write letters of support, I had input into those letters, and I wrote many of them in person. I also helped with fundraising, although that effort was mostly led by Juana Torres. As a member of the Sierra Club's Board of Directors, I was the most visible volunteer, but I wanted to make sure that local volunteers got most of the credit, as they deserve.

Planet: Tell us how Club volunteers have been critical to the campaign's success.

Reyes: Volunteers have been huge in this effort. They have the skills, the passion, and they've long organized for this campaign, helping us pack rooms with people and channel support for the national monument. Three who have been key to our efforts are Don Bremner and John Monsen of the Angeles Chapter's forest committee, and Joyce Burk of the San Gorgonio Chapter's forest committee -- and I would be remiss not to mention Joan Licari, Joan Holtz, David Czamanske, Bob Cates, Judy Anderson, Jeff Yann, Lizz Pomeroy, Joanne Sarachman, and Jennifer Robinson, who have all made important contributions to this campaign over the years.

Sierra Club/San Gabriel Mountains Forever Coalition meeting in 2013.

All the capacities of the Sierra Club were pulled together by our volunteers to help build momentum toward national monument designation. Through this campaign, the Sierra Club has really connected with the Latino community in L.A. and gotten them involved. We don't just enter the community unprepared; we listen and learn first. The Club's campaign was very inclusive, a demonstration of our diversity, and it exemplifies the way we communicate and incorporate the social and cultural beliefs of the community into our work. It's been a huge success so far as movement-building and the diversity of the Club.

This wasn't just the Sierra Club standing alone, but the Sierra Club standing with diverse communities. In order to make this happen, we needed to push all of our goals to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet, but we also needed to work with the people who are going to use this mountain range and bring them into the process. National monument status will enhance their awareness of the San Gabriels, their experience enjoying the mountains and rivers, and their sense of ownership of this incredible resource. And of course, it will ensure that the things we love about the San Gabriels will remain to be enjoyed by others.

Photo by Ricraider, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Posted at 03:40 PM in Diversity, Environmental Justice, Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why Latinos Were So Crucial in the San Gabriels Designation

By Guest Blogger Rod Torrez

After the long campaign to protect the region, last Friday's designation of the San Gabriel Mountains as a National Monument is a victory for Latinos to celebrate. The monument's designation represents a significant moment in which we can see how effectively our community can engage in protecting public lands —as well as the ways we enjoy them.

The numbers clearly show that the Latino community supports this designation. Reflecting outcomes of other recent polls addressing Latino attitudes towards environmental conservation and land preservation, a recent poll of Los Angeles voters revealed that an overwhelming majority (88 percent) of Latinos supported protecting the San Gabriel Mountains and rivers. In addition to a wide coalition of conservationists, a number of Latino organizations backed the effort to protect the San Gabriels, including, to name just a few, California LULAC, Mujeres de la Tierra, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California and the faith-based alliance Por la Creación.

The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument is the third of three large areas of public land that has been granted National Monument status by the Obama administration in the last two years, thanks in large part to support from Latino communities that surround them. The other two are Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, both in New Mexico. This trend of course raises the question: why is protecting these places so important to Latinos?

Latinos in the Southwest have witnessed extractive industries such as oil, gas and mineral development, as well as urban growth, mar the landscapes, pollute watersheds and affect the wildlife that have sustained us for generations. These lands are part of our heritage and are as treasured to us as are the Grand Tetons in Wyoming or the Florida Everglades.

Yet Latinos, especially Latino hunters and anglers, would argue that protecting the land by setting it aside and cutting off our recreational and traditional uses would be unsatisfactory to the community. We support these new monuments largely because they not only protect the land and waterways, but also respect continued access for hunting, fishing, camping and hiking —activities that our communities throughout the Southwest have pursued for generations.

The San Gabriel Mountains in particular have always been a welcome reprieve from the city for Latinos, especially for hunting and fishing, and have been increasingly valuable as a destination for outdoor education programs, with private organizations and public agencies using the area to connect many Latino urban youth to the outdoors. Moreover, the San Gabriel Mountains watershed provides a significant portion of the region's clean water supply; protecting the health of the resource is paramount to the health of communities downstream.

There are many good reasons to celebrate the new national monument. But it is important to note that the San Gabriel Mountains, along with the Rio Grande del Norte, and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monuments represent a new approach by protecting the land we love and respecting how we have enjoyed the land for generations. It's encouraging to know that we can continue to enjoy these places for generations to come. It's also satisfying to know that Latinos have played a significant role in protecting them.

Rod Torrez is director of Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting and Outdoors (HECHO)

Posted at 02:27 PM in Diversity, Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 17, 2014

Borderlands Love

The Sierra Club's Borderlands Team got a little love from the media earlier this month with the publication of one story about coalition efforts to restore environmental protections along the U.S.-Mexico border and another profiling the Club's work on the issue.

And just in time, too, because if there's one thing that there's just too little of on the border right now, it's love, sweet love.

Photo by Jeff Foote

Above, the border fence, which stretches for more than 650 miles in all four border states; below, a national park ranger talks to Borderlands Team activists at the border fence in Arizona.

The tinfoil hat blogosphere is ablaze with rumors of terrorist cells poised to invade the U.S. from imaginary training grounds and made-up martial arts dojos in Old Mexico. Ridiculous fantasy, yes, but not much worse than a real assault on our borderlands, an emergency border security bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month.

Below, Border Patrol tire tracks mar the desert along the border. (Watch our video, Too Many Tracks.)

Photo by Dan Millis

Ostensibly to address the child migration crisis, lawmakers approved a plan that would waive sixteen federal protections on nearly all federal lands within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Laws waived include the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and more. The last time these protections were brushed aside it was the Bush administration at work, imposing their wildlife-migration-blocking, flood-causing, habitat-crushing, 652-mile, $3 billion border wall.

Above, deer stymied at the border wall; below, javelina face the same dilemma.

Candid photos of kit foxes and prairie dogs at play grace the pages of Continental Divide: Wildlife, People and the Border Wall, written and photographed by Borderlands Team volunteer Krista Schlyer. Below, kit foxes in the borderlands.

Winner of the 2013 National Outdoor Book Award, Continental Divide shows that our borderlands are precious: grasslands graced by wild bison, exotic birds in lush habitat along rivers and streams, people gathered on a beach to relax and play music. Watch Krista's book talk online and you'll see the truly beautiful, though, threatened borderlands.

Organizing to protect the natural beauty of the borderlands are two Texans who serve as Borderlands Team Co-Chairs: Scott Nicol of McAllen, and Julie Shipp in Austin. Julie takes care of logistics, wrangles volunteers, and updates the website, while Scott juggles print and radio interviews, fatherhood, and writing nationally-distributed op-eds that bring the borderlands to thousands of readers. That's Nicol and Shipp below.

Even better than reading about the borderlands is exploring them, and now is a great time to go! Conservationists across New Mexico and beyond celebrated the establishment this year of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, a jewel of the Chihuahuan Desert highlands just a few miles from the Mexican border. Don't confuse it with Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, below, another dazzling desert getaway that adjoins the black desert sands and immense craters of Mexico's El Pinacate Reserve.

Public domain photo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Organ Pipe, named for the majestic cactus that occurs only in this region of the U.S. and Mexico, has had incredible rains this monsoon season, and the whole park is open to the public. If you are an aspiring desert rat, come see the Sonoran Desert in full bloom!

Photo courtesy of Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter

Organ Pipe, Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks, above, and all the amazing places in Continental Divide are what motivate the Sierra Club Borderlands Team to keep spreading border love. Reversing the largest waiver of law in U.S. history and toppling the border wall won't be easy, but it will be worth it.

Want to get involved? Contact [email protected] to join the Borderlands Team, and sign up for our monthly Borderlands email updates.

- Dan Millis, Grand Canyon Chapter Conservation Program Coordinator

All photographs by Krista Schlyer except photos of Scott Nicol & Julie Shipp, and where noted.

Posted at 12:55 PM in Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 09, 2014

Restoring our Urban Waters: A Spotlight on New Orleans’ Bayou Bienvenue

Bayou Bienvenue. Photo courtesy of Infrogmation of New Orleans

When you hear the word "bayou" it is hard not to think of the American Gulf Coast. These unique swampy ecosystems have come to define the region, especially in Louisiana. In fact, the word "bayou" is believed to have originated in Louisiana. Healthy bayous are not only teeming with biodiversity, but can also protect inland areas from tropical storms and hurricanes. These are just a sampling of reasons why protecting coastal wetlands are so crucial.

The Louisiana coast has lost 1,900 square miles of marshes and wetlands over the last 85 years as the Gulf of Mexico continues to encroach further inland. Louisiana's wetlands and the communities that surround them are in trouble, but there is a solution: restoration.

For the Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club, stopping coastal erosion and degradation has been a major priority. With the help of thousands of active Louisiana Sierrans along with like-minded local organizations, projects have been underway to promote nearby nature by bringing back the wetlands that once were and protecting the wetlands that remain. One area that has been a chief concern for the Delta Chapter is New Orleans' Bayou Bienvenue. While the biological health of this area is highly threatened, the efforts that are taking place there have given residents a new hope.

A formerly thriving freshwater cypress-tupelo swamp, the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle is now a barren saltwater marsh due to canal construction in the 1960s and subsequent saltwater intrusion. In its former glory, as the only part of the Central Wetlands system adjacent to the Lower Ninth Ward, Bayou Bienvenue was an integral resource for one of New Orleans most economically vulnerable communities. Previously filled with cypress trees, water lilies, fish, alligators, otters, and birds; older residents recall the swamp as a place to fish, hunt, harvest and explore. Now the area is merely open brackish water, but efforts from several organizations including Sierra Club are working to change that.

The Delta Chapter has been working on the Bayou Bienvenue project since 2006 in partnership with local organizations and other environmental non-governmental organizations as the Restore the Bayou campaign. Below, a cleanup project organized by the Sierra Club on Bayou Bienvenue.

"In working after Hurricane Katrina with the community in the Lower Ninth Ward, the community decided that they wanted to recover in a more sustainable way. That included not only repairing their houses to be safer and stronger but also work on restoring natural protections like Bayou Bienvenue," says Darryl Malek-Wiley, below at left, who has been an environmental justice organizer with the Sierra Club for 10 years in Louisiana. Restore the Bayou is truly a community project born from community ideas and fueled by community efforts.

The Lower Ninth Ward community is making huge strides towards restoration. Last year, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, in partnership with the Sierra Club and local volunteers, was able to plant over 6,000 wetland plants along the shore of the Bayou. In 2013, Restore the Bayou also unveiled new educational and interactive, museum-quality signage to help visitors and residents alike understand what the Bayou used to be and what community members hope it will one day be again.

These amazing efforts are just the tip of the iceberg for what Malek-Wiley and the rest of the Lower Ninth Ward community have planned for the site. Not only are these projects physically changing the landscape of the area, but through them residents have a chance to connect with nearby nature.

As with many local efforts, Malek-Wiley says the major challenge is trying to secure money for the restoration project. In 2012 the Sierra Club was able to get Bayou Bienvenue included in Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, a state-level plan to reduce flooding risks and rebuild wetlands. Bayou Bienvenue's inclusion made the Restore the Bayou project eligible for state dollars. The Club also got the Bayou listed on a similar restoration plan developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While both of these were steps in the right direction, neither was able to contribute funding to the Restore the Bayou efforts.

The Sierra Club is working to engage the Urban Waters Federal Partnership with Restore the Bayou. The Urban Waters Federal Partnership brings together fourteen federal agencies with the goal of improving our nation's waterways and the communities that surround them. The Partnership focuses particularly on communities that are overburdened or economically distressed. At its launch in 2011, the program announced seven pilot sites and three years later the program has grown to include 18 designated Urban Waters locations, one of which is New Orleans. Sierra Club is excited about the growth of this program and hopes to work more closely with the Partnership in the future.

"I think this is the type of program that [Urban Waters] should be investing in because it's being driven by community leaders, is directly related to the community, and would return ecosystem benefits to the community," says Malek-Wiley in urging that Bayou Bienvenue be designated as a Federal Partnership project. The Sierra Club supports the efforts to restore the Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands Triangle and is striving to create a federal and community partnership that will allow this area to once again become an integral part of a more sustainable and healthier New Orleans.

For more on Restore the Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands Triangle, visit their interactive website where you can hear stories, get project updates, and take action as well as donate to Restore the Bayou.

-- Tia Watkins, Nearby Nature Summer Intern, Sierra Club

Posted at 04:04 PM in Our Wild America, Protecting America's Waters | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 22, 2014

Victory for Panther Habitat as Oil Driller Leaves Florida

Environmentalists working with the Sierra Club's Florida Panther campaign won a year-long battle Friday to stop oil drilling in southwest Florida after a Texas-based oil drilling company announced it will terminate its lease holdings on 115,000 acres.

Numerous environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Stonecrab Alliance, Preserve our Paradise, and South Florida Wildlands Association, led the fight against drilling in the environmentally sensitive areas of the Everglades and Big Cypress Watersheds.

The fight began in April 2013 when the Dan Hughes oil company mailed a letter informing residents of a Naples suburb they were living in a "hydrogen sulfide evacuation zone" for an exploratory well. The well, which would be 1,000 feet from residences and less than one mile from the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, sparked public protests, meetings with elected officials, and hearings to assess the environmental impacts from the company's oil wells in the western Everglades. The county was so concerned about the impacts it challenged a consent order between the drilling company and the state.

Earlier this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency held a public forum to address the public's concerns. Sierra Club generated over 167,000 comments calling for the exploratory permit to be revoked. Also, in March, the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee, meeting for the first time in five years, reversed their initial decision to allow the permit after hearing public testimony. In a 4-1 vote, they recommended denial of the permit.

The concerns with drilling in the western Everglades are numerous - ranging from water quality and hydrology to habitat fragmentation and increased panther mortality. For Florida panthers, whose numbers range from 100 to 180, these wells would have destroyed primary habitat and fragmented areas that are used for hunting, denning, and traveling. Increased traffic on the roads in Golden Gate Estates (large trucks on isolated, small roads) would have increased the chances of a panther being hit - the leading cause of panther deaths. Perhaps most importantly, there have been no studies conducted that show how oil drilling impacts panthers or other wildlife.

Continue reading "Victory for Panther Habitat as Oil Driller Leaves Florida" »

Posted at 08:36 AM in Beyond Oil, Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 17, 2014

Welcoming Michael Brune and His Family to Oregon

In case you've missed the news lately, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune and his family are touring some beautiful wilderness sites in the Pacific Northwest in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. This write-up from the Oregon Chapter on the Brune family visit to Waldo Lake is a great one we had to re-post:

The week of July 7 was an exciting one for the Oregon Chapter, as we welcomed national Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune to Oregon for several days. Mike and his family are currently in the midst of a Northwest roadtrip in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. After departing their home in the Bay Area and stopping over for a night in the redwoods of northern California, their first stop in Oregon was at Odell Lake, just down the road from Waldo Lake.

We had a nice gathering of Sierra Club volunteers and staff with Mike and his family (wife Mary, daughters Olivia and Genevieve, and son Sebastian) on Monday evening, enjoying a cookout at a cabin near Crescent Lake. Then on Tuesday morning, the real fun began!

We began the morning with a press conference and briefing on the scenic shore of Waldo Lake about the Sierra Club's Keep Waldo Wild campaign. In addition to Brune and his family and Sierra Club staff and volunteers, we also had a good assemblage of Congressional and Forest Service staffers present. They heard about our exciting plan to protect more than 76,000 acres of forest and wild areas around Waldo, developed in concert with other non-motorized user groups like the Central Oregon Trail Alliance mountain biking organization. We were pleased to be joined by COTA Chairman, Woody Starr, and by Bruce and Brian Johnson, the great-grandsons of Judge John Waldo, for whom the lake is named.

After the briefing, we took the Brunes for a fun, 3.5-mile hike around Charlton Lake. Despite the heat and the mosquitoes, Mike's 9 and 5-year-old children did an amazing job on the hike. Then we did a great 5-mile roundtrip mountain biking trek over to Bobby Lake. Mike and his 5-year-old son Sebastian had to turn back about midway through the mountain bike ride, but his 9-year-old daughter Olivia did the entire ride and wanted even more when we were finished!

Click here to read Mike's Huffington Post blog about his visit to Waldo Lake!

Then, on Wednesday, July 9, with the assistance of several members of our Many Rivers Group from Eugene and outdoor writer William Sullivan, we treated Mike and his family to an excellent hike up Mt. June, just outside of Dexter, Oregon. This hike is found in the Hardesty Wildlands area about 25 miles east of Eugene/Springfield, which our Many Rivers Group has been working to protect.

Thursday was another busy day for the Brunes, who had to depart their cabin at Odell Lake early in order for Mike to get to a morning Editorial Board meeting with the Eugene Register-Guard. Then they drove up to Portland for an exciting evening program with a packed room at the Chapter office with former national Sierra Club Executive Director Mike McCloskey, who discussed his great new book, Conserving Oregon's Environment.

Mike Brune also spoke movingly about his road trip and about his desire to preserve wilderness and protect the planet for his (and all of our) kids to enjoy. And then it was off to Seattle for the Brunes, as they continued on to the next leg of their road trip.

It was a great few days with Mike, Mary, Olivia, Sebastian, and Genevieve, and I was honored to be one of the tour guides showing them some of the spectacular areas of our state. Obviously, four days is not nearly enough to really let them see the wonders Oregon has to offer, so we hope they will be back soon. We've got a few hundred other places we'd like to take them to!

Posted at 07:00 AM in Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 08, 2014

Sierra Club victory in Colorado a rebuke against coal leasing

Sunset Trails Roadless Area in Colorado. Photo courtesy of WildEarth Guardians.

By Nathaniel Shoaff, Sierra Club staff attorney

In a victory for wild lands and our climate, U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson last week rejected Arch Coal's plans to bulldoze six miles of roads through 1,700 acres of Colorado's wild and natural Sunset Roadless Area in order to expand its underground West Elk coal mine.

While the decision is an enormous victory for protecting these precious wild lands and halts Arch Coal's coal mining plans for now, Judge Jackson's ruling also represents the first time that a coal mine has been rejected because of the failure to adequately consider and disclose the impacts that a mine would have on climate disruption.

The landmark decision, affirming a challenge brought by the Sierra Club and allies at Earthjustice, WildEarth Guardians, and High Country Conservation Advocates, could have far-reaching implications for protecting our climate from the threat of mining and burning of coal, natural gas, tar sands, and other fossil fuels.

Continue reading " Sierra Club victory in Colorado a rebuke against coal leasing" »

Posted at 06:42 AM in Beyond Coal, Environmental Law, Our Wild America | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 26, 2014

A Whale of a Story

In 2007, Sierra Club member Joshua Horwitz traveled with his 13-year-old daughter Julia to one of the last pristine whale lagoons on the Pacific coast of Baja, Mexico. The experience so moved the Washington, D.C.-based writer that for the next seven years he immersed himself in what he describes as a "fascinating and bottomless" study of whales and their struggle for survival.

The result is War of the Whales, which goes on sale today, published by Simon & Schuster. War of the Whales is a true story of how a whale researcher and an environmental lawyer took on the world's most powerful navy after they both stumbled on evidence linking sonar exercises to mass strandings of whales. Their fight went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Horwitz says that prior to seeing whales in the wild in Baja, "what I knew about whales was essentially what I'd learned in Mr. Biggs's fifth grade biology class: that they were mammals who had once lived on land." But seeing and touching the whales and their newborn calves was an utterly transforming experience for Horwitz and his daughter.

"Every winter, the gray whales return to this lagoon to give birth to their calves, suckle them, and head out for their months-long journey to the Bering Sea, where they have their winter feeding grounds," Horwitz says in this short video.

"We went out on these tiny boats, and there's a remarkable phenomenon in this whale lagoon where the mother whales and their calves actually approach you in these boats, to the point where you can actually reach out and touch them and run your hands through the baleen in their mouth."

"The experience of that kind of contact with wild whales is just indescribable," Horwitz says. "And once you've had that experience, it changes the way you think about these animals. Having that experience and looking at my 13-year-old daughter's response to these animals, particularly in the presence of a mother and a calf, I just felt that I had to do something, and as a writer I decided to try to tell the story of this generation of whales and what they've struggled with for survival."

Horwitz says he hopes what readers will take away from War of the Whales is an understanding of the importance of tenacity in social change. "The book is really a story about two individuals who stood up to the most powerful navy in the world. I think that they are real role models for anyone, particularly young people, who really want to fight for change."

Above, environmental attorney Joel Reynolds and whale researcher Ken Balcomb, the book's two main protagonists. Below, Horwitz and Balcomb at Balcomb's research station on San Juan Island, Washington.

The Planet talked with Horwitz last week about his newfound fascination with "nature's experiment in gigantism" and War of the Whales.

Continue reading "A Whale of a Story" »

Posted at 05:25 PM in Our Wild America, Protecting America's Waters | Permalink | Comments (0)