Sierra Club 2004 National Awards

Peter Douglas, Distinguished Service Award.

From the Sierra Club's Ventana Chapter newsletter:

Douglas has been active in coastal protection for four decades and was coauthor of Proposition 20, a citizens' initiative that established the Coastal Commission. He was principal author of the 1976 Coastal Act that made permanent California's coastal management program.

Douglas earned a BA in psychology followed by a law degree in 1969 from UCLA. He has written extensively about coastal management and environmental stewardship. A founding member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Science Advisory Board, he was reappointed to another three-year term in July 2001. He is the only non-scientist on that board.

As executive director of the California Coastal Commission, Douglas manages a 165-staff state agency mandated to balance use and conservation of resources along California's 1,100-mile coastline. Under his leadership, the Coastal Commission has expanded public access to the coast for all, with notable successes at Pebble Beach and numerous sites in southern California.

Douglas successfully led a legal challenge to the federal government's action to automatically renew the 36 offshore oil and gas leases off the California Coast.