Index - January 2005

2005 Conservation Management Committee
Duck Farm Closes Escrow
Eliminate 94 Boards and Commissions
Harbor Vision Task Force 2005
January CNCC Meetings
Joint Desert/Wilderness Meeting
Legislative Action Network
New Forest Planning Regulations
Not One Damn Dime Day
Political Committees 2005
Protect Green Building Standards
Protect Wilderness on Colorado River
Radical Right Snuck Into Power
Save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Snowy Plover
Staff Change in Sacramento

Useful Information
Chapter Conservation Committees Calendar
Chapter Conservation Mgmt Committee
Chapter Conservation Grants Committee
Chapter Conservation Committee Agenda
Orange County Conservation Committee
Orange County Conservation Agenda

We Need a Powerful Vision of What We Stand for and How We Can Achieve it
by John Byrne Barry

Two weeks after Election Day, the Sierra Club Board of Directors met with key volunteers, staff, and allies to talk what happened on November 2 and what comes next. Despite the bleak outcome of the election, this was not a bleak gathering. We left stimulated, hopeful and united.

"Something was born here today," said Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "Let's keep it growing."

This story is an attempt to share with the broader Sierra Club community some of the ideas, analyses, and enthusiasm from that and subsequent gatherings. I will break it into four parts: (1) what happened and why, (2) what the Sierra Club accomplished, (3) the signs of hope and opportunity, and (4) where we go from here, both short-term and long-term. (All this in 2,000 words? Well, fasten your seat belts.)

1. What happened?

The election itself was summarized by Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton: "Fear trumped hope, character trumped issues, values trumped programs."

While a lot of variables shaped the outcome—voter concern and fear about the "war on terror", Bush's success in painting Senator Kerry as indecisive (however unfair), and the inability of the Kerry campaign to focus voters on a positive domestic agenda resulted in a narrow popular-vote win for Bush, and an extraordinarily close result in the electoral college, where fewer than 200,000 votes would have changed the outcome.

But Bush did not just win with his 2004 campaign. The radical right snuck into power, said Rob Stein, one of the guests at the post-election board meeting, and it didn't happen overnight. Stein, a former advisor to the Democratic National Committee who has studied the radical right's climb to power, said that 30-some years ago, the business community and the corporate right were in disarray and feared that their version of capitalism was under attack. The fiscal conservatives hated the social conservatives. The libertarians were divided into their own camps, and the traditionalists were suspicious of everyone. Young people were not becoming conservatives. In 1970, shortly before he became a Supreme Court Justice, Virginia lawyer Lewis Powell wrote a memo that became a blueprint for the radical right's rebirth, calling for wealthy conservatives to invest millions in creating a new movement, complete with think tanks and media outlets.

"Survival of what we call the free enterprise system," wrote Powell in his now infamous manifesto, "lies in organization, careful planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint efforts, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations."

In other words, raise money, get organized, work together.

Many of today's ubiquitous right-wing think tanks and advocacy organizations, like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, were founded in the '70s. Stein documented 43 groups that collectively received about $3 billion over the past 30 years—they're not necessarily homogenous, but they've tolerated ideological differences in the pursuit of power. This "conservative message machine," as Stein calls it, is designed to reach every sympathetic voter every day to keep them on message. It frames the issues in such a way that its opponents are put on the defensive. Stein calls it the most potent machine ever developed in a democracy—"a never-ending source of intellectual content, laying down the slogans, myths, and buzzwords that have helped shift the public opinion rightward." One example: Despite the rightward tilt of mainstream media and the dominance of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and their ilk, the organization Accuracy in the Media keeps shouting that the media is too liberal.

Every Wednesday, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist hosts a meeting of about 80 people who debate the issues, then unify around strategy and talking points.

Progressives have nothing comparable. Sure, there's Al Franken and Air America, and there are various think tanks, but nothing broad and unified.

2. What we did right

We can't pretend we won, but the Sierra Club mobilized more volunteers, talked to more voters, developed more new leaders, and forged more partnerships than ever before. The Club's voter education program alone, based in 11 sites, recruited 12,000 new volunteers, who, along with dozens of staff members, knocked on more than 1 million doors and made more than 1.5 million phone calls. New volunteers like Ed Dinnen, a life member from Pittsburgh, went from attending a local Sierra Club meeting for the first time to walking neighborhoods knocking on doors at least once a week and hosting house parties to attract new volunteers.

Never before have so many Club staff and volunteers taken their vacation and weekends to do unglamorous work like door-to-door canvassing and phone-banking in states hundreds—even thousands—of miles from home. (I was one of them. You can read excerpts from "My Most Excellent Midwestern Doorknocking and Phone-Banking Adventure" on page 10.)

Many busloads of volunteers from the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas made their way to Reno and Las Vegas. Massachusetts Chapter members went next door to New Hampshire. Staff and volunteers from Washington DC and Maryland traveled to Pennsylvania.

Thousands of Club volunteers also wrote and mailed handwritten letters and postcards to swing voters in other states to remind them of the differences in the environmental records of the candidates. Carey Maynard-Moody, vice chair of the Kansas Chapter, drove to Minnesota to work five consecutive 12-hour days with local staff and volunteers. "It was joyful work," she says. "The collective hope and energy in that office was palpable, contagious."

In Milwaukee, volunteers poured in the week before the election. Staffer Dave Westman remarked that the "volunteer rule" had been reversed. "Usually," he said, "for every two people who sign up, one shows. Now, for every one who signs up, two show up."

"Our organizational capacity and name recognition has never been greater," said Hamilton. "Now we need to be smart about how we nurture and use this new capacity."

And while some voters saw entirely too much of us, others came out to us. Hamilton, who went door-to-door in Reno with his family, said "one voter told our canvass, 'I would crawl over glass to be sure to vote in this election.'"

The Club worked with a huge coalition—there were 39 groups in America Votes including the AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, MoveOn.org, and the NAACP.

Deputy Conservation Director Greg Haegele said that the Club and its allies matched the right in mechanics and coalition building. "We activated our base. We got out the vote. We picked the right battleground areas."

3. Signs of hope and opportunity

On the national stage, the environment was overshadowed by Iraq and terrorism and health care. The only wolves that got much television coverage were Karl Rove's symbolic terrorists. But at the local level, not only did the environment get more of a hearing—strong pro-environmental candidates and ballot initiatives prevailed, even in the "red" states.

Colorado voters passed Amendment 37, the first citizen-sponsored initiative of its kind in the nation, which requires the state to generate 10 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2015. Also, voters in the Denver area approved a $4.7 billion sales tax increase to build 119 miles of light rail and commuter rail lines and other public transit facilities to expand the existing system.

In Montana, despite being massively outspent by the mining industry, the Sierra Club and its allies defeated a ballot initiative to repeal the ban on using cyanide in open-pit heap-leach gold mining.

Nationally, 22 of 28 ballot measures for reducing traffic congestion and financing public transit improvements passed on November 2, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence, a transit advocacy and research group.

It's easy to forget that the election was not a mandate for dismantling environmental protection. Despite the fact that that they voted George Bush back into office, said Pope, "Most Americans share our values." "You don't steal from future generations, you don't poison the well, if you make a mess, you clean it up—These values are not controversially divisive, and don't divide red state from blue state."

4. Where now?

The Bush administration and its congressional allies are already flexing their muscles and we expect them to unleash a renewed assault on our environmental protections. At the federal level, they can, with a few exceptions, enact any law they want, appoint any judge they want, refuse to enforce existing standards. We can't succeed by simply being defensive. Instead we must become an effective environmental opposition—which means we must take the initiative, just as the radicals did in 1970. It took them 10 years to elect Ronald Reagan, and 14 to capture the House of Representatives.

But the Sierra Club knows a lot about stamina. It took 10 years to pass the Alaska Lands Act. Ten years to pass the California Desert Protection Act. And we didn't succeed in adding the Valley of Mineral King to Sequoia National Park until 65 years after John Muir first included it in his proposed park boundaries. We know how to build over time and persist until we prevail!

We need to link that stamina with visionary solutions. In some ways, that's the easiest task. We know how to build sewers that are big enough for the toilets hooked into them. We know how to clean up power plants, oil refineries, and toxic waste dumps. We know how to make windmills, solar cells, weather stripping, and more efficient motors to reduce dependence on Mideast oil dependence and protect the Arctic Wildlife Refuge—and our solutions don't require that we sacrifice the lives of young Americans and Iraqis. We know how to save wilderness: just let it be.

But this vision needs to be something we can feel, not just an intellectual abstraction. "Humans don't respond emotionally to technicalese, descriptions of process, or legalisms," said Pope. "Club members share fundamental values with the nation but we tend to think that if we make a case intellectually, people will believe us. Well, we are not Vulcans, we're humans."

As we develop our values and vision, we need to build a network to broadcast them. It won't be the same as the conservative message machine that Stein described—it will have to reflect our values—but we will need a bigger megaphone than we have now.

We are already doing many of the things we have to do. Like talking to our neighbors, cleaning up a creek-bed near our kids' school, hosting a house party, circulating petitions at our union hall or environmental alerts at the coffee shop. Americans share our values—but they've allowed the radical right to sneak into power even though they don't share its values.

Why? Because they don't see that the asthma cases on the soccer field, or the mercury warnings at the lake, or the toxic waste dump near the overpass, or the clearcut where the elk used to graze, are not a necessary trade-off for jobs or national defense, but the conscious recklessness of leaders who don't care. That's the ugly secret. The radical right does appreciate clean air—the congressional leadership lives in neighborhoods in the D.C. metro area with the cleanest air. They understand how vital clean water is—the public drinking water supply surrounding the president's Crawford ranch has alarmingly high levels of arsenic, but the water in the tap at the ranch itself is pristine. The vice-president loves beauty and wildlife—he has a ranch right next to Grand Teton National Park, and spends every hour there he can.

It's not that the radical right doesn't care about clean air, and clean water, and beauty and wild places. But they're not concerned that the rest of us don't have the same access to it all as they do.

Bush Administration Announces New Forest Planning Regulations

New Rules are Expected to Favor Logging, Cut Standards for Wildlife Protection, Forest Management, Public Input

WASHINGTON DC - For the second year in a row, the Bush administration has announced a harmful new forest policy on the eve of the Christmas holiday. Last December 23, the administration announced it was opening up pristine parts of the Tongass National Forest to new logging and development. Today, it is releasing what are expected to be damaging new regulatory changes to the rules that guide sound forest management.

According to the Forest Service, the final regulations will be very similar to how they looked in draft form. If that is the case, important wildlife, clean water, and other environmental protections will be undermined, threatening forests the American people want preserved and protected for future generations.

Additionally, this rule will sharply limit the opportunity for meaningful participation by citizens in local forest planning. "These are America’s forests and should be managed for all of us," said Rodger Schlickeisen, executive director for Defenders of Wildlife. "These rules reject sound science, ignore the importance of public input, and tilt the playing field sharply toward the logging companies."

The new rules for long-term forest planning will likely reduce protections for forest wildlife and eliminate requirements that forest plans comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. The final rules will change enforcement of the 1976 National Forest Management Act, and are expected to conform closely to a timber industry "wish list" presented shortly after the presidential inauguration.

"We fully expect that the new forest rules will reflect the Bush administration’s belief that logging companies should be the primary beneficiary of our National Forests," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director.

" Americans want to protect the places where they hike, hunt and fish, but when the Bush administration rewrote the rules, they wrote the public out of the equation." The new forest planning rules are likely to:

• eliminate analysis of forest plans under the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal government agencies to assess potential environmental impacts of their actions, and examine alternatives;
• scrap wildlife protections established under President Ronald Reagan;
• severely limit opportunities for public input into forest management decisions, and;
• scale back the role of independent scientists in forest management, in favor of administration scientists.

"Today's new rules could roll back 20 years of forest protections—even many put in place by Ronald Reagan," said Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society. "Taken together with the Administration’s plan to curtail roadless protection for national forests, these changes will threaten many of our last-remaining roadless areas and old-growth forests."

The Bush administration’s rules will likely track very closely to testimony presented by the American Forest & Paper Association on May 10, 2000 before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. An analysis of the wish-list is available at http://www.defenders.org/forests/forest/new/wishlist.html

"Why are federal bureaucrats making new regulations that are going to destroy places the public holds dear?" asked Chuck Pezeshki, director of Clearwater Biodiverity Project. "It is the quality of life for our children that will suffer as a result."

As requested by industry, the new regulations will likely scrap requirements that forests maintain viable wildlife populations, make independent scientific review of plans discretionary, create a presumption that all national forest lands are open to industrial or timber uses unless explicitly prohibited, and leave monitoring of logging impacts at the discretion of individual forest supervisors.

"It’s time for the administration to reverse its present course and start following the best available science instead of thinking only about the profits of industry," said Gene Karpinski, U.S. PIRG Executive Director. "Without major revisions by the committee of scientists these regulations will harm wildlife, clean water and recreational opportunities for all Americans."

Unified Forest Defense Campaign (UFDC) is a coalition of national and regional conservation organizations working to protect and restore federal forests. The UFDC includes Defenders of Wildlife, NRDC, The Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Earthjustice, National Environmental Trust, U.S. PIRG, American Lands Alliance, Northwest Old Growth Campaign, National Forest Protection Alliance, Alaska Rainforest Campaign, Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.

Save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
by Robert Redford

No one voted on Election Day to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But President Bush is now claiming a mandate to do exactly that. Congressional leaders are pushing for a quick vote that would turn America's greatest sanctuary for Arctic wildlife into a vast, polluted oil field.

Even worse, they are planning to avoid public debate on this devastating measure by hiding it in a must-pass budget bill.

Don't believe for a second that the president is targeting the Arctic Refuge for the sake of America's energy security or to lower gas prices at the pump. President Bush knows full well that oil drilled in the Arctic Refuge would take ten years to get to market and would never equal more than a paltry one or two percent of our nation's daily consumption. Simply put, sacrificing the crown jewel of our wildlife heritage would do nothing to reduce gas prices or break our addiction to Persian Gulf oil.

But if the raid on the Arctic Refuge isn't really about gas prices or energy security, then what is it about? It's the symbolism.

The Arctic Refuge represents everything spectacular and everything endangered about America's natural heritage. It embodies a million years of ecological serenity . . . a vast stretch of pristine wilderness . . . an irreplaceable birthing ground for polar bears, caribou and white wolves.

It is the greatest living reminder that conserving nature in its wild state is a core American value. It stands for every remnant of wilderness that we, as a people, have wisely chosen to protect from the relentless march of bulldozers, chain saws and oil rigs.

And that's why the Bush administration is dead set on destroying it.

By unlocking the Arctic Refuge, they hope to open the door for oil, gas and coal giants to invade our last and best wild places: our western canyonlands, our ancient forests, our coastal waters, even our national monuments.

This is the real agenda behind the raid on the Arctic Refuge and the entire Bush-Cheney energy plan: to transfer our public estate into corporate hands so it can be liquidated for a quick buck.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) admitted as much when he said this battle over the Arctic Refuge is really a fight over whether energy exploration will be allowed in similarly sensitive areas in the future. "It's about precedent," Rep. DeLay said.

I take him at his word. If we let the president and Congress plunder the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the sake of oil company profits, then no piece of our natural heritage will be safe from wholesale destruction.

2005 Conservation Management Committee

Gordon LaBedz: Chair
Bonnie Sharpe: Vice Chair, Grants Chair
Robin Ives: Newsletter Editor
Jay Machett: Treasurer
Al Sattler: Secretary
Marcia Hanscom: at large
Faramarz Nabavi: at large
Dean Wallraff: at large

For the conservation grants committee: add Rudy Vietmeier and Judy Anderson
Orange County Conservation Committee Chair: Dave Perlman

Harbor Vision Task Force 2005
The Co-Chairs are Jesse Marquez and Tom Politeo.

Political Committees 2005
Los Angeles County Political Committee Chair: Susanna Reyes
Orange County Political Committee Chair: Gail Prothero

January CNCC Meetings

The Southern California/Nevada Conservation Committee will meet on Saturday, January 15, 2005, 10 am
at Angeles Chapter office, Suite 320, 3435 Wilshire, Los Angeles
      KEN SMOKOSKA, CNCC Vice Chair (South) ksmokoska@sierraclubsandiego.org

The Northern California/Nevada Conservation Committee will meet on Sunday, January 16, 2005, 10 am
at Village Homes Center, Davis.
      PATRICIA JONES, CNCC Vice Chair (North) pvjones2@comcast.net

Committee chairs are encouraged to submit 1 page written reports. Agenda time allows an oral report that is a brief 2 minute outline of the headlines of the written report. If there has not been enough activity in your committee to justify a written report, remarks should be limited to a brief 1 minute mention in the announcements section of the meeting.

Duck Farm Closes Escrow

After nearly four years, the Duck Farm sale closed escrow on Thursday, December 9. It is now owned outright by the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy and the Watershed Conservation Authority. This purchase was a key objective for the San Gabriel River Campaign in 2003, when the issue was still very much in doubt.

A celebration of the acquisition was held at the Duck Farm on Saturday, December 11.

Not One Damn Dime Day - January 20, 2005

Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target... Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter). For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down.

The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan—a way to come home.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed. For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

Sierra Club Wins Protections for Snowy Plover in California

The Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club and the California Department of Parks and Recreation finalized a consent decree on Friday, January 7, for the Protection of the Western snowy plover at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.

"This is really an issue of whether to treat our beaches like a sandpit or like the natural treasures they are," said Chapter Chair Tarren Collins. "Thanks to this agreement, future generations of beachgoers can experience the beauty and wildlife of our ocean dunes."

The final agreement came three years and ten days after the Chapter sued the Department of Parks for violating the Endangered Species Act and putting the Pacific snowy plover, least tern and steelhead trout at risk in its management of Oceano Dunes. Under the terms of the settlement, an additional half-mile of beach will be closed to off-road vehicles as an exclosure area during the plover’s March to October breeding season.

Further, State Parks will:

• step up its existing protection measures for threatened species
• examine alternatives to vehicle crossings of Arroyo Grande Creek. (Currently, vehicles entering the park must cross the narrow creek near the point where it meets the ocean)
• provide for a number of environmental projects outside the park in support of plover recovery efforts state-wide
• pay for a western snowy plover recovery manager and establish a working group to monitor funding for plover recovery.

In all, the settlement will secure nearly half a million dollars for research, education, public outreach, and volunteer programs. The Morro Coast Audubon Society will receive $50,000 a year for five years to expand its successful plover volunteer program and information clearing house.

"We were particularly pleased to secure funding for a study that will evaluate existing management measures," said Babak Naficy, the environmental lawyer who represented the Chapter throughout the litigation. "It should help settle a lot of public debate and will establish for the first time an understanding of the reasons why plovers nest on some beaches and not on others."

In 2001, the Sierra Club convinced the California Coastal Commission to close a mile and a half of beach to off-road vehicles and campers and require the formation of an independent scientific review team to advise State Parks on management of habitat for the federally listed Western snowy plover and California least tern. For the last three years, the review team has been prodding State Parks to expand the exclosure area and do more to protect the plovers. With the approval of the consent decree, these recommendations will now be implemented.

There are only 1,600 breeding pairs of western snowy plover on the Pacific coast. The Pacific population of the plover is threatened throughout its range by loss of habitat and nesting sites, with the California coast as the site of the highest concentration of plovers and the highest level of loss of plover habitat.

Governor Proposes to Eliminate 94 Boards and Commissions

As part of the Governor's proposal to "blow up the boxes", the administration released a proposal on January 7 to eliminate 94 boards and commissions, including the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Although many of us have some misgivings about the Board of Forestry, one thing is clear— the only thing worse than the Board making the rules would be the Department making the rules. At least the Board provides a transparent process; if the Department is making the rules all will happen behind closed doors, with very little opportunity for meaningful public input or oversight.

On Thursday the Governor sent his proposal to the Little Hoover Commission. You can find background materials about the proposal and the process at their web site at:

http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/reorghome/grps.html

In a nutshell, the Little Hoover Commission has 60 days to review the Governor’s reorganization plans and submit its report on the plans to the Legislature. The Governor can submit the plans to the Legislature himself 30 days following its submission to the Little Hoover Commission (February 7). If neither house of the Legislature votes down the plan within 60 days of its submission to the Legislature (i.e. both houses need to reject the proposal), the reorganization becomes operational by law.Here is a short list of some of the other environmental boards and commissions proposed for elimination. You can find a complete list of the boards and commissions proposed for elimination at: http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/11953992p-12837994c.html

Some Environmental Boards and Commissions Proposed for Elimination:

Boating and Waterways Commission
Colorado River Board
Electricity Oversight Board
Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
Inspection and Maintenance Review Committee
Integrated Waste Management Board
Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission
Pilot Commissioners for SF Bay
Reclamation Board
Recreational Trails Committee
Seismic Safety Commission
Structural Pest Control Board
Water Commission

Paul Mason, Legislative Representative
Sierra Club California—'Your Voice in the State Capitol'
Office: (916) 557-1100 x120, Fax: (916) 557-9669, Cell: (916) 214-1382

Sixth Annual Joint California/Nevada Wilderness & Desert Committee Meeting

Our February meeting will be held in the by-now traditional setting at Shoshone, California on February 12-13, 2005, from Noon to 5:00 pm Saturday and on 8:30 am to 1:00 pm Sunday. Meeting Chairs: Roberta Moore and Vicky Hoover

Protect Endangered Forests and Wildlife

Protect Green Building Standards — Comments Needed by February 1

The timber industry’s American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) is pressuring the Green Building Council to promote wood from forests logged under the AF&PA’s “business as usual” Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) standards. The AF&PA is the most powerful timber trade association in the world. Its member companies include the largest loggers in the United States and Canada and the largest wholesale distributors of global wood products.

The construction and renovation of commercial and residential buildings in the US consumes vast quantities of wood often from endangered forests or forests managed as ecologically impoverished tree plantations. The US Green Building Council’s LEED standards encourage architects and builders to use wood from more environmentally benign sources, like forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design.”

The US Green Building Council is now soliciting public comments for LEED’s New Construction Rating System. If LEED credits the SFI certification system it would make the LEED’s standards misleading and ineffective at reducing environmental impacts, since the SFI allows and certifies destructive, business-as-usual industrial logging, such as large-scale clearcutting and logging of old growth and other endangered forests. The SFI also doesn’t track most of its wood, and allows non-SFI wood to be marketed as SFI certified.

Please urge the US Green Building Council to:

1. Not give credit or recognition to wood certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the Canadian Standards Association, or other weak, industry-dominated logging standards. The SFI allows and certifies non-renewable practices like: the logging of old growth, imperiled species' habitats, and unprotected wilderness/roadless areas; the elimination of biodiversity through the conversion of diverse natural forests to monocultural tree farms; and logging at rates faster than trees can re-grow. The SFI also allows other harmful, business-as-usual logging practices like gigantic clearcuts, excessive use of toxic chemicals, and management for only a few of a forest's native tree and wildlife species. The SFI also lacks a mandatory “chain of custody” system to verify where SFI “certified” wood comes from.
2. Only give credit and give recognition to wood from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and other systems that provide equal or greater protection to sensitive, non-renewable forest resources and forests' long-term ecological productivity.

Public comments on the proposed revised LEED standards (LEED NC) are due February 1.
To comment, go to: http://www.usgbc.org/News/usgbcnews_details.asp?ID=1156
The standards are at: http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/LEEDdocs/NCCC%20v2%202%20MASTER_public_1.pdf

Staff Change in Sacramento

I am sad to report that Pat Veesart, our chapter liaison and grassroots coordinator is leaving Sierra Club California. But I can temper this bad news with the fact that he is going to work for another great cause and organization—the California Coastal Commission. Pat will be the manager for the southern division of their enforcement program. He will be in charge of hunting down and bringing to justice (the Attorney General's office) those folks who thumb their nose at the Coastal Act and act where local government does not want to deal with it, or does not have the capability to deal with it. He will work out of their Ventura office.

Pat did a great job for us over the last nearly two years. He visited all of our chapters, meeting many of our local leaders at their ExComm or Conservation Committee meetings. He lead the fight for Sierra Club California and the Santa Lucia Chapter on the Hearst Ranch acquisition, skillfully bringing together activists, working with state agency folks, and doing analysis on this misguided project. While we did not "win" on Hearst, our clear and detailed criticism of the project made a difference in the final result. Pat had a lot to do with that.

We wish Pat well on the coast and thank him for his work in Sacramento.

Bill Allayaud, State Director, Sierra Club California

Join Sierra Club California's Legislative Action Network.

When you sign up, you will receive up-to-the-minute email alerts on key environmental legislation. Our lobbying staff only posts alerts on the timeliest and most critical issues so you will not be flooded with emails. This last session, our Legislative Action Network was very effective in generating support for good legislation at critical moments in the legislative process.

Please join today by going to: http://cal-legalert.sierraclubaction.org

Tell the park service to protect the river's wilderness character and phase out powerboats and helicopter use.

Useful Information

Sierra Club Links
Sierra Club World Wide Web: http://www.sierraclub.org
Angeles Chapter site:http://angeles.sierraclub.org
Angeles Chapter Conservation Newsletter: http://angeles.sierraclub.org/newsletter/
Sierra Club California: http://www.sierraclub.org/ca/
Sierra Club Vote Watch Website: http://www.sierraclub.org/votewatch/
National site main page: http://www.sierraclub.org/
National Clubhouse activist resource site: http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/
Need help contacting your US representatives or finding out about legislation?
US House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/
US Senate: http://www.senate.gov/
California State Assembly: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/
California State Senate: http://www.sen.ca.gov/
California State: http://www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp
California Legislative Information: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/
California Secretary of State voter information: http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections.htm
This Electronic Conservation Committee Newsletter is sent free, automatically, on email to all activists who hold any of the following positions in the Angeles Chapter or its entities: Executive Committee Member; Entity Chair or Conservation Chair, Political, and Newsletter Editor, Conservation Subcommittee or Task Force Chair. In addition, many activists throughout the Chapter and state receive it free by email, either by request or by position.  Distribution is approximately 350 by email, and 45 by postal hard copy. If you no longer hold the Club office with the automatic pull and wish to continue to receive it, email ivesico@earthlink.net. If we do not have your email address - please let us know. If you wish (and tell us), it will be tagged "private" and not printed or given out. The Newsletter (without upcoming resolutions) is available on the Chapter website at http://angeles.sierraclub.org/home.html Paper postal copy is available ($20/year payable Angeles Chapter, Sierra Club) for those who are technically challenged or simply don't want to be bothered. To receive The Newsletter by first class mail, send a donation of $20 to (almost) cover printing/mailing costs to Conservation Newsletter, 112 Harvard Ave PMB 297, Claremont CA 91711
National's GoldBook provides information to chapters and groups on the differences between 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) funds; how to utilize and access charitable 501(c)(3) funds; how to get a project approved; fundraising plus much, much, more material on the Sierra Club. It is now available at the Clubhouse website. Go to  http://www.clubhouse.sierraclub.org/; follow the instructions for obtaining the password. The GoldBook can be found by clicking on A - Z List of Materials box, then on "G" under A-Z List of Documents, then on GoldBook, Educational Project Guidelines.
The California/Nevada Directory (RedBook) is now available online. It also includes the Handbook of Sierra Club California Bylaws and Standing Rules (GreenBook). Contact Lori Ives for the online address and password. Send your membership number, your position in the Club, and your reason for needing the information. The paper edition ($20) is available on special order. Contact Lori for information.
E-Mail Lists: There are four important discussion lists for Angeles environmental activists:
Angeles Chapter Cons Listserve mailto:<angeles-conservation@lists.sierraclub.org>and
Angeles-Alerts Listserve angeles-alerts@lists.sierraclub.org
California/Nevada Listserve calif-activists@lists.sierraclub.org (moderated list for announcements)
California/Nevada Listserve calif-activists-forum@lists.sierraclub.org (unmoderated discussion list)
Subscribe to California Activists: calif-activists-request@lists.sierraclub.org
Subscribe to California Activists Forum: mailto:calif-activists-request@lists.sierraclub.org
For either list, send your name, email address, Sierra Club membership number, your position in Club (how are you active?)
Subscription is processed by one of the list owners, usually the same day.
Subscribe to Angeles-Alerts: email mailto:listsserve@lists.sierraclub.org with the message "subscribe angeles-conservation"
or "subscribe calif-activists"  or "subscribe angeles-alerts" Note: it's "listserv," not "listserve."
To leave a list, send an e-mail to mailto:to<listserv@lists.sierraclub.orgIn the text of your message (not the subject line), write: "signoff calif-activists" or "signoff angeles-conservation" or "signoff angeles-alerts"
The Angeles Chapter's website is http://www.angeles.sierraclub.org/

Angeles Chapter Conservation Management Committee
Gordon LaBedz/Chair 562-494-6368, Bonnie Sharpe/Vice Chair/Grants Chair
Jay Matchett/Treasurer, Al Sattler/Secretary, Robin Ives/Newsletter
Marcia Hanscom, Faramarz Nabavi, Dean Wallraff / at larges
Lori Ives, Publisher/Webmaster/Circulation (non-voting)
Johanna Zetterberg and Rachel Myers/Conservation Coordinators (non-voting)

Angeles Chapter Grants Committee consists of the Conservation Management Committee plus Judy Anderson and Rudy Vietmeier.

Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee
3435 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 320, Los Angeles CA 90010-1904

Motions should be submitted in advance, together with objective background material and supporting and opposing arguments, both to the Committee Chair and Newsletter Editor, for distribution with the agenda. Other motions will be postponed for action at a later meeting unless the motion is submitted in writing and unless the Committee votes an exception to ordinary procedure. Motions needing further action by the Angeles Chapter ExComm or some higher level of the Sierra Club should start out: "The Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee recommends that the Sierra Club..." To find out more about voting requirements and representatives, consult the Angeles Chapter website Conservation Committee.

AGENDA — Wednesday, January 19, 2005

7:30-7:35 Introductions
7:35-7:40 Announcements
7:40-7:50 Approval of Agenda
      Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting
7:50- 8:20 Reports
     Chapter Executive Committee Retreat Report (Bonnie Sharpe)
          Chapter Budget
          Chapter Priorities
          New Chapter Committees:
               Chapter Wetlands Restoration Committee
               Proposed Coast and Ocean Committee
               Proposed LA River Committee
          Sierra Club California Conservation Committee representatives
          Conservation Management & Grants Committee Members
          Revised Conservation Grants Handbook
     Forest Plan (John Monsen)
     Re-enchanting The City Report (Rosemarie White)
8:20-8:30 Old Business
     Conservation Committee Standing Rules & Schedule for 2005
     Staff Priorities (notice only, defer until return of Conservation Chair)
8:30- 9:30 New Business
     GIS Mapping/Vision Boards (Dean Wallraff)
     Reauthorization of Transportation Grant Funds (Bart Reed)
     Proposed Coast and Ocean Committee invitation for (future) input
     Proposed Fair Trade Task Force invitation for (future) input
     Proposed LA River Committee invitation for (future) input
     Exec Director Pope’s “recasting our conservation initiatives” proposal
     The CCC (Formerly C/N Regional Conservation Committee)
9:30- 10:00 Closed Session
     Review of New Matter Form to recommend proposed litigation to ExCom
     Dana Point Headlands Task Force
     Native American Sacred Sites Task Force

Orange County Conservation Committee

Dave Perlman/Chair, TBA/Vice Chair, TBA/Secretary
Rachel Myers/Conservation Coord (non-voting) http://angeles.sierraclub.org/ocosc/

LOCATION: Inn at the Park, 10 Marquette, Irvine

DIRECTIONS: Take the 405 to Culver and go west towards the beach. Follow Culver past Michelson and University and turn right on Harvard. Take Harvard to Marquette and turn right. It's on the corner of Harvard and Marquette on the right hand side.

AGENDA: January 18, 2005

7:00 Welcome, Introductions, Announcements
        Chapter Wetlands Restoration Committee
7:10 Conservation Staff Report (Rachel Myers)
7:20 Political Committee report (Gail Prothero)
7:30 Saddleback Canyons Task Force (Rich Gomez)
7:45 Dana Point Headlands Task Force (Celia Kutcher)
8:00 Native Americans Sacred Sites Task Force (Gail Prothero)
8:15 Santa Ana Mtns TF: Major Investment Study on Transportation between Riverside and Orange Counties (Betty Bains)
8:30 Orange Hills Task Force (Carole Mintzer)
8:45 Hobo Aliso Task Force (Penny Elia)
9:00 Adjourn