Rio Grande Chapter Receives National Sierra Club Award

SAN FRANCISCO – Sept. 23, 2000 –The Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club was among those receiving national awards from the Sierra Club this year.

The chapter received a Special Achievement Award for its publication of Sprawl Costs/Sprawl Solutions for New Mexico and El Paso. The 66-page report provides a comprehensive discussion of sprawl and growth issues in the area and suggests a plan of action to deal with the problem. The report was released at a day of "Tours de Sprawl," which were held all over New Mexico in December 1999 to highlight the growth problems of both large and small urban areas.

Contributors to the report included Jim Baca, Pamela Emsden, Ned Farquhar, Julie Hicks, Ken Hughes, George Lawrence, Donella Meadows, Ray Powell, Sakal & Hood Architects, Rob Smith and Tony Sylvester. It was edited by Ed Moreno and designed by Barbara Johnson.

The Sierra Club, which was founded in 1892 by John Muir, is the country’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization. It currently has more than 600,000 members. To obtain a copy of Sprawl Costs/Sprawl Solutions or to get more information on the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, write them at 621 Old Santa Fe Trail, Ste. 10, Santa Fe NM 87501 or visit their website at http://www.sierra.nm.org/.