Citizens March to Protect Hallowed Ground on Blair Mountain

For five days in June, a total of nearly 800 citizen activists, including Sierra Club volunteers and staff, marched 50 miles through West Virginia from the town of Marmet to the town of Blair, site of a huge mountaintop removal mining controversy.

The march, part of a weeklong protest to protect Blair Mountain, commemorated the 90th anniversary of a 1921 march undertaken by coal miners in their fight to unionize and live & work in decent conditions, and the ensuing Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed insurrection on American soil since the Civil War.

The Sierra Club has been working with local, regional, and national allies to protect the Blair Mountain battle site and end mountaintop removal on Blair Mountain and throughout southern Appalachia. No mining has yet taken place on the historic battlefield, but it is fast being encroached upon. Below, mountaintop removal operations above the town of Blair.

Photo courtesy of iLoveMountains.org

The Sierra Club has just filed a petition to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to make Blair Mountain off-limits to mining. Take action by writing to Randy Huffman, Director of the WV DEP, letting him know why it's so important that we preserve our natural and cultural heritage on Blair Mountain.

Big Grassroots Coal Victory Deep in the Heart of Texas

On June 20, San Antonio Mayor Joaquin Castro (above, second from right) announced that not only will the city shut down its 900-megawatt Deely coal-fired power plant by 2018, but the city plans to replace the power with a combination of traditional sources such as natural gas, renewable energy—including solar—and energy efficiency.

"San Antonio's decision to phase out the Deely coal plant signals the beginning of the end of the coal-burning era and its associated air pollution and illness in Texas," says Eva Hernandez of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. That's Hernandez at left, above.

To Hernandez' right are Sierra Club Alamo Group volunteers Carolyn Wells, Dave Wells, and Karen Seal, CPS Energy CEO Doyle Beneby, Alomo Group activist Loretta Van Coppenolle, Jefferson Heights Neighborhood Association President Charles English, Henrietta English, Mayor Castro, and Alamo Group volunteer leader Russell Seal.

The Deely plant, below, will be the first coal-fired power plant in Texas to close.

CPS Energy, the municipal utility, has already invested in a 14-megawatt solar photo-voltaic plant that opened last year, and made a commitment to 20 percent renewable energy by 2020. "Not only is this a victory for clean energy and community health, but it's also an example of some amazing long-term grassroots work by local residents," says Mary Anne Hitt, national director of the Beyond Coal Campaign.

"This was a huge effort driven largely by the local Alamo Group and a few other key partners like the SEED Coalition and Public Citizen," says Hernandez. "Essentially there was an agreement for the city of San Antonio to install scrubbers on the Deely coal plant, but Mayor Castro and Chief Beneby of CPS Energy proposed that they shut down Deely instead and replace it with clean energy that will bring up to 1,000 new jobs to San Antonio!

"But it wasn't that easy," she adds. "Russell and Loretta worked tirelessly to keep pressure on the city council and mayor."

"This was years in the making," says Russell Seal. "The big thing here is not just shutting down the coal plant, but changing the dialogue from supplying energy at the lowest cost to a philosophy of providing competitively priced energy with environmental considerations. This is a huge shift in philosophy."

Red, White, Blue & Green at 2011 Puerto Rican Day Parade

On June 12, New York City's Fifth Avenue became a sea of red, white & blue—the colors of the Puerto Rican flag—during the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, an annual event in Manhattan since 1958. And thanks to a contingent from the Sierra Club's Puerto Rico Chapter, the day was colored green as well.

The parade capped off nearly a week of activities that included rallies, speeches, banquets, and musical, literary, and sporting events, celebrating all things Puerto Rican. Watch this video of the parade, and this one about the Puerto Rico Sierra Club.

More than 40 members of the Puerto Rico Sierra Club, including president Orlando Negrón, above, traveled to New York for the parade, which featured a Sierra Club float and members dressed up as a manatee, a parrot, turtles, and Planet Earth. Over 100 Club members marched in the Sierra Club contingent.

"There are more Puerto Rican people in the United States than on the island itself," says Puerto Rico Chapter Director Camilla Feibelman, below with U.S. Congressman José Serrano (D-NY). "The Puerto Rico Day Parade and its theme celebrating the natural beauty of the island was a great way to reach out to the second-largest Latino community in the nation."

Among the marchers was Leslie Fields, director of the Club's Environmental Justice & Community Partnerships Program. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime event to be able to salsa up Fifth Avenue," says Fields. "There was music everywhere." That's Fields below with Negrón.

Here's Fields' account of the day:

Sierra Club Closes In On Huge Grand Canyon Mining Victory

Photo courtesy of National Park Service

In a major victory for the Sierra Club, on June 20 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, below, announced his intention to protect 1 million acres surrounding Grand Canyon National Park from further mining claims. This is the same area—and the full amount—included in Rep. Raul Grijlava's (D-AZ) Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act, introduced in previous sessions of Congress but never enacted.

Salazar said that expanded uranium mining around the canyon—which the Sierra Club has been fighting—would threaten water supplies, air quality, wildlife, desert vegetation, and "priceless scenery." That's National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis behind Salazar, above.

"This is a great day for the Grand Canyon, its wildlife, and everyone in the Southwest who relies on the Colorado River for drinking water," says Sandy Bahr, below, Director of the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter, which has been spearheading the Club's efforts on this fight.

Below, a Sierra Club rally outside a BLM/National Park Service public meeting in Flagstaff this March, where Sierra Club and tribal activists spoke. "We had people dress as radioactive wildlife and parade through the streets since the meeting was on Mardi Gras," says Alicyn Gitlin, an organizer with the Club's Grand Canyon Protection Campaign.

Photo by James Q Martin

It's Just Another Day at Inner City Outings

What's the best way to get to your fishing hole? Try whitewater rafting.

Thanks in part to the Sierra Club Water Sentinels program and Zebco that donated six fishing poles and reels, the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings (ICO) program and YMCA's Earth Service Corp brought 14 San Francisco middle school girls late last month to Cache Creek, a raucous tributary that feeds into the Sacramento River. None of these girls had ever gone rafting before, so you could imagine the sensation they felt during the nine-mile adventure.

"It is thrilling to take people out to the river for the first time, to see the wonder in their eyes, to watch them go from fear to exuberance and thoughtful appreciation of the river," says trip leader Bill Weinberg, who first rafted in 1979 as part of a Sierra Club Service trip.

The ICO program in total consists of 50 groups, leads 800 outings a year, and touches the lives of 14,000 youth. For many of these kids, rough, urban surroundings are all they know. Many of their peers end up in gangs and struggle in school. During outings, ICO leaders regularly witness kids immediately connect with nature and, as a result, become inspired to get back on the right track.

"I treasure knowing that I've been a small part of changing someone's life, re-directing them from gangs and despair to personal growth and empowerment. It's pretty cool that we can do that while experiencing the joy of being a river guide," Bill says.

Sierra Club, Girl Scouts Team Up in Kentucky

For the last four years, the Kentucky Sierra Club has collaborated with the Girl Scouts on environmental education projects for girl scouts of all ages in western Kentucky.

This year, the Club's Water Sentinels Program and Pennyrile Group teamed up with the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana to sponsor a Forever Green event in Owensboro, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts.

Pennyrile Group volunteers led workshops on wood and trees, water testing, gardening, bees, and recycling—including electronic waste (e-waste) recycling. That's Terry Connors, above, conducting a session on wood and trees, and Carol Mark, below, leading a bees and gardening workshop.

"Three years ago, we had two volunteers plus me doing presentations," says Kentucky Sierra Club organizer and Water Sentinel Aloma Dew. "Since then we've built up a solid contingent of volunteers and done workshops with the Girl Scouts on sustainable agriculture and food, recycling, and water-quality testing. We've also hosted fishing derbies where the Water Sentinels provided the Girl Scouts with 50 fishing rods & reels and Sierra Club backpacks."

Dew planned this year's Forever Green event with Kristi Harrison, Project Coordinator for the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. That's Harrison, below at left, and Dew in photo at right.

"We're incredibly grateful for our relationship with the Sierra Club," says Harrison. "The quality of volunteers and well thought-out program they provide continues to educate and prepare our girl scouts for the future."

Coal-Free Washington Campaign Heats Up in Bellingham

On the last day of May, more than 800 people turned out for an information fair and rally in Bellingham, Wa., about a planned coal export terminal in nearby Cherry Creek. Above, Sierra Club members join other concerned citizens at the Bellingham rally.

The event, organized by RE-Sources, a Bellingham-based environmental education center, featured a talk by best-selling author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben about coal exports, climate disruption, and the power of community action. That's McKibben above, just right of center in blue jacket, and below with local residents at the rally.

The following day, June 1, Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike hosted a community meeting on the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal that drew an estimated 300 residents. Pike said it would take a regional effort to stop it, and suggested that the Sierra Club gear up on a statewide level. Betsy Gross, an activist with the Club's Mt. Baker Group, took the opportunity to tell the mayor that the Club already has Coal-Free Washington staff in place specifically for this fight.

Volunteers and staff with the Beyond Coal Campaign and Mt. Baker Group contacted all group members and played a key role in turning people out for the two events. Club activists tabled and spoke at both gatherings.

The Sierra Club's No Coal Export Campaign kicked into high gear with a May 4 meeting in the Bellingham High School auditorium that drew nearly 300 residents. The Gateway Pacific Terminal, proposed by SSA Marine and the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Railroad, would be the largest coal export facility in North America and would ship an estimated 24 million metric tons of coal per year through the Cherry Point facility.

Blair Mountain March - Rally in Washington

While the March on Blair Mountain continues to heat the battle between residents and King Coal in West Virginia, the battle for Blair Mountain and against mountaintop coal removal travelled to the nation's capitol yesterday morning. 

Residents of the Appalachian's Coal River Valley and various supporters rallied in front of the Environmental Protection Agency office, thanking the organization for its support, while urging for more stringent coal regulations from Congress and the EPA.

One by one, West Virginia and Kentucky residents shared compelling stories of how the powerful coal industry has threatened the health, safety, history, and future of their communities.

Update: Yet Another Attempt to Expand the Border Wall

Yesterday we introduced you to Sierra Club organizer and Borderlands activist Dan Millis. Today, he reminded us just how relentless politicians are on the border issue. One senator in particular, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, will not ease off furthering destructive border policies. Dan informs us that DeMint has placed an amendment into the Economic Development Revitalization Act that would expand 10 to 25-foot barriers by hundreds of miles and choke off adjacent wilderness.

DeMint tried three separate times during the last congressional session to expand the wall by slipping it into existing legislation as an amendment. It was attempted through the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, the major fiscal reform bill, and finally the DREAM Act. Earlier this year, DeMint tried to sneak it into the Patriot Act, but failed.

"He's certainly persistent, I'll give him that," Dan says. "But so are we. We have been fighting these silly proposals for nearly two years now. It's easy to help us out by going to our action alert on this issue and letting your senators know how you feel about expensive, ineffective border walls."

(Photo credit: Krista Schlyer.)

Defeating a Wall by Climbing It

Dan demonstrates to border patrol officers how easy it is to climb a border wall.

Dan Millis has never met a wall that he didn't want to climb –- especially the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

"I actually try to climb every wall I see just to make a point," he says.

When Dan isn't demonstrating just how dysfunctional America's border policy is, he works as a grassroots organizer with the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter. You might have read about when he was charged with littering for leaving containers of water in open areas for migrants in search of a better life.

"A lot of deaths occur out there on the border because conditions are pretty terrible to cross, especially in the summer," Dan says.

Born in Flagstaff, Arizona, Dan's humanitarian work began several years ago with a group called No More Deaths. So how did he go from assisting hungry and thirsty migrants to working for one of the largest environmental organizations in the country?

"When I started learning about the environmental impact of our border policies, I saw there was a way to raise awareness of these flawed policies among a group of folks that hasn't really thought about it yet," he says. "It's been wonderful to be a liaison between environmental and human rights-oriented communities."

Dan's roots in the outdoors trace back to his studying abroad in Chile, where he'd go whitewater kayaking in Pucon. He became a Spanish teacher and worked on humanitarian treks along the border during summer breaks. During his time on the border, Dan noticed the diverse ecology of this politically tumultuous region –- an area mistakenly assumed to be a barren wasteland overtaken by tumbleweeds.

"Being from Flagstaff, I also thought of the border as having a bunch of sand blowing around and cactus, but it's not really like that at all. Having moved to the Sonoran Desert, I'm blown away everyday with how much life there is out here. It seems in many ways more alive than in the high altitudes and forest climate where I moved from."

Deer, along with countless other animals, are blocked the wall that cuts through the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

The 2,000-mile border contains everything from mountains to rivers, from sand dunes to some forested areas.