Water Sentinels Engage Hundreds of Thousands of Kids

The Sierra Club's Water Sentinels program engaged 165,000 youth across the country in 2009. Combined with partner programs Military Families Outdoors, Inner City Outings, and Building Bridges to the Outdoors, the Club got more than 200,000 kids outdoors last year.

"The Water Sentinels program is changing the face of America by getting youth and ordinary citizens involved in caring for our most precious resource," says Water Sentinels Deputy Director Tim Guilfoile.

Through its partnerships with the Federation of Fly Fishers, Trout Unlimited, Inner City Outings, the National Military Fish & Wildlife Association, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and other local youth-oriented organizations, Water Sentinels got more than 90,000 youngsters out in fishing in 2009.

"We've developed partnerships with schools, after-school programs, and summer camps to provide students with streamside education," says Water Sentinels Director Scott Dye. "Kids go fishing and floating, take nature hikes, do water-quality monitoring, and participate in outdoor education fairs, interpretive field trips, community litter cleanups, tree plantings along stream corridors, nature photography, and a whole lot more." The Water Sentinels engaged 27,000 youth in 2009 through these outdoor educational events.

"The Water Sentinels program has also built relationships with school systems that want to to incorporate water-related environmental education into their classroom curricula," says Guilfoile. "We work with teachers to identify age-appropriate educational materials that can be easily and affordably integrated into their teaching programs."

Through this initiative Water Sentinels trained 640 teachers last year, reaching some 16,000 students. The program also engaged an additional 25,000 students through direct actions, from the streamside to the classroom.

The Water Sentinels program's Earth Day celebrations consistently engage around 5,000 youth every year.

Learn more about the Water Sentinels and how you can get involved where you live.

Wisconsin Students Protest Mountaintop Removal

Photo courtesy of WKBT Newschannel 8

On February 18, students at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse held a mountaintop removal mining (MTR) demonstration with a snow mountain they constructed—and then despoiled and demolished—for the occasion.

Two television stations covered the event (click on the photographs above and below to watch), as did the local paper, the LaCrosse Tribune.

Photo courtesy of WXOW Newschannel 19

The demonstration took place right after trucks delivered a load of coal to the university's heating plant. Below, UW-L graduate student Jeremy Gragert "blows up" top of the mountain and pours a fake coal slurry mixture onto a model village on the mountain's flank. 

Photos courtesy of WKBT Newschannel 8

"The UW-L heating plant burns coal that destroys communities, mountains, and water systems—a lot of people are affected," Gragert, below, told the Tribune. "We need to end these contracts as soon as we possibly can."

Photo courtesy of WKBT Newschannel 8

Locals Help Turn Back Waste Coal Plant Near Pittsburgh

The Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project, and the local groups Action for Change Today and Residents Against the Power Plant celebrated in late January when the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) invalidated an air quality permit allowing a "waste coal" power plant to be built less than 10 miles upwind of downtown Pittsburgh.

Above, local residents gather last June at a community meeting opposing the 272-megawatt Beech Hollow Power Plant in Robinson Township.

The plant was originally approved by DEP in 2005, just days before more stringent federal guidelines for the burning of waste coal were to take effect. But thanks in large part to a concerted grassroots campaign, the permit was rescinded and Robinson Power Company dropped its plans to build the plant.

"A lot of people worked very hard to make sure citizens' voices were heard," says Sierra Club organizer Randy Francisco. "They held meetings, went door-to-door, sent letters and emails—it was very impressive. They've been working toward this moment for years."

Below, Francisco talks with reporters and staff of state and federal legislators on a Dirty Coal tour the Sierra Club organized near the site of the proposed Beech Hollow plant last November.

Permit Yanked for Coal Mine Expansion on Tribal Lands

Photo by Doc Searles, courtesy of Creative Commons

The Sierra Club, tribal partners, and a coalition of environmental groups won a major victory in January when an Administrative Law Judge for the Department of Interior (DOI) withdrew Peabody Coal Company's permit to re-open and expand its controversial coal mining complex on Black Mesa, above, which overlaps Navajo and Hopi tribal lands.

"This is a huge victory for the communities of Black Mesa impacted by coal mining, and proof that Peabody can't have its way on Black Mesa anymore," says Hertha Woody, a Sierra Club activist and a member of the Navajo Nation.

Sierra Club organizer Andy Bessler says "big thanks goes to the more than 50 Hopi appellants, led by Kendall Nutumya, who got a successful ruling from the DOI, supported by similar appeals by tribal partners and environmental groups."

 

The permit was originally granted in December 2008 by the Bush administration DOI in spite of protests by Navajo and Hopi tribal members and environmental groups. Above and below, tribal activists rally in Denver, just before the permit was issued.

Photo by Wahleah Johns

The "Life of Mine" permit, which authorized and expanded Peabody's operations at Black Mesa beyond the year 2026 to allow for the extraction of an estimated 670 million tons of coal, was one of several fossil-fuel-friendly permits issued in the waning days of the Bush administration.

But Administrative Law Judge Robert Holt ruled this January that the permit violated the National Environmental Policy Act because DOI's Office of Surface Mining (OSM) failed to prepare an adequate environmental impact statement after Peabody proposed to enlarge its mining operations by nearly 19,000 acres.

Coal-Free UNC Campaign Gathers Steam

Climate scientist James Hansen joined student activists, local residents, and faculty at the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill the first week of February in urging the university to eliminate coal power on campus. UNC-Chapel Hill now operates its own coal-fired cogeneration (heat & power) plant.

Hansen, above center, was on campus at the invitation of Coal-Free UNC, part of the Sierra Club's Campuses Beyond Coal campaign. That's UNC freshman and Coal-Free UNC coordinator Stewart Boss at right, above.

"As a proud Tar Heel, I want to see my university maintain its status as an environmental leader by moving beyond coal and making UNC a greener, more sustainable campus," Boss told an assembed crowd of activists who gathered despite the inclement weather.

One of Coal-Free UNC's top priorities has been pushing the university to create an Energy Task Force to address energy use on campus, and Boss praised UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp's recent decision to do so. "This is a great first step in the right direction," Boss said, "and the best way for the task force to address energy use is to get UNC off coal as quickly as possible."

Since forming last September, Coal-Free UNC has collected more than 1,900 petition signatures calling on the university to end its coal use by 2015.

Recap from the TX and VA EPA Smog Hearings

The many people who attended yesterday's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearings on its proposed ozone/smog rule are calling them a success. The proposed National Ambient Air Quality Standard follows the recommendation of EPA scientists and numerous health groups, setting the limit between 60 and 70 parts per billion - and we strongly support this move.

We had great numbers of concerned citizens, scientists, doctors and more turn out at the hearings in Houston, Texas, and Arlington, Virginia, to talk about the need for stronger standards on ozone - which is also known as smog.

In Houston, our Lone Star chapter teamed up with the American Lung Association, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention to state the facts on the risks of smog. The coalition got some good media coverage before and after the event, including their live-blog on DailyKos - and they even made this fantastic video of it all.



Almost twenty leaders of national and local health and environmental organizations testified - as well a teen with asthma. "I've been hospitalized many times with asthma attacks. It's scary when you can't catch your breath. When I was young, going to the hospital with asthma was a monthly thing," said 14-year old asthma patient Aaron Smith, who attended the EPA hearing with his mother Rosa Smith. The Smith family lives near the Houston refineries.

"Now I'm on an adult dose of asthma medicine and the only other way to manage the asthma is to limit my outdoor activities. That's hard to do at 14. My doctor's even talking to me about moving away from Houston's pollution when I go to college."

An MLK Day of Service

This past Martin Luther King, Jr., Day saw our D.C. Chapter of the Sierra Club teaming up with many other local groups to hold a day of service at Pope Branch Park in Ward 7 of our nation's capital.

More than 100 volunteers from the Sierra Club, the Pope Branch Park Restoration Alliance, the District Department of the Environment and other groups showed up to remove trash from the creek and park, as well as pull invasive weeds. Even Sierra Club Board President Allison Chin and Environmental Protection Agency staffer Mathy Stanislaus got in on the act.


The photos show the results - tons of tires and trash bags full of debris were removed from the park and banks of the creek. A sad reality, but we're happy to have seen so many folks come together to make a difference on such an important day.

Congrats to Irv Sheffey of the D.C. Chapter and the rest of the folks who did so much work!

You can see more photos on Irv's blog and in this photo gallery.

Farewell to a Fighter and a Friend: Greg Haegele

The Sierra Club and the American conservation community lost one of its brightest lights on January 21 when Deputy Executive Director Greg Haegele died after a 2-year battle with cancer. He was one week shy of his 47th birthday.

"Greg had one of the greatest strategic minds the Sierra Club has ever seen," says Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "He was like a general, always thinking a few steps ahead, analyzing how best to deploy resources, motivate his troops, and win. Greg pushed us all to succeed with mentoring, leadership, and passion. He waged war on climate change with a piercing intensity fueled by beautiful places in nature."

The awe of nature that inspired Haegele was described in a Sierra magazine column last year. Speaking to a group of colleagues about a childhood fishing trip with his grandfather, he recalled the "simultaneous fear and joy" he'd felt when a pod of feeding orcas surrounded their boat, then rocketed out of the water before slamming back down to the surface.

"We felt the sound waves inside our chests," Haegele said, noting that the experience felt like an earthly brush with a higher power. "It's the sense of how insignificant we are in the presence of greatness, as well as a sense of being connected to nature. I felt it that day."

A Seattle native, Haegele earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Emory University, a B.A. in philosophy from Whitman College, and taught philosophy at Emory and Carroll College in Helena, Montana. Prior to joining the Sierra Club he served as director of several progressive activist organizations and as campaign or field manager for gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, and state & local electoral campaigns.

Many of these campaigns were waged in hostile terrain for the causes he espoused, and Haegele was verbally and physically threatened on more than one occasion. Yet he demonstrated unwavering courage and tenacity along with a tactical acumen that earned him a remarkable track record of success.

Haegele joined the Sierra Club in 2004, serving as Deputy Conservation Director, Interim Political Director, and Director of Conservation before assuming the role of Deputy Executive Director in 2009. That same year he received the John Muir Award, the Sierra Club's highest honor.

Youth Power Takes On Coal Power in Oregon

Nick Engelfried wants Oregon to be America's first coal-free state.

"Right now, 40 percent of Oregon's energy comes from coal," says the recent college graduate. "That's a relatively small percentage, and we have only one coal plant in the state—Portland General Electric's Boardman plant. We're pushing to get Boardman shut down by 2014 and eliminate our dependence on out-of-state coal by 2020." The Boardman plant, below, is Oregon's largest single emitter of carbon dioxide.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Engelfried got his start in environmental activism as a sophomore at Portland Community College, when a fellow student told him about the Sierra Student Coalition and their Summer Environmental Leadership Trainings, or Sprogs. Sprog is short for (s)ummer (prog)ram.

Engelfried did his training in Washington State in the summer of 2006, then transferred to Pacific University, where he organized an SSC group with the help of SSC's Northwest regional organizer, Jenny Beddel-Stiles.

"There was an existing environmental club on campus," Engelfried says, "but I wanted it to be more focused on activism, so I hooked us up with PowerVote (Youth Voting for Clean Energy) leading up to the November elections. Jenny helped me learn to use PowerVote as a tool for building up my new group."

That winter, Engelfried helped organize a student-led conference on campus, the Washington County Sustainability Summit, featuring speakers from environmental groups and presentations by local elected officials and community leaders. The 2-day event continues to be held each year.

Since graduating in 2009, Engelfried has been working with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign in Oregon, providing support to college campuses. "Nick has done an amazing job getting students involved," says Oregon Sierra Club organizer Cesia Kearns, at center below in blue shirt, next to Engelfried. "He's also a great bridge between youth and our silver-haired heroes."

Physician Activist Helps Turn Tide Against Coal in Utah

In the winter of 2006-07, a prolonged temperature inversion in the Salt Lake Valley trapped cold air—and particulate matter—low to the ground, causing dense smog to blanket the area for nearly a month.

Photo by Tom Smart, courtesy of Deseret Morning News

"Air pollution gets intense under these circumstances," says Dr. Brian Moench, an anesthesiologist at Latter Day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City. "I was distressed that there wasn't any dialog or statements from politicians about how to mitigate this or even acknowledge the public health issues involved."

Moench penned an op-ed to the Salt Lake Tribune about the consequences of air pollution and his dismay over politicians' inaction. The piece caught the eye of Sierra Club organizer Tim Wagner, who invited Moench to join the campaign to stop construction of new coal-fired power plants in the Beehive State.

The result was the formation of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. As UPHE President, Moench is the group's point person with the media and state agencies, giving frequent testimony and presentations at public hearings. More than 30 of his op-ed pieces have been published in Salt Lake City's two main newspapers, and he speaks about pollution at public venues around the state several times a month.

"I end up on the news or the editorial pages often enough that many state agencies and right-wing legislators hate me," he says. "But from the outset I calculated that we would not get very far playing nice with an environmentally blind state government. We decided our biggest potential ally would be the public, so our strategy has been to share the medical research with them wherever possible and hope grassroots pressure eventually forces change."

The result has been a dramatic shift in public attitude and the outlook for new coal plants in Utah: of the four new coal plants proposed in the state when UPHE formed, three have been shelved, and the fourth appears all but dead.

"We've possibly provided a tipping point, especially in a 'red state' like Utah, because we've provided the connection between personal and family health and pollution exposure," Moench says. "Our emphasis on the threat air pollution poses to children and the human embryo strikes a chord even with hard core conservatives."