Welcome to the Sierra Club-Indian Peaks Group
We participate in Boulder County politics, community education, and outings in support of our local environment.
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Activism works!
When Boulder County announced that they were going to spray herbicides on cheatgrass on open space above five regenerative and organic farms, a coalition of environmental groups got to work, calling on our members to contact county officials and voice their opposition to the spraying. Over 1,000 people contacted the county commissioners and it worked: at their February 26 public hearing on herbicides, the county commissioners paused the herbicide spraying until fall 2026.
County commissioner Ashley Stolzmann has been firmly against herbicide use for her entire tenure as commissioner, and we thank her for her leadership on this issue.
Many thanks also to the hundreds of Sierra Club members and supporters who contacted the commissioners to voice their concerns about herbicide use on public lands. And thank you to scores of Boulder County residents who attended the public meetings on herbicides as well.
The fight isn't over. We need to continue to tell public officials that we do not want poisons on our public lands. We need to continue working on outreach, helping the public understand how dangerous herbicides are to human and ecological health. But we can celebrate this small victory.
Background: For several years now, Boulder County open space staff have been using the herbicide indaziflam on hundreds of acres of county public lands. Once applied, these toxic chemicals will remain in the soil for 2-9 years. As a pre-emergent herbicide, indaziflam prevents seeds from sprouting, whether they are annual or perennial seeds, non-native or native, “weed” or cultivated plant. In short, the soil becomes non-productive and can stay that way season after season.
Indaziflam can also have toxic effects on humans, other mammals, pollinators, and aquatic creatures of all forms. No matter how carefully applied, it can leach into groundwater, streams, and ponds; drift is also a problem. Recently, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) released a report saying that toxic “forever chemicals”—PFAS—have been found in indaziflam (read article here).
The state of Colorado is phasing out the use of PFAS, so it is time to phase out indaziflam.
Contact information for the Boulder County Commissioners:
Marta Loachamin: mloachamin@bouldercounty.gov
Ashley Stolzmann: astolzmann@bouldercounty.gov
Claire Levy: clevy@bouldercounty.gov
Educate yourself on this issue—go here for more information: https://www.pesticidesbouldercounty.org/indaziflam.
Image by Bich Nguyen Vo from Pixabay
May 2026: Our 11th Annual
Free & Organic Plant Exchange
Saturday, May 30, 9:00 am - 12:00 noon
Unitarian Church west parking lot
5001 Pennsylvania Ave., Boulder, 80303
Have extra plants--"volunteers"--in your organic garden? Dig them up, put them in a pot, and bring them to our Plant Exchange.
Swap them for plants someone else has brought. Don't have any plants to exchange?
Don't worry about it--we'll have plenty of plants to go around. Just come and meet like-minded people!
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Interested in building gardening and community? We put on a panel on this in January. See an article on the event:
Read more about gardening & community here.
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Indian Peaks Group Executive Committee
The Indian Peaks Group (IPG) represents Sierra Club members living in Boulder County. Below are the elected members of the Executive Committee.
SarahDawn Haynes
SarahDawn is the chair of the IPG. She is a 20-year resident of Boulder and is originally from South Park County. Since 2005 she has worked for the CU Environmental Center. She has volunteered with Wildlands Restoration Volunteers and is a Futures and Foresight practitioner. She is a media studies graduate student and currently researches edutainment; she also does outreach and engagement through creating provocative climate justice communication tools.
See more on SarahDawn's experience here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdawn-haynes-0b14334/
RJ Boyle
Rebecca “RJ” Boyle is an attorney and an environmental compliance planner in the energy field. She has been volunteering with the Sierra Club since 2021. She is an avid trail runner, rock climber, fly fisher, gravel cyclist, and reader/writer of poetry. She co-led the Bedrooms Are for People campaign and is the co-chair of the city of Boulder's Tenant Advisory Committee. In her work, she consults various federal agencies on public lands projects, from transmission and infrastructure planning to Tribal outreach and consultation. She is dedicated to helping develop equitable, climate-resilient policies in the place where she lives, works and plays.
Rebecca Dickson
Rebecca has been an environmental activist for over 20 years. She was the chair of the Indian Peaks Group for eight years; now she is the vice chair. Along with many other activists, Rebecca has helped Boulder County and the state of Colorado rein in oil and gas activity and works to address climate change. She also works to reduce light pollution and pesticide use. She believes that what we do in our own backyards matters immensely. She supports the Sierra Club's policies on increasing affordable housing by focusing on density and infill.
Daniel Howard
Daniel is a computational scientist and environmentalist. Professionally, he tackles weather and climate model development with strong interest in energy-efficient computing. Outside of work, Daniel has volunteered with the Sunrise Movement against the Keystone Pipeline and for 350 Colorado anti-fracking initiatives; he’s also held leadership roles for Fossil Free Notre Dame and the Science Policy Initiative. Most recently, Daniel has supported IPG's Urban Sustainability Committee and intends to revitalize this and other priority Sierra Club work while working toward an energy-efficient buildings policy and sustainable urban planning.
Rachel Rose Isaacson
Rachel is a public policy professional, ecological advocate, and recent Boulder City Council candidate with a Master’s in Public Administration and Leadership. Her work bridges civic engagement, environmental regeneration, and community resilience, grounded in the belief that ecological health and social equity must advance together. She has dedicated much of her career to advancing ecological regeneration and community well-being. At the Agraria Center for Regenerative Practice, she supported bio-regional regeneration efforts and taught practices that heal ecosystems while strengthening local resilience. She is also a certified Soil Advocate with Kiss the Ground and a certified Pollinator Ambassador with Cool Boulder, where she actively stewards native gardens and advocates for pollinator protection across Boulder and Boulder County.
Michael Schnatzmeyer
With a degree in Environmental Design (from CU Boulder), Michael has co-founded five nonprofits including Sustainability, Maker, and Start-Up groups. Mike worked with the Center for New Urbanism and the CU Graduate School of Planning to catalyze a re-envisioning of the St. Vrain River corridor, currently reflected in Longmont's $140 million Resilient St. Vrain flood-mitigation project. He continues to promote a "climate-smart-city" vision via community outreach and education initiatives embodying biophilic, smart-growth principles. Mike also brings a knowledge of Longmont area issues to the IPG.
Rachel Whitfield
Rachel recently graduated from CU Boulder’s Environmental Design program, focusing on urban planning. She is now a Transportation Planning Analyst, working on pedestrian-oriented projects that improve safety, connectivity, and community access.
As president of the American Planning Association for Students, CU Boulder Chapter, Rachel coordinated events, managed funding, and led outreach to connect students with local planners and policymakers, advancing more livable, resilient cities. She hopes to bring a planner’s perspective to the Indian Peaks Group of the Sierra Club, with an eye to environmental protection, housing justice, and sustainable urban growth.
Carbon Farming & Regenerative Land Use
Promising research shows that a widespread focus on building healthy soil may be our best hope to draw down and safely store atmospheric carbon dioxide. If we are to be successful in fighting climate change, we need to go beyond JUST reducing emissions. Carbon Farming could be key to this multifaceted strategy to not only reduce emissions but also remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Learn more about how you can get involved in a program and research study led by the City of Boulder and Eco-Cycle to monitor the affects of carbon farming in Boulder. Carbon Farming and regenerative planting isn't just for farmers. You can do it in your backyard.
More information from out partners at Cool Boulder: https://www.coolboulder.org
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