January 1, 2000, marks two milestones for the Sierra Club. While everyone's observing
their first changing of the millennium, the Club--which was founded in 1892--is entering
its second new century. That makes it an opportune moment to take stock of what we've
accomplished (or, sometimes, failed to accomplish) in 108 years on Earth.
1892-1899 With membership on its way to virtually doubling to 350 by 1897, the
Club--making the most of our magazine, the Sierra Club Bulletin, and the prestige of our
founders, including John Muir--works to establish additional "national forest
parks." In response, Congress creates Mount Rainier National Park in 1899.
1900-1909 Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt spend three days together in
Yosemite in 1901, camping one night in a snowstorm. At the Club's urging, the California
legislature cedes Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove--both managed by the state
since 1864--to allow expansion of Yosemite National Park in 1905.
1910-1919 The decade begins with President William Howard Taft signing a bill to
create Glacier National Park--the country's tenth--in Montana, thereby outlawing the
mining and homesteading allowed under its previous status as a forest reserve. In 1913,
Congress approves the damming and flooding of California's Hetch Hetchy Valley, a loss
that galvanized the nascent conservation movement. Muir, who had called the valley
"one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain mansions," dies the following
year.
1920-1929 After successfully opposing a series of dams to be built in
Yellowstone National Park, the Club in 1923 assists the fledgling National Park Service in
adding Redwood Meadow to California's Sequoia National Park. Congress expands Sequoia
further in 1926, and--with help from the Club to acquire a private inholding--again in
1928.
1930-1939 The Club throws its weight behind the effort to convert Kings Canyon,
managed by the U.S. Forest Service, to a national park. Ansel Adams' photographs of the
Kings Canyon high country are published by the Club as his first book, and a young David
Brower shoots the Club's first movie while exploring the canyon. The campaign is bolstered
by a grassroots lobbying effort by the Club's nearly 3,000 members.
1940-1949 Congress establishes Kings Canyon National Park in 1940. Eight years
later, the Club blocks the construction of hydroelectric dams in the newly protected
canyon.
1950-1959 The Club wages a major battle to prevent a pair of dams from being
built in Dinosaur National Monument, on the Utah/Colorado border. In 1956, the federal
government drops the proposal, but only after the Club drops its opposition to Glen Canyon
Dam, flooding what Brower--by then the Club's first executive director--would later call,
regretfully, "the place no one knew."
1960-1969 When the U.S. government tries to create a series of reservoirs within
the Grand Canyon, the Club launches a campaign to keep it dam-free, including the famous
newspaper ad that asked, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get
nearer the ceiling?" Soon after, the IRS rules that donations to the Club are no
longer tax-deductible. Despite the move, membership soars from 39,000 to 78,000.
Responding to conservationists' vigorous lobbying, Congress passes the Wilderness Act and
establishes Redwood National Park.
1970-1979 Congress creates the Environmental Protection Agency and passes the
Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and other landmark laws supported by the Club
and its allies. Club lobbying also helps win creation of Big Thicket Preserve in Texas and
Big Cypress Preserve in Florida, and expansion of Grand Canyon National Park.
1980-1989 The Club helps pass the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation
Act, which designates 104 million acres as parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas.
Our activists gather over a million signatures on petitions calling for the ouster of
Ronald Reagan's anti-environment Interior secretary, James Watt. The Club launches
campaigns to protect Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the California desert.
Membership hits the 400,000 mark.
1990-1999 Our nationwide campaigns help win passage of the Colorado Wilderness
and California Desert Protection acts, and defeat efforts to open the Arctic Refuge to oil
drilling. Club activists gather 1.2 million signatures on the Environmental Bill of
Rights, turning back Republican congressional leaders' War on the Environment. In 1996,
our efforts lead to the creation of the 1.6-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument in southern Utah.
2000-2010 To be determined by Sierra Club members, now more than 550,000 strong.
Watch this space . . .
Honoring Our Eco-Heroes
At its 1999 national awards ceremony in September, the Sierra Club lauded young
volunteers and seasoned conservationists, cyber-activists and outings leaders. The top
honor bestowed at the San Francisco event, the John Muir Award, went to Judy Anderson,
whose cartography and leadership skills helped make the California Desert Protection Act
of 1994 a reality.
Former Arkansas Governor Dale Bumpers won the Edgar Wayburn Award for public officials,
while reporter Tom Kenworthy of The Washington Post's Denver office received the David R.
Brower Award for environmental journalism.
Richard Hellard of the Alaska Chapter, Laurie MacDonald of the Florida Chapter, Jono
Miller of Florida's Manatee-Sarasota Group, and Lucille Vinyard of California's North
Group were each honored with a Special Service Award. The next generation of activists was
represented by Sierra Student Coalition member Elizabeth Hagan, a Harvard University
sophomore who won the Joseph Barbosa Earth Fund Award for Club leaders under age 30.
While Josh Weisman, Will Easton, and Jeffrey Solari of San Francisco garnered the
Electronic Communication Award for the Club's anti-sprawl Web site
(www.sierraclub.org/sprawl), Herbert Carlton was honored with the Oliver Kehrlein Award
for his work in the Cypress Group's outings program. Mary Evanson received the One Club
Award for combining recreation and conservation in Maui Group outings. The Toiyabe
Chapter, Georgia Chapter, and Fox Valley (Wisconsin) Group took Newsletter Awards for
their publications Toiyabe Trails, Georgia Sierran, and It's Our Nature.
Former Club director Helen Burke received the Walter A. Starr Award for her San
Francisco Bay Chapter work; the Mexican Federation of Private Health and Community
Development Associations received the Earthcare Award for international environmental
protection; Dick Simpson of California's Black Mountain Group won the Special Achievement
Award for work on the Bradley Hut; and Denver lawyer and former Club secretary Tony Ruckel
received the William O. Douglas Award for environmental law. —Jennifer Hattam
