Sierra Club
Encyclopedia
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots
environmental organization
in the United States
. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California
, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir
, who became its first president. The Sierra Club has hundreds of thousands of members in chapters located throughout the US, and is affiliated with Sierra Club Canada.
. Each year, five directors are elected to three-year terms, and all Club members are eligible to vote. A president is elected annually by the Board from among its members and receives a small stipend. The Executive Director
runs the day-to-day operations of the group, and is a paid staff member. On January 20, 2010, the Club announced that its new executive director is Michael Brune
, formerly of Rainforest Action Network
. Brune succeeds Carl Pope
, who continues in a new role of executive chairman.
All club members also belong to chapters (usually state-wide, except in California), and to local groups. The state of California has 14 chapters. National and local special interest sections, committees, and task forces address particular issues. Policies are set at the appropriate level, but on any issue the Club has only one policy.
In addition to the members who are active as volunteers, the club has approximately 500 paid staff members. Many of them work at the national headquarters in San Francisco, California, but some work in the lobbying office in Washington, D.C.
and in numerous state and regional offices.
All members receive Sierra magazine, a bimonthly glossy magazine describing the club's activities and spotlighting various environmental issues. Each chapter publishes a newsletter and/or schedule of activities, as do many local groups. The Sierra Club also has a weekly radio show called Sierra Club Radio.
had worked with John Muir on the successful campaign to create a large Yosemite National Park
surrounding the much smaller state park which had been created in 1864. This campaign succeeded in 1890. As early as 1889, Johnson had encouraged Muir to form an "association" to help protect the Sierra Nevada, and preliminary meetings were held to plan the group. Others involved in the early planning included artist William Keith
, Joseph LeConte
and David Starr Jordan
. In May, 1892 a group of professors from the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University
helped Muir and attorney Warren Olney
launch the new organization modeled after the eastern Appalachian Mountain Club
. The Sierra Club's charter members elected Muir president, an office he held until his death in 1914. The Club's first goals included establishing Glacier and Mount Rainier
national parks, convincing the California legislature to give Yosemite Valley
to the US Federal government, and saving California's coastal redwoods. Muir escorted President Theodore Roosevelt
through Yosemite in 1903, and two years later the California legislature ceded Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove
to the Federal government. The Sierra Club won its first lobbying victory with the creation of the country's second national park, after Yellowstone in 1872.
In the first decade of the 1900s, the Sierra Club became embroiled in the famous Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
controversy that divided preservationists from "resource management" conservationists. For years the city of San Francisco had been having problems with a privately owned water company that provided poor service at high prices. Mayor James D. Phelan
’s reform administration wanted to set up a municipally owned water utility. He revived an earlier proposal to dam the Hetch Hetchy valley. The final straw was the water company's failure to provide adequate water to fight the fires that destroyed much of the city following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
. Gifford Pinchot
, a progressive supporter of public utilities and head of the US Forest Service, which then had jurisdiction over the national parks, supported the creation of the Hetch Hetchy dam. Muir appealed to his friend US President Roosevelt, who would not commit himself against the dam, given its popularity with the people of San Francisco (a referendum
in 1908 confirmed a seven-to-one majority in favor of the dam and municipal water). Muir and attorney William Colby
began a national campaign against the dam, attracting the support of many eastern conservationists. With the 1912 election of US President Woodrow Wilson
, who carried San Francisco, supporters of the dam had a friend in the White House. The bill to dam Hetch Hetchy passed Congress in 1913, and so the Sierra Club lost its first major battle. In retaliation, the Club supported creation of the National Park Service
in 1916, to remove the parks from Forest Service oversight. Stephen Mather, a Club member from Chicago and an opponent of Hetch Hetchy dam, became the first National Park Service director.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the Sierra Club served its members as a social and recreational society, conducting outings, improving trails and building huts and lodges in the Sierras. Preservation campaigns included a several-year effort to enlarge Sequoia National Park
(achieved in 1926) and over three decades of work to protect and then preserve Kings Canyon National Park
(established in 1940). Historian Stephen Fox notes, "In the 1930s most of the three thousand members were middle-aged Republicans."
The New Deal
brought many conservationists to the Democrats, and many Democrats entered the ranks of conservationists. Leading the generation of Young Turks who revitalized the Sierra Club after World War II were attorneys Richard Leonard
and Bestor Robinson
, nature photographer Ansel Adams
, and David Brower. Brower was 21 when he met Adams on a trail in the Sierras in 1933. Adams sponsored Brower for membership in the Club later that year, and he was appointed to the editorial board of the Sierra Club Bulletin. After World War II
Brower returned to his job with the University of California Press, and began editing the Sierra Club Bulletin in 1946.
In 1950, the Sierra Club had some 7,000 members, mostly on the West Coast. That year the Atlantic chapter became the first formed outside California. An active volunteer board of directors ran the organization, assisted by a small clerical staff. Brower was appointed the first executive director in 1952, and the Club began to catch up with major conservation organizations such as the National Audubon Society
, National Wildlife Federation
, The Wilderness Society
, and Izaak Walton League
, which had long had professional staff.
The Sierra Club secured its national reputation in the battle against the Echo Park
dam in Dinosaur National Monument
in Utah
, which had been announced by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1950. Brower led the fight, marshaling support from other conservation groups. Brower's background in publishing proved decisive; with the help of publisher Alfred Knopf, This Is Dinosaur was rushed into press. Invoking the specter of Hetch Hetchy, conservationists effectively lobbied Congress, which deleted the Echo Park dam from the Colorado River
project as approved in 1955. Recognition of the Sierra Club's role in the Echo Park dam victory boosted membership from 10,000 in 1956 to 15,000 in 1960.
The Sierra Club was now truly a national conservation organization, and preservationists took the offensive with wilderness proposals. The Club's Biennial Wilderness Conferences, launched in 1949 in concert with The Wilderness Society, became an important force in the campaign that secured passage of the Wilderness Act
in 1964. In 1960, Brower launched the Exhibit Format book series with This Is the American Earth, and in 1962 In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, with spectacular color photographs by Eliot Porter
. These elegant coffee-table books introduced the Sierra Club to a wide audience. Fifty thousand copies were sold in the first four years, and by 1960 sales exceeded $10 million. Soon Brower was publishing two new titles a year in the Exhibit Format series, but not all did as well as In Wildness. Although the books were successful introducing the public to wilderness preservation and the Sierra Club, they lost money for the organization, some $60,000 a year after 1964. Financial management became a matter of contention between Brower and his board of directors.
The Sierra Club's most publicized crusade of the 1960s was the effort to stop the Bureau of Reclamation from building two dams that would flood portions of the Grand Canyon
. Full-page ads the Club placed in the New York Times and the Washington Post in 1966 exclaimed, "This time it's the Grand Canyon they want to flood," and asked, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" The ads generated a storm of protest to the Congress, prompting the Internal Revenue Service
to announce it was suspending the Sierra Club's 501(c)(3) status pending an investigation. The board had taken the precaution of setting up the Sierra Club Foundation
as a (c)(3) organization in 1960 for endowments and contributions for educational and other non-lobbying activities. Even so, contributions to the Club dropped off, aggravating its annual operating deficits. Membership, however, climbed sharply in response to the investigation into the legitimacy of the society's tax status by the IRS from 30,000 in 1965 to 57,000 in 1967 and 75,000 in 1969.
Despite the Club's success in blocking plans for the Grand Canyon dams and weathering the transition from 501(c)(3) to 501(c)(4)status, tension grew over finances between Brower and the board of directors. The Club's annual deficits rose from $100,000 in 1967 and 1968 to some $200,000 in 1969. Another conflict occurred over the Club's policy toward the nuclear power plant to be constructed by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) at Diablo Canyon
near San Luis Obispo, California
. Although the Club had played the leading role blocking PG&E's nuclear power plant proposed for Bodega Bay, California
in the early 1960s, that case had been built around the local environmental impact and earthquake danger from the nearby San Andreas fault
, not from opposition to nuclear power itself. In exchange for moving the new proposed site from the environmentally sensitive Nipomo Dunes to Diablo Canyon, the board of directors voted to support PG&E's plan for the power plant. A membership referendum in 1967 upheld the board's decision. But Brower concluded that nuclear power at any location was a mistake, and he voiced his opposition to the plant, contrary to the Club's official policy. As pro- and anti-Brower factions polarized, the annual election of new directors reflected the conflict. Brower's supporters won a majority in 1968, but in the April 1969 election the anti-Brower candidates won all five open positions. Ansel Adams and president Richard Leonard, two of his closest friends on the board, led the opposition to Brower, charging him with financial recklessness and insubordination and calling for his ouster as executive director. The board voted ten to five to accept Brower's resignation. Eventually reconciled with the Club, Brower was elected to the board of directors for a term from 1983 to 1988, and again from 1995 to 2000.
Michael McCloskey, hired by Brower in 1961 as the Club's first northwest field representative, became the Club's second executive director in 1969. An administrator attentive to detail, McCloskey had set up the Club's conservation department in 1965 and guided the campaigns to save the Grand Canyon and establish Redwoods National Park and North Cascades National Park
. During the 1970s, McCloskey led the Club's legislative activity—preserving Alaska
n lands and eastern wilderness areas, and supporting the new environmental agenda: the Toxic Substances Control Act
of 1976, the Clean Air Act
amendments, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, passed during the administration of President Jimmy Carter
. The Sierra Club made its first Presidential endorsement in 1984 in support of Walter Mondale
's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Ronald Reagan
. McCloskey resigned as executive director in 1985 after 16 and a half years (the same length of time Brower had led the organization), and assumed the title of chairman, becoming the Club's senior strategist, devoting his time to conservation policy rather than budget planning and administration. After a two-year interlude with Douglas Wheeler, whose Republican credentials were disconcerting to liberal members, the Club hired Michael Fisher, the former head of the California Coastal Commission
, who served as executive director from 1987 to 1992. Carl Pope
, formerly the Club’s legislative director, was named executive director in 1992.
In the 1990s, club members Jim Bensman, Roger Clarke, David Dilworth, Chad Hanson and David Orr along with about 2,000 members formed the John Muir Sierrans, an internal caucus, to promote changes to club positions. They favored a zero-cut forest policy on public lands and, a few years later, decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam. JMS was successful in changing club positions on both counts.
In September 2005, the Sierra Club held its first Sierra Summit in San Francisco. Approximately 1,000 volunteers from around the country, selected by their chapters and groups, were delegates; some nondelegate members also attended. There were seminars and exhibit presentations about current environmental issues and about techniques for more effective activism. Prominent guest speakers included Al Gore
; Bill Maher
; Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
; and Arianna Huffington
.
In 2008, the Sierra Club endorsed Senator
Barack Obama
for President
, citing "his strong record of support for clean air, wetlands protection, and clean energy."
organized the first Sierra Club outing
to Yosemite Valley
. The annual High Trips
were led by accomplished mountaineers
(some of them Sierra Club directors), such as Francis P. Farquhar
, Joseph Nisbet LeConte
, Norman Clyde
, Walter A. Starr, Jr.
, Jules Eichorn
, Glen Dawson
, Ansel Adams
, and David R. Brower
. Many first ascent
s in the Sierra Nevada were made on Sierra Club outings. Sierra Club members were also early enthusiasts of rock climbing and pioneers of the craft. In 1911, the first chapter was formed, Angeles, and it immediately started conducting local outings in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles
and throughout the West. In World War II
, many Sierra Club leaders joined the 10th Mountain Division, bringing their expertise to the war effort. Among them was Brower, who managed the High Trip program from 1947 to 1954, while serving as a major in the Army Reserve.
The High Trips, sometimes huge expeditions with more than a hundred participants and crew, have given way to smaller and more numerous outings held across the United States and abroad. The National Outings program conducts hundreds of outings, most of which are between 4 to 10 days in length. Local chapters, groups, and sections lead thousands of generally shorter trips in their regions and beyond (mostly hiking
, but also including cycling
, cross-country skiing
, etc.). Inner City Outings groups help make wild places accessible to children who are only familiar with the urban environment.
and other federally owned public lands. For example, in 2002 the Club was criticized for joining with the Wilderness Society
in agreeing to a compromise that would allow logging in the Black Hills
in South Dakota
.
and fusion
, until specific inherent safety risks are mitigated by conservationist political policies, and regulatory agencies are in place to enforce those policies. The club currently opposes nuclear fusion
due to its "probable" release of the hydrogen
isotope
, tritium
.
emissions. It argues that there are readily available alternatives to coal. A 2009 report commissioned by the Sierra Club concluded that the costs associated with coal mining in Appalachia
are five times greater than its economic benefits to the region. The report concluded that residents of coal mining regions would be best served by transitioning away from economic dependence on coal.
as well as restructuring energy market
s to favor innovation
, creation of green job
s, and efficient energy use
.
in Yosemite National Park
. Despite this lobbying, Congress
authorized the construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam
on the Tuolumne River
. The Sierra Club continues to lobby for removal of the dam, urging that San Francisco's water needs be accommodated instead by the re-engineering of the Don Pedro Reservoir downstream.
The Sierra Club advocates the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam
and the draining of Lake Powell
. The Club also supports removal, breaching or decommissioning of many other dams, including four large but high-cost dams on the lower Snake River
in eastern Washington.
, the largest industrial union in North America. The goal of this new partnership is to pursue a joint public policy agenda reconciling workers' need for good jobs with mankind's need for a cleaner environment and safer world.
In 1969, the Sierra Club published Paul R. Ehrlich
's book, The Population Bomb
, in which he said that population growth was responsible for environmental decline and advocated coercive measures to reduce it. Some observers have argued that the book had a "racial dimension" in the tradition of the Eugenics
movement, and that it "reiterated many of Osborn's
jeremiads."
In 1978, John Tanton
, former Chairman of the National Sierra Club Population Committee and former President of Zero Population Growth
, founded the Federation for American Immigration Reform
.
During the 1980s, some Sierra Club members, including Paul Ehrlich's wife Anne
, wanted to take the Club into the contentious field of immigration to the United States
. The Club's position was that overpopulation
was a significant factor in the degradation of the environment. Accordingly, the Club supported stabilizing and reducing U.S. and world population. Some members argued that, as a practical matter, U.S. population could not be stabilized, let alone reduced, at the then-current levels of immigration. They urged the Club to support immigration reduction
. The Club had previously addressed the issue of "mass immigration," and in 1988, the organization's Population Committee and Conservation Coordinating Committee stated that immigration to the U.S. should be limited, so as to achieve population stabilization.
Other Sierrans thought that the immigration issue was too far from the Club's core environmentalist mission, and were also concerned that involvement would impair the organization's political ability to pursue its other objectives. In 1996, the Board of Directors accepted this latter view, and voted that the Sierra Club would be neutral on issues of immigration.
The advocates of immigration reduction sought to reverse this decision through the referendum
provision of the Bylaw
s of the Sierra Club. They organized themselves as "SUSPS", a name originally derived from "Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization" (although that name is no longer used since the Sierra Club objected to infringing the Club's trademark in the term "Sierrans"). SUSPS and its allies gathered the necessary signatures to place the issue on the ballot in the Club's election in the spring of 1998. The Board's decision that the Club would take no position on immigration was upheld by the membership by a three-to-two margin.
The controversy resurfaced when a group of three immigration reduction proponents ran in the 2004 Board of Directors elections, hoping to move the Club's position away from a neutral stance on immigration, and restore the stance previously held. Groups outside of the Club became involved, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center
and MoveOn
. Of the three candidates, two (Frank Morris and David Pimentel), were on the board of the anti-immigration group Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America and two (Richard Lamm
and Frank Morris) were on the board of directors or the board of advisors of the Federation for American Immigration Reform
; both had also held leadership positions within the NAACP. Their candidacies were denounced by a fourth candidate, Morris Dees
of the SPLC, as a "hostile takeover" attempt by "radical anti-immigrant activists." The immigration reduction proponents won only 3% of all votes cast in the election, and the controversy subsided.
was founded in 1960 by David R. Brower
. It is a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation that provides support for tax- deductible environmental action.
The Sierra Club Canada has been active since 1963. It is now an independent corporation with its own national structure and local entities throughout Canada
working on pollution
, biodiversity
, energy
, and sustainability
issues.
In 1971, volunteer lawyers who had worked with the Sierra Club established the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. This was a separate organization that used the "Sierra Club" name under license from the Club; it changed its name to Earthjustice
in 1997.
The Sierra Student Coalition
(SSC) is the student-run arm of the Sierra Club. Founded by Adam Werbach in 1991, with 14,000 members, it purports to be the largest student-led environmental group in the United States.
The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund is a 527 group
that became active in the 2004 Presidential election by airing television advertisements about the major party candidates' positions on environmental issues. Through the Environmental Voter Education Campaign (EVEC), the Club sought to mobilize volunteers for phone banking, door-to-door canvassing and postcard writing to emphasize these issues in the campaign.
The organization maintains a publishing imprint, Sierra Club Books
, publishing books on environmental issues, wilderness photographic essays, nature guides, and other related subjects. They publish the Sierra Club Calendars, perennial bestsellers, featuring photographs by well-known nature photographers such as Galen Rowell
. They also publish the John Muir
library, which includes many of their founder's titles.
The Wilderness Travel Course
is a basic mountaineering class that is administered by the Sierra Club.
Restore Hetch Hetchy
is an organization created by the Sierra Club to advocate the restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
environmental organization
Environmental organization
An environmental organization is an organization that seeks to protect, analyze or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation or lobby for these goals....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
, who became its first president. The Sierra Club has hundreds of thousands of members in chapters located throughout the US, and is affiliated with Sierra Club Canada.
Mission
The Sierra Club's mission is:- To explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
Organization
The Sierra Club is governed by a 15-member volunteer Board of DirectorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
. Each year, five directors are elected to three-year terms, and all Club members are eligible to vote. A president is elected annually by the Board from among its members and receives a small stipend. The Executive Director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
runs the day-to-day operations of the group, and is a paid staff member. On January 20, 2010, the Club announced that its new executive director is Michael Brune
Michael Brune
Michael Brune is the executive director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Brune was appointed to his position as executive director in January, 2010....
, formerly of Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest Action Network is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, USA. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, with the financial help of Fund for Wild Nature....
. Brune succeeds Carl Pope
Carl Pope
Carl Pope is the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, and served until January 20, 2010, when he was succeeded by Michael Brune...
, who continues in a new role of executive chairman.
All club members also belong to chapters (usually state-wide, except in California), and to local groups. The state of California has 14 chapters. National and local special interest sections, committees, and task forces address particular issues. Policies are set at the appropriate level, but on any issue the Club has only one policy.
In addition to the members who are active as volunteers, the club has approximately 500 paid staff members. Many of them work at the national headquarters in San Francisco, California, but some work in the lobbying office in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and in numerous state and regional offices.
All members receive Sierra magazine, a bimonthly glossy magazine describing the club's activities and spotlighting various environmental issues. Each chapter publishes a newsletter and/or schedule of activities, as do many local groups. The Sierra Club also has a weekly radio show called Sierra Club Radio.
History
Journalist Robert Underwood JohnsonRobert Underwood Johnson
Robert Underwood Johnson was a U.S. writer and diplomat. His wife was Katharine Johnson.-Biography:A native of Washington, D.C., Johnson joined the staff of The Century Magazine in 1873...
had worked with John Muir on the successful campaign to create a large Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
surrounding the much smaller state park which had been created in 1864. This campaign succeeded in 1890. As early as 1889, Johnson had encouraged Muir to form an "association" to help protect the Sierra Nevada, and preliminary meetings were held to plan the group. Others involved in the early planning included artist William Keith
William Keith (artist)
William Keith was a Scottish-American painter famous for his California landscapes.-Early life:Keith was born in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and emigrated to the United States in 1850. He lived in New York City, and became an apprentice wood engraver in 1856...
, Joseph LeConte
Joseph LeConte
Joseph Le Conte was an American geologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...
and David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
. In May, 1892 a group of professors from the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
helped Muir and attorney Warren Olney
Warren Olney
Warren Olney was an American lawyer, environmentalist, and politician. He was a founding member of the Sierra Club, and served as 34th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1903 to 1905.-Early life:...
launch the new organization modeled after the eastern Appalachian Mountain Club
Appalachian Mountain Club
The Appalachian Mountain Club is one of the United States' oldest outdoor groups. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C...
. The Sierra Club's charter members elected Muir president, an office he held until his death in 1914. The Club's first goals included establishing Glacier and Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier National Park
Mount Rainier National Park is a United States National Park located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County in Washington state. It was one of the US's earliest National Parks, having been established on March 2, 1899 as the fifth national park in the United States. The park contains...
national parks, convincing the California legislature to give Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California, carved out by the Merced River. The valley is about long and up to a mile deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines...
to the US Federal government, and saving California's coastal redwoods. Muir escorted President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
through Yosemite in 1903, and two years later the California legislature ceded Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove
Mariposa Grove
Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona, California, United States, in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. It is the largest grove of Giant Sequoias in the park, with several hundred mature examples of the tree...
to the Federal government. The Sierra Club won its first lobbying victory with the creation of the country's second national park, after Yellowstone in 1872.
In the first decade of the 1900s, the Sierra Club became embroiled in the famous Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is a reservoir in Yosemite National Park, about northeast from the city of Merced, California. The reservoir has a capacity of and is formed by the concrete gravity O'Shaughnessy Dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley on the Tuolumne River...
controversy that divided preservationists from "resource management" conservationists. For years the city of San Francisco had been having problems with a privately owned water company that provided poor service at high prices. Mayor James D. Phelan
James D. Phelan
James Duval Phelan was an American politician, civic leader and banker.-Early years:Phelan was born in San Francisco, the son of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy during the California Gold Rush as a trader, merchant and banker. He graduated from St...
’s reform administration wanted to set up a municipally owned water utility. He revived an earlier proposal to dam the Hetch Hetchy valley. The final straw was the water company's failure to provide adequate water to fight the fires that destroyed much of the city following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
. Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service and the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania...
, a progressive supporter of public utilities and head of the US Forest Service, which then had jurisdiction over the national parks, supported the creation of the Hetch Hetchy dam. Muir appealed to his friend US President Roosevelt, who would not commit himself against the dam, given its popularity with the people of San Francisco (a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
in 1908 confirmed a seven-to-one majority in favor of the dam and municipal water). Muir and attorney William Colby
William Colby
William Egan Colby spent a career in intelligence for the United States, culminating in holding the post of Director of Central Intelligence from September 1973, to January 1976....
began a national campaign against the dam, attracting the support of many eastern conservationists. With the 1912 election of US President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, who carried San Francisco, supporters of the dam had a friend in the White House. The bill to dam Hetch Hetchy passed Congress in 1913, and so the Sierra Club lost its first major battle. In retaliation, the Club supported creation of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
in 1916, to remove the parks from Forest Service oversight. Stephen Mather, a Club member from Chicago and an opponent of Hetch Hetchy dam, became the first National Park Service director.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the Sierra Club served its members as a social and recreational society, conducting outings, improving trails and building huts and lodges in the Sierras. Preservation campaigns included a several-year effort to enlarge Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25, 1890. The park spans . Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly , the park contains among its natural resources the highest point in the...
(achieved in 1926) and over three decades of work to protect and then preserve Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon National Park is a National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers...
(established in 1940). Historian Stephen Fox notes, "In the 1930s most of the three thousand members were middle-aged Republicans."
The New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
brought many conservationists to the Democrats, and many Democrats entered the ranks of conservationists. Leading the generation of Young Turks who revitalized the Sierra Club after World War II were attorneys Richard Leonard
Richard M. Leonard
Richard Manning Leonard was an American rock climber, environmentalist and attorney. He served as president of the Sierra Club and the Save the Redwoods League, and was active in the Wilderness Society and the American Alpine Club...
and Bestor Robinson
Bestor Robinson
Bestor Robinson was a California mountaineer, environmentalist, attorney and inventor. He was a law partner of Earl Warren, later governor of California and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Robinson was a long time leader of the Sierra Club...
, nature photographer Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, and David Brower. Brower was 21 when he met Adams on a trail in the Sierras in 1933. Adams sponsored Brower for membership in the Club later that year, and he was appointed to the editorial board of the Sierra Club Bulletin. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Brower returned to his job with the University of California Press, and began editing the Sierra Club Bulletin in 1946.
In 1950, the Sierra Club had some 7,000 members, mostly on the West Coast. That year the Atlantic chapter became the first formed outside California. An active volunteer board of directors ran the organization, assisted by a small clerical staff. Brower was appointed the first executive director in 1952, and the Club began to catch up with major conservation organizations such as the National Audubon Society
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...
, National Wildlife Federation
National Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federation is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over four million members and supporters, and 48 state and territorial affiliated organizations...
, The Wilderness Society
The Wilderness Society (United States)
The Wilderness Society is an American organization that is dedicated to protecting America's wilderness. It was formed in 1935 and currently has over 300,000 members and supporters.-Founding:The society was incorporated on January 21, 1935...
, and Izaak Walton League
Izaak Walton League
The Izaak Walton League is an American environmental organization founded in 1922 that promotes natural resource protection and outdoor recreation. The organization was founded in Chicago, Illinois by a group of sportsmen who wished to protect fishing opportunities for future generations...
, which had long had professional staff.
The Sierra Club secured its national reputation in the battle against the Echo Park
Echo Park (Colorado)
Echo Park is a remote river bottom surrounded by canyon walls on the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument. It was first mapped and given its name by the Powell Geographic Expedition in 1869. A proposed dam at Echo Park turned into a nationwide environmental controversy in the early 1950s...
dam in Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument is a National Monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah...
in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, which had been announced by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1950. Brower led the fight, marshaling support from other conservation groups. Brower's background in publishing proved decisive; with the help of publisher Alfred Knopf, This Is Dinosaur was rushed into press. Invoking the specter of Hetch Hetchy, conservationists effectively lobbied Congress, which deleted the Echo Park dam from the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
project as approved in 1955. Recognition of the Sierra Club's role in the Echo Park dam victory boosted membership from 10,000 in 1956 to 15,000 in 1960.
The Sierra Club was now truly a national conservation organization, and preservationists took the offensive with wilderness proposals. The Club's Biennial Wilderness Conferences, launched in 1949 in concert with The Wilderness Society, became an important force in the campaign that secured passage of the Wilderness Act
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected some 9 million acres of federal land. The result of a long effort to protect federal wilderness, the Wilderness Act was signed...
in 1964. In 1960, Brower launched the Exhibit Format book series with This Is the American Earth, and in 1962 In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, with spectacular color photographs by Eliot Porter
Eliot Porter
Eliot Furness Porter was an American photographer best known for his color photographs of nature.-Early life:...
. These elegant coffee-table books introduced the Sierra Club to a wide audience. Fifty thousand copies were sold in the first four years, and by 1960 sales exceeded $10 million. Soon Brower was publishing two new titles a year in the Exhibit Format series, but not all did as well as In Wildness. Although the books were successful introducing the public to wilderness preservation and the Sierra Club, they lost money for the organization, some $60,000 a year after 1964. Financial management became a matter of contention between Brower and his board of directors.
The Sierra Club's most publicized crusade of the 1960s was the effort to stop the Bureau of Reclamation from building two dams that would flood portions of the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
. Full-page ads the Club placed in the New York Times and the Washington Post in 1966 exclaimed, "This time it's the Grand Canyon they want to flood," and asked, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" The ads generated a storm of protest to the Congress, prompting the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
to announce it was suspending the Sierra Club's 501(c)(3) status pending an investigation. The board had taken the precaution of setting up the Sierra Club Foundation
Sierra Club Foundation
The Sierra Club Foundation is a public charity whose mission is to provide financial support to the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations for tax deductible work...
as a (c)(3) organization in 1960 for endowments and contributions for educational and other non-lobbying activities. Even so, contributions to the Club dropped off, aggravating its annual operating deficits. Membership, however, climbed sharply in response to the investigation into the legitimacy of the society's tax status by the IRS from 30,000 in 1965 to 57,000 in 1967 and 75,000 in 1969.
Despite the Club's success in blocking plans for the Grand Canyon dams and weathering the transition from 501(c)(3) to 501(c)(4)status, tension grew over finances between Brower and the board of directors. The Club's annual deficits rose from $100,000 in 1967 and 1968 to some $200,000 in 1969. Another conflict occurred over the Club's policy toward the nuclear power plant to be constructed by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) at Diablo Canyon
Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant is an electricity-generating nuclear power plant at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. The plant has two Westinghouse-designed 4-loop pressurized-water nuclear reactors operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. The facility is located on about in Avila Beach,...
near San Luis Obispo, California
San Luis Obispo, California
San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...
. Although the Club had played the leading role blocking PG&E's nuclear power plant proposed for Bodega Bay, California
Bodega Bay, California
Bodega Bay is a town and census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census. The town is on the eastern side of Bodega Harbor, an inlet of Bodega Bay on the Pacific coast....
in the early 1960s, that case had been built around the local environmental impact and earthquake danger from the nearby San Andreas fault
San Andreas Fault
The San Andreas Fault is a continental strike-slip fault that runs a length of roughly through California in the United States. The fault's motion is right-lateral strike-slip...
, not from opposition to nuclear power itself. In exchange for moving the new proposed site from the environmentally sensitive Nipomo Dunes to Diablo Canyon, the board of directors voted to support PG&E's plan for the power plant. A membership referendum in 1967 upheld the board's decision. But Brower concluded that nuclear power at any location was a mistake, and he voiced his opposition to the plant, contrary to the Club's official policy. As pro- and anti-Brower factions polarized, the annual election of new directors reflected the conflict. Brower's supporters won a majority in 1968, but in the April 1969 election the anti-Brower candidates won all five open positions. Ansel Adams and president Richard Leonard, two of his closest friends on the board, led the opposition to Brower, charging him with financial recklessness and insubordination and calling for his ouster as executive director. The board voted ten to five to accept Brower's resignation. Eventually reconciled with the Club, Brower was elected to the board of directors for a term from 1983 to 1988, and again from 1995 to 2000.
Michael McCloskey, hired by Brower in 1961 as the Club's first northwest field representative, became the Club's second executive director in 1969. An administrator attentive to detail, McCloskey had set up the Club's conservation department in 1965 and guided the campaigns to save the Grand Canyon and establish Redwoods National Park and North Cascades National Park
North Cascades National Park
North Cascades National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the state of Washington. The park is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. Several national wilderness areas and British Columbia parkland adjoin the...
. During the 1970s, McCloskey led the Club's legislative activity—preserving Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
n lands and eastern wilderness areas, and supporting the new environmental agenda: the Toxic Substances Control Act
Toxic Substances Control Act
The Toxic Substances Control Act is a United States law, passed by the United States Congress in 1976, that regulates the introduction of new or already existing chemicals. It grandfathered most existing chemicals, in contrast to the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals ...
of 1976, the Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
amendments, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, passed during the administration of President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
. The Sierra Club made its first Presidential endorsement in 1984 in support of Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
. McCloskey resigned as executive director in 1985 after 16 and a half years (the same length of time Brower had led the organization), and assumed the title of chairman, becoming the Club's senior strategist, devoting his time to conservation policy rather than budget planning and administration. After a two-year interlude with Douglas Wheeler, whose Republican credentials were disconcerting to liberal members, the Club hired Michael Fisher, the former head of the California Coastal Commission
California Coastal Commission
The California Coastal Commission is a state agency in the U.S. state of California with quasi-judicial regulatory oversight over land use and public access in the California coastal zone....
, who served as executive director from 1987 to 1992. Carl Pope
Carl Pope
Carl Pope is the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, and served until January 20, 2010, when he was succeeded by Michael Brune...
, formerly the Club’s legislative director, was named executive director in 1992.
In the 1990s, club members Jim Bensman, Roger Clarke, David Dilworth, Chad Hanson and David Orr along with about 2,000 members formed the John Muir Sierrans, an internal caucus, to promote changes to club positions. They favored a zero-cut forest policy on public lands and, a few years later, decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam. JMS was successful in changing club positions on both counts.
In September 2005, the Sierra Club held its first Sierra Summit in San Francisco. Approximately 1,000 volunteers from around the country, selected by their chapters and groups, were delegates; some nondelegate members also attended. There were seminars and exhibit presentations about current environmental issues and about techniques for more effective activism. Prominent guest speakers included Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
; Bill Maher
Bill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, author and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and...
; Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy...
; and Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
.
In 2008, the Sierra Club endorsed Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, citing "his strong record of support for clean air, wetlands protection, and clean energy."
Notable directors
- Ansel AdamsAnsel AdamsAnsel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, Board of Directors, 1934–1971 - David R. BrowerDavid R. BrowerDavid Ross Brower was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club Foundation, the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, Friends of the Earth , the League of Conservation Voters, Earth Island Institute , North Cascades...
, first Executive Director, 1952–1969; Board of Directors, three terms, various decades - Michael BruneMichael BruneMichael Brune is the executive director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Brune was appointed to his position as executive director in January, 2010....
Executive Director 2010 - Allison Chin, President, 2008-
- Robert Cox, President, 1994–1996, 2000–2001, 2007
- Leland CurtisLeland CurtisLeland S. Curtis was an American artist, mountaineer, skier, environmentalist and Antarctic explorer.He was born in Denver, Colorado, and lived in Seattle, Washington as a child. He moved to Los Angeles in 1914 and attended the Manual Arts High School, where he studied under artist and...
1943-1946 - George DavidsonGeorge Davidson (geographer)George Davidson was an geodesist, astronomer, geographer, surveyor and engineer in the United States.-Biography:Born May 9, 1825 in England, he came to the U.S. in 1832 with his parents, who settled in Pennsylvania...
1894 - 1910 - Glen DawsonGlen DawsonGlen Dawson is a California rock climber, mountaineer, antiquarian bookseller, publisher and environmentalist.- Early life :...
- Michael K. DorseyMichael K. DorseyDr. Michael K. Dorsey is an Assistant Professor in Dartmouth College's Faculty of Science in the Environmental Studies Program. He is also director of Dartmouth’s Climate Justice Research Project...
- Jim Dougherty
- William O. DouglasWilliam O. DouglasWilliam Orville Douglas was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court...
- Anne H. EhrlichAnne H. EhrlichAnne Howland Ehrlich is the co-author of several books on overpopulation and ecology with her husband, Stanford University professor Paul R...
- Jules EichornJules EichornJules Eichorn was a California mountaineer, environmentalist and music teacher.- Early years :Jules Marquard Eichorn was born in San Francisco on February 7, 1912 to Hilmar and Frieda Eichorn, who were immigrants from Germany...
- Francis P. FarquharFrancis P. FarquharFrancis Peloubet Farquhar graduated from Harvard and came to San Francisco to set up in practice as a Certified Public Accountant...
, President, 1933–1935 and 1948–1949 - Dave Foreman
- Aurelia HarwoodAurelia HarwoodAurelia Squire Harwood , daughter of the wealthy Harwood family of Ontario, California, was a conservationist, educator, and first female President of the Sierra Club in 1927 and 1928...
, Board of Directors, 1921–1928; first female President, 1927–1928 - David Starr JordanDavid Starr JordanDavid Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
- David Karpf
- Doug LaFolletteDoug LaFolletteDouglas J. "Doug" La Follette is an American academic, environmental activist, and politician from the state of Wisconsin. A Democrat, he is the current Secretary of State of Wisconsin.-Early life and career:...
- Joseph LeConteJoseph LeConteJoseph Le Conte was an American geologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...
, Director, 1892–1898 - Joseph N. LeConteJoseph Nisbet LeConteJoseph Nisbet LeConte was a noted explorer of the Sierra Nevada. He was also a cartographer, a photographer and a professor of mechanical engineering. He often went by J. N. LeConte in photographs and articles...
, President, 1915–1917; Board of Directors 1898–1940 - Richard M. LeonardRichard M. LeonardRichard Manning Leonard was an American rock climber, environmentalist and attorney. He served as president of the Sierra Club and the Save the Redwoods League, and was active in the Wilderness Society and the American Alpine Club...
- Martin Litton
- Norman LivermoreNorman LivermoreNorman Banks "Ike" Livermore, Jr. was a California environmentalist, lumber industry executive and state official. He was the only member of California governor Ronald Reagan's cabinet to serve during the full eight years of his administration...
- Alexander George McAdieAlexander George McAdieAlexander George McAdie was an American meteorologist.While in college he joined the Army Signal Service, the predecessor of the U.S. Weather Bureau. He graduated from Harvard University in 1885....
- Duncan McDuffieDuncan McDuffieDuncan McDuffie was a real estate developer, conservationist, and mountaineer based in Berkeley, California, USA.-Visionary developer:...
- Sam Merrill, Board of Directors, 1936–1937
- John MuirJohn MuirJohn Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
, President, 1892–1914 - Jan O'Connell
- Carl PopeCarl PopeCarl Pope is the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, and served until January 20, 2010, when he was succeeded by Michael Brune...
, Executive Director 1992–2010 - Eliot PorterEliot PorterEliot Furness Porter was an American photographer best known for his color photographs of nature.-Early life:...
- Bestor RobinsonBestor RobinsonBestor Robinson was a California mountaineer, environmentalist, attorney and inventor. He was a law partner of Earl Warren, later governor of California and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Robinson was a long time leader of the Sierra Club...
, President, 1946–1948 - William E. SiriWilliam SiriWilliam E. Siri was an American biophysicist, mountaineer and environmentalist. He was born in Philadelphia, PA and attended school in Audubon, NJ.-Education and scientific career:...
- Wallace StegnerWallace StegnerWallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...
- Clair S. TappaanClair S. TappaanClair Sprague Tappaan was an American lawyer, professor and jurist who was on the faculty of the University of Southern California Law School from its formation as an official school of the university in 1904 until 1928, and served as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court and California...
, President, 1922–1924; Board of Directors, 1912–1932 - Marilyn Wall, Board of Directors 2006–2009
- Paul WatsonPaul WatsonPaul Watson is a Canadian animal rights and environmental activist, who founded and is president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a direct action group devoted to marine conservation....
, Board of Directors, 2003–2006 - Edgar WayburnEdgar WayburnEdgar Wayburn was an environmentalist who was elected president of the Sierra Club five times in the 1960s. One of America's legendary wilderness champions, Dr...
, President, five terms, 1960's - Adam WerbachAdam WerbachAdam Werbach is an environmental activist who was elected as the youngest-ever national president of the Sierra Club in 1996 when he was 23 years old. He is the author of Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto, published by Harvard Business Press, and named one of the top business books...
, President, 1996 - Bernie ZalehaBernie ZalehaBernard Daley Zaleha, J.D., served two terms on the national board of directors of the Sierra Club. He was first elected by the national membership in April 2003, and was re-elected in April 2006. From March 2004 to May 2006, he served as the 62nd national Vice President of the club...
, Board of Directors, 2003–2009
Outings
In 1901, William ColbyWilliam Edward Colby
right|225pxWilliam Edward Colby was an American lawyer, conservationist, and first Secretary of the Sierra Club.-Early life and education:...
organized the first Sierra Club outing
Excursion
An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other purposes....
to Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California, carved out by the Merced River. The valley is about long and up to a mile deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines...
. The annual High Trips
High Trips
The High Trips were large wilderness excursions organized and led by the Sierra Club beginning in 1901. Club secretary William Colby initiated the High Trips, which usually traveled to the High Sierra, and led them from 1901 to 1929. Colby wrote, "It was from John Muir, President of the Club,...
were led by accomplished mountaineers
Mountaineering
Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...
(some of them Sierra Club directors), such as Francis P. Farquhar
Francis P. Farquhar
Francis Peloubet Farquhar graduated from Harvard and came to San Francisco to set up in practice as a Certified Public Accountant...
, Joseph Nisbet LeConte
Joseph Nisbet LeConte
Joseph Nisbet LeConte was a noted explorer of the Sierra Nevada. He was also a cartographer, a photographer and a professor of mechanical engineering. He often went by J. N. LeConte in photographs and articles...
, Norman Clyde
Norman Clyde
Norman Clyde was a mountaineer, mountain guide, freelance writer, nature photographer, and self trained naturalist. He is well-known for achieving over 130 first ascents, many in California's Sierra Nevada and Montana's Glacier National Park...
, Walter A. Starr, Jr.
Walter A. Starr, Jr.
Walter A. "Pete" Starr, Jr. was an American lawyer and mountain climber.A graduate of Stanford University, Starr was a respected lawyer in San Francisco, but he is better known for his abilities as a mountain climber and an explorer of the Sierra Nevada.In August 1933, he failed to return from a...
, Jules Eichorn
Jules Eichorn
Jules Eichorn was a California mountaineer, environmentalist and music teacher.- Early years :Jules Marquard Eichorn was born in San Francisco on February 7, 1912 to Hilmar and Frieda Eichorn, who were immigrants from Germany...
, Glen Dawson
Glen Dawson
Glen Dawson is a California rock climber, mountaineer, antiquarian bookseller, publisher and environmentalist.- Early life :...
, Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, and David R. Brower
David R. Brower
David Ross Brower was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club Foundation, the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, Friends of the Earth , the League of Conservation Voters, Earth Island Institute , North Cascades...
. Many first ascent
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
s in the Sierra Nevada were made on Sierra Club outings. Sierra Club members were also early enthusiasts of rock climbing and pioneers of the craft. In 1911, the first chapter was formed, Angeles, and it immediately started conducting local outings in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and throughout the West. In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, many Sierra Club leaders joined the 10th Mountain Division, bringing their expertise to the war effort. Among them was Brower, who managed the High Trip program from 1947 to 1954, while serving as a major in the Army Reserve.
The High Trips, sometimes huge expeditions with more than a hundred participants and crew, have given way to smaller and more numerous outings held across the United States and abroad. The National Outings program conducts hundreds of outings, most of which are between 4 to 10 days in length. Local chapters, groups, and sections lead thousands of generally shorter trips in their regions and beyond (mostly hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, but also including cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
, cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
, etc.). Inner City Outings groups help make wild places accessible to children who are only familiar with the urban environment.
Conservation policies
The Sierra Club has official policies on many conservation issues. They group these into 17 categories: agriculture, biotechnology, energy, environmental justice, forest and wilderness management, global issues, government and political issues, land management, military issues, nuclear issues, oceans, pollution and waste management, precautionary principle, transportation, urban and land use policies, water resources, and wildlife conservation.Land management
Some Sierra Club members have urged the Club to be more forceful in advocating for the protection of National ForestsUnited States National Forest
National Forest is a classification of federal lands in the United States.National Forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Land management of these areas...
and other federally owned public lands. For example, in 2002 the Club was criticized for joining with the Wilderness Society
The Wilderness Society (United States)
The Wilderness Society is an American organization that is dedicated to protecting America's wilderness. It was formed in 1935 and currently has over 300,000 members and supporters.-Founding:The society was incorporated on January 21, 1935...
in agreeing to a compromise that would allow logging in the Black Hills
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
in South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
.
Nuclear issues
The Sierra Club opposes building new nuclear reactors, both fissionNuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
and fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
, until specific inherent safety risks are mitigated by conservationist political policies, and regulatory agencies are in place to enforce those policies. The club currently opposes nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
due to its "probable" release of the hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
, tritium
Tritium
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of tritium contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of protium contains one proton and no neutrons...
.
Coal
According to the Sierra Club, coal power plants are one of the nation's largest and dirtiest sources of energy, a leading cause of respiratory illness, and account for over 40% of the nation's carbon dioxideCarbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
emissions. It argues that there are readily available alternatives to coal. A 2009 report commissioned by the Sierra Club concluded that the costs associated with coal mining in Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
are five times greater than its economic benefits to the region. The report concluded that residents of coal mining regions would be best served by transitioning away from economic dependence on coal.
Renewables and energy efficiency
The Sierra Club advocates investment in wind, solar, and other renewable energyRenewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
as well as restructuring energy market
Energy market
Energy markets are those commodities markets that deal specifically with the trade and supply of energy. Energy market may refer to an electricity market, but can also refer to other sources of energy...
s to favor innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
, creation of green job
Green job
A green job, also called a green-collar job is, according to the United Nations Environment Program, "work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development , administrative, and service activities that contribute substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality...
s, and efficient energy use
Efficient energy use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...
.
Protecting rivers
One long-standing goal of the Sierra Club has been opposition to dams it considers inappropriate. In the early 20th century, the organization fought against the damming and flooding of the Hetch Hetchy ValleyHetch Hetchy Valley
Hetch Hetchy Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in California. It is currently completely flooded by O'Shaughnessy Dam, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The Tuolumne River fills the reservoir. Upstream from the valley lies the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. The reservoir...
in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
. Despite this lobbying, Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
authorized the construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam
O'Shaughnessy Dam
The O'Shaughnessy Dam is a curved gravity dam on the Tuolumne River in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of California's Sierra Nevada. The dam is located in Yosemite National Park, and creates the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. It is named for former San Francisco chief engineer and the original chief engineer of...
on the Tuolumne River
Tuolumne River
The Tuolumne River is a California river that flows nearly from the central Sierra Nevada to the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley...
. The Sierra Club continues to lobby for removal of the dam, urging that San Francisco's water needs be accommodated instead by the re-engineering of the Don Pedro Reservoir downstream.
The Sierra Club advocates the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona in the United States, just north of Page. The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second...
and the draining of Lake Powell
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is a huge reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona . It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing of water when full...
. The Club also supports removal, breaching or decommissioning of many other dams, including four large but high-cost dams on the lower Snake River
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...
in eastern Washington.
Blue-Green Alliance
In June, 2006, the Sierra Club announced the formation of a Blue-Green Alliance with the United SteelworkersUnited Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
, the largest industrial union in North America. The goal of this new partnership is to pursue a joint public policy agenda reconciling workers' need for good jobs with mankind's need for a cleaner environment and safer world.
Population control and immigration
Some critics of the Sierra Club have charged that the club's views on population growth, and the efforts of some club members to restrain immigration, are a continuation of aspects of the Eugenics movement.In 1969, the Sierra Club published Paul R. Ehrlich
Paul R. Ehrlich
Paul Ralph Ehrlich is an American biologist and educator who is the Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology. By training he is an entomologist specializing in Lepidoptera , but...
's book, The Population Bomb
The Population Bomb
The Population Bomb was a best-selling book written by Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich , in 1968. It warned of the mass starvation of humans in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth...
, in which he said that population growth was responsible for environmental decline and advocated coercive measures to reduce it. Some observers have argued that the book had a "racial dimension" in the tradition of the Eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
movement, and that it "reiterated many of Osborn's
Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. ForMemRS was an American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenicist.-Early life and career:...
jeremiads."
In 1978, John Tanton
John Tanton
John H. Tanton, M.D., is a retired ophthalmologist from Petoskey, Michigan, and an influential activist in efforts aimed at reducing immigration levels in the United States. He was organizer and first chairman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform , a non-profit educational group that...
, former Chairman of the National Sierra Club Population Committee and former President of Zero Population Growth
Zero population growth
Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG , is a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines, considered as a social aim....
, founded the Federation for American Immigration Reform
Federation for American Immigration Reform
The Federation for American Immigration Reform is a non-profit tax exempt educational organization in the United States that advocates changes in U.S. immigration policy that would result in significant reductions in immigration, both legal and illegal...
.
During the 1980s, some Sierra Club members, including Paul Ehrlich's wife Anne
Anne H. Ehrlich
Anne Howland Ehrlich is the co-author of several books on overpopulation and ecology with her husband, Stanford University professor Paul R...
, wanted to take the Club into the contentious field of immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
. The Club's position was that overpopulation
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
was a significant factor in the degradation of the environment. Accordingly, the Club supported stabilizing and reducing U.S. and world population. Some members argued that, as a practical matter, U.S. population could not be stabilized, let alone reduced, at the then-current levels of immigration. They urged the Club to support immigration reduction
Immigration reduction
Immigration reduction refers to a movement in the United States that advocates a reduction in the amount of immigration allowed into the country. Steps advocated for reducing the numbers of immigrants include advocating stronger action to prevent illegal entry and illegal immigration, and...
. The Club had previously addressed the issue of "mass immigration," and in 1988, the organization's Population Committee and Conservation Coordinating Committee stated that immigration to the U.S. should be limited, so as to achieve population stabilization.
Other Sierrans thought that the immigration issue was too far from the Club's core environmentalist mission, and were also concerned that involvement would impair the organization's political ability to pursue its other objectives. In 1996, the Board of Directors accepted this latter view, and voted that the Sierra Club would be neutral on issues of immigration.
The advocates of immigration reduction sought to reverse this decision through the referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
provision of the Bylaw
Bylaw
By-law can refer to a law of local or limited application passed under the authority of a higher law specifying what things may be regulated by the by-law...
s of the Sierra Club. They organized themselves as "SUSPS", a name originally derived from "Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization" (although that name is no longer used since the Sierra Club objected to infringing the Club's trademark in the term "Sierrans"). SUSPS and its allies gathered the necessary signatures to place the issue on the ballot in the Club's election in the spring of 1998. The Board's decision that the Club would take no position on immigration was upheld by the membership by a three-to-two margin.
The controversy resurfaced when a group of three immigration reduction proponents ran in the 2004 Board of Directors elections, hoping to move the Club's position away from a neutral stance on immigration, and restore the stance previously held. Groups outside of the Club became involved, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
and MoveOn
MoveOn
MoveOn is an American non-profit, progressive or liberal public policy advocacy group and political action committee, which has raised millions of dollars for candidates it identifies as "moderates" or "progressives" in the United States. It was formed in 1998 in response to the impeachment of...
. Of the three candidates, two (Frank Morris and David Pimentel), were on the board of the anti-immigration group Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America and two (Richard Lamm
Richard Lamm
Richard Douglas "Dick" Lamm is an American politician, Certified Public Accountant, college professor, and lawyer. He served three terms as 38th Governor of Colorado as a Democrat and ran for the Reform Party's nomination for President of the United States in 1996.He is currently the Co-Director...
and Frank Morris) were on the board of directors or the board of advisors of the Federation for American Immigration Reform
Federation for American Immigration Reform
The Federation for American Immigration Reform is a non-profit tax exempt educational organization in the United States that advocates changes in U.S. immigration policy that would result in significant reductions in immigration, both legal and illegal...
; both had also held leadership positions within the NAACP. Their candidacies were denounced by a fourth candidate, Morris Dees
Morris Dees
Morris Seligman Dees, Jr. is the co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center , and a former direct mail marketeer for book publishing. Along with his law partner, Joseph J...
of the SPLC, as a "hostile takeover" attempt by "radical anti-immigrant activists." The immigration reduction proponents won only 3% of all votes cast in the election, and the controversy subsided.
Affiliates and subsidiaries
The Sierra Club FoundationSierra Club Foundation
The Sierra Club Foundation is a public charity whose mission is to provide financial support to the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations for tax deductible work...
was founded in 1960 by David R. Brower
David R. Brower
David Ross Brower was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club Foundation, the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, Friends of the Earth , the League of Conservation Voters, Earth Island Institute , North Cascades...
. It is a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation that provides support for tax- deductible environmental action.
The Sierra Club Canada has been active since 1963. It is now an independent corporation with its own national structure and local entities throughout Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
working on pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, and sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
issues.
In 1971, volunteer lawyers who had worked with the Sierra Club established the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. This was a separate organization that used the "Sierra Club" name under license from the Club; it changed its name to Earthjustice
Earthjustice
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm based in the United States that specializes in cases protecting natural resources, safeguarding public health, and promoting clean energy...
in 1997.
The Sierra Student Coalition
Sierra Student Coalition
The Sierra Student Coalition is the national student chapter of the Sierra Club. Founded by Adam Werbach in 1991, it now has about 14,000 members and is likely the largest student-led environmental group in the United States.- National-level :...
(SSC) is the student-run arm of the Sierra Club. Founded by Adam Werbach in 1991, with 14,000 members, it purports to be the largest student-led environmental group in the United States.
The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund is a 527 group
527 group
A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of American tax-exempt organization named after "Section 527" of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code...
that became active in the 2004 Presidential election by airing television advertisements about the major party candidates' positions on environmental issues. Through the Environmental Voter Education Campaign (EVEC), the Club sought to mobilize volunteers for phone banking, door-to-door canvassing and postcard writing to emphasize these issues in the campaign.
The organization maintains a publishing imprint, Sierra Club Books
Sierra Club Books
Sierra Club Books is the publishing division of the Sierra Club, founded in 1960 by then Sierra Club President David Brower. Volumes intended for club members had been published prior to 1960. In addition, books under their name had been published before 1960, but done through already established...
, publishing books on environmental issues, wilderness photographic essays, nature guides, and other related subjects. They publish the Sierra Club Calendars, perennial bestsellers, featuring photographs by well-known nature photographers such as Galen Rowell
Galen Rowell
Galen Avery Rowell was a noted wilderness photographer and climber. Born in Oakland, California, he became a full-time photographer in 1972.-Early life and education:...
. They also publish the John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
library, which includes many of their founder's titles.
The Wilderness Travel Course
Wilderness Travel Course
The Wilderness Travel Course is a Sierra Club program that teaches basic mountaineering skills to students. It is 41 years old....
is a basic mountaineering class that is administered by the Sierra Club.
Restore Hetch Hetchy
Restore Hetch Hetchy
Restore Hetch Hetchy is a grassroots non-profit organization seeking to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to its original condition.-History:...
is an organization created by the Sierra Club to advocate the restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
See also
- BiodiversityBiodiversityBiodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
- Conservation MovementConservation movementThe conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
- Conservation ethicConservation ethicConservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world: its, fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity. Secondary focus is on materials conservation and energy conservation, which are seen as important to...
- Earth ScienceEarth scienceEarth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...
- EcologyEcologyEcology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
- EcosystemEcosystemAn ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
- Environmental educationEnvironmental educationEnvironmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. The term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to...
- Environmental movementEnvironmental movementThe environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
- Global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
- Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.Grassroots Campaigns is an independent organization that does strategic consulting, fund raising for humanitarian and progressive causes and political organizations. GC employs thousands of workers to solicit donations in neighborhoods and in high-traffic public venues to build support for...
- Habitat conservationHabitat conservationHabitat conservation is a land management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore, habitat areas for wild plants and animals, especially conservation reliant species, and prevent their extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range...
- List of environmental organizations
- Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection AgencyMassachusetts v. Environmental Protection AgencyMassachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, 549 U.S. 497 , is a U.S. Supreme Court case decided 5-4 in which twelve states and several cities of the United States brought suit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency to force that federal agency to regulate carbon dioxide...
- Natural environmentNatural environmentThe natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
- NatureNatureNature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
- RecyclingRecyclingRecycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
- Sierra Club Green HomeSierra Club Green HomeSierra Club Green Home is an environmental website affiliated with Sierra Club. Launched in 2009, the Sierra Club Green Home website provides consumers who are interested in living green with information such as contact information with green providers in their neighborhoods, video tutorials,...
(website) - Sierra Club v. Morton
- SustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
- Timeline of environmental eventsTimeline of environmental eventsThe timeline lists geological, astronomical, and climatological events in relation to events in human history which they influenced. For the history of humanity's perspective on these events, see timeline of the history of environmentalism...