February 2017 Alabama Sierran

The Battlelines are Drawn. And the National Park Service Rangers Are On the Frontlines!

https://www.facebook.com/AltUSNationalParkService/or visit them on the web here: https://www.altnps.org/

Want important, government-backed environmental science? Good luck finding it at the real EPA right now. But check out the Unofficial "Resistance" team of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Not taxpayer subsidized! Environmental conditions may vary from alternative facts. https://twitter.com/altUSEPA

Cahaba Group's 4th Annual New Year Social for Outdoor Enthusiasts

Like-minded outdoor enthusiasts gathered on January 12 at Cahaba Brewing to encourage people to act upon their resolutions to get outside and get involved in exploring, enjoying, and protecting Alabama.

The Old Paints music group performed and the Taco Morro Loco food truck was on site.

We had a variety of groups: environmental, hiking, trail maintenance, new trail expansion champions, river keepers, and park managers.

Tables were set up for groups to display information, and it was a great opportunity to meet and greet people.  All the group representatives had a couple of minutes at the microphone to share their organization's vision and invite people to join them.

Trail Maintenance on the Pinhoti

On January 14, 2017 six hikers walked the Pinhoti Trail in the Dugger Mountain section. Some of us are Cahaba group members as well as Alabama Hiking Trail Society members. We cleared some fallen trees and trimmed back branches that were impeding hiking on the trail. The weather was beautiful and everyone enjoyed working and maintaining the trail we love to hike. Check out Birmingham Adventure Group on meetup.com for upcoming events.

Cahaba Group hike on the Pinhoti in January

On 1/15/17 we had a pleasant day for a walk in the forest.  We hiked 7.9 miles from Pine Glen to Coleman Lake on the Pinhoti trail.  This is an easy hike with no steep hills.  Most of the trail goes on creek banks and by lakes with nice views.  We had a group of 19 for this warm winter day in the woods.  Our hike also took us past Laurel shelter where we stopped for a short break.  We continued on past a log church built between 1885-1890.  We stopped for a visit at this historic place.  The sign at Shoal Creek Church says there are only six remaining log churches in Alabama but this sign is old so there may be fewer than six now.  Most of the hike is through mixed forest but it does have patches of long leaf pines in areas.  After our hike we had 12 people go for a nice dinner in Oxford.  A really nice day with a fun group of people.

National Club Election Coming This Spring

The annual election for the Club's Board of Directors is now underway.  Those eligible to vote in the national Sierra Club election will receive in the mail (or by Internet if you chose the electronic delivery option) your national Sierra Club ballot.  This will include information on the candidates and where you can find additional information on the Club's website.

The Sierra Club is a democratically structured organization at all levels.  The Club requires the regular flow of views on policy and priorities from its grassroots membership in order to function well.  Yearly participation in elections at all Club levels is a major membership obligation.  Your Board of Directors is required to stand for election by the membership.

This Board sets Club policy and budgets at the national level and works closely with the Executive Director and staff to operate the Club.  Voting for candidates who express your views on how the Club should grow and change is both a privilege and responsibility of membership.

Members frequently state that they don't know the candidates and find it difficult to vote without learning more.  You can learn more by asking questions of your group and chapter leadership and other experienced members you know.  Visit the Club's election website: http://www.sierraclub.org/board/election

This site provides links to additional information about candidates, and their views on a variety of issues facing the Club and the environment.

You should use your own judgment by taking several minutes to read the ballot statement of each candidate.  Then make your choice and cast your vote.  Even if you receive your election materials in the mail, please go to the user-friendly Internet voting site to save time and postage.  If necessary, you will find the ballot is quite straightforward and easy to mark and mail.

Alabama Nonpoint Source Meeting: Cahaba & Black Warrior River Basin

Wednesday, February 22, 2017 or Thursday, February 23, 2017* (9:30 AM - 3:30 PM)

Shades Valley Training Facility - Jefferson County
1331 Oak Grove Road, Birmingham, AL 35254

The Alabama Nonpoint Source Management Program invites you to join us for an informational grant training workshop. (register and learn more here)

Come learn about impaired streams in your area and how you can become an integral part of the Clean Water Act Section 319 Grant Program, aimed at improving water quality by reducing pollutant loads in surface runoff. The meetings will be the forum to share lessons learned, to help identify the issues stakeholders are facing in watershed restoration efforts, and to identify areas to leverage resources in watershed restoration planning/project implementation. Together, we can build constructive partnerships and improve the health of our rivers and streams. We look forward to meeting with you.

These full day events will provide lunch. Therefore, please RSVP before the online registration closes on Friday, February 17, 2017*. Be sure to register early as space is limited.
*If the Cahaba and Black Warrior River Basin registration is significantly lower than expected, the February 23rd meeting will be cancelled. This determination will be made by February 1st. All registered attendees will be notified via phone/email and will be encouraged to attend the February 22nd meeting.

Mobile Bay Group Quarterly Meeting Report October 30, 2016 – January 28, 2017

• Participated in the People’s Movement Assembly: A Just Transition for the Gulf Coast . We discussed climate change, environmental justice, renewable energy, economy and sustainable communities.
• Continue to pay attention to updates related to Deepwater Horizon oil spill research, restoration, and similar activities are updated monthly. Following restoration activities with the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council (AGCRC) on website, http://www.restorealabama.org
• Participating in the ‘Access & Awareness’ Webinar Series from the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice "Working Together: Lessons Learned from Collaboration for Community Revitalization" was on November 10^th. IWG Webpage (https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/federal-interagency-working-group-environmental-justice-ej-iwg) for more information. Representatives from the City of Birmingham and the Community Coalition of North Birmingham shared their experiences, including challenges, opportunities and lessons learned, and how we can utilize interagency collaboration for community revitalization.
• http://bridgethegulfproject.org/key-topics/race-and-racial-justice  http://bridgethegulfproject.org/blog/2016/africatown-experiences-new-beginning Mobile Bay Group ExCom member, Joe Womack, continues to write his monthly Africatown Blog.
• Mobile Bay Group Sierra Club was represented at City of Mobile Zoning Ordinance re-write: Hearing for public input.
• Working with Jennifer Crosslin with Steps Coalition and The People’s Campaign for Solar to develop a strategic action plan for a grass roots campaign to build and advocate for solar power.
• Mobile Bay Group Sierra Club was represented at the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program  Annual Breakfast.
• Mobile Bay Group Sierra Club ExCom member, Glen Coffee, presented at the Mississippi-Alabama Bays and Bayous Symposium - in Biloxi, MS on December 1^st. The coastal symposium focused on coastal science research, education and outreach in the northern Gulf of Mexico.Some of our members participated in the native vegetation planting on Dauphin Island's East End Beach on Saturday, November 19. This was a joint project between the Town of Dauphin Island, the Dauphin Island Park and Beach Board, and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
• Holding meetings to coordinate Earth Day Mobile Bay 2017, which will be on April 22.
• The Mobile Bay Sierra Club hosted two documentary films, 'The Breakthrough in Renewable Energy' and 'Fossil Free' on November 1^st.
• The Mobile Bay Sierra Club hosted the screening of documentary film, 'Before the Flood' on December 6^th.
• The Mobile Bay Sierra Club hosted the screening of the Southern Exposure 2016 film series about environmental issues in Alabama, sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center on January 3^rd.
• Glen Coffee continues to research, write letters, and give UPDATES ON DAUPHIN ISLAND EROSION AND SHORELINE RESTORATION ISSUES.
• We continue to sponsor 100-1000: Restore Coastal Alabama. Creating living shorelines has an important role to play in our community.
• Represented  Mobile Bay Group Sierra Club at 2017 Sustainability Summit on January 27^th at the University of South Alabama.
• Attended the all day workshop, "Behavior Change Marketing" on January 26, 2017.
• Participated in webinar ‘Climate Change, Health & Environmental Justice’ on January 17^th.

New Report on Proposed I-10 bridge

President Trump asked states to suggest projects for his infrastructure rebuilding plan. The top item on Alabama's list is an additional bridge across the river in Mobile and more lanes on I-10 across the bay. Total cost: approx. a billion dollars. Here are some thoughts about that:
Yes, America's infrastructure is in ICU and needs urgent care. No, the Mobile area does not need another bridge over the river downtown and additional traffic lanes crossing the bay -- for the same reasons America does not need more pipelines carrying crude from northern oil fields to gulf coast refineries and ports.
These are Walking Dead projects, stumbling forward simply to keep going as before without realizing their time has passed and leaving great damage in their wake. The coal-oil-fossil-fuel-suburban-sprawl-auto-commute vision of life is fading away. Economics is causing this fade, so is a dawning awareness that the environment cannot bear continuous assault by our current habits.
Other parts of the world are seeing this and beginning to take appropriate steps, while Trump tries to turn America around and march us back into the past. Including the proposed Mobile river bridge, with additional cross-bay I-10 lanes connected, on his list of infrastructure projects would recruit south Alabama into this backward surge.
With the existing tunnels and bridge, Mobile already has ten traffic lanes crossing the river. With I-10 and the causeway, Mobile already has eight lanes linking the city with the eastern shore of the bay. How many more lanes would ever be enough? New highways and bridges attract more traffic, which then requires new highways and bridges, which then.....
This promotes suburban sprawl and amounts to a gigantic welfare handout for real estate developers, while smothering fertile farm land with pavement and buildings and magnifying polluted runoff into the bay. Instead of accelerating pedal-to-the-metal in that deadend direction, Trump and his local agents could launch infrastructure plans for a saner future.
These would include rebuilding city centers into attractive places to work and live, at affordable prices--not by driving the poor away with gentrification. Creating reliable mass transit systems so people can get out of cars, and then additional traffic lanes are not needed. Fostering a renewable energy economy to wean us off the fossil fuel addiction so humans and the rest of nature can relearn how to live at peace with each other. Changes like these are possible, if thought and sought.
Do that, Trump and crew, instead of treading a backward zombie walk. This more hopeful and healthy course would also generate more jobs, jobs, jobs.

David Underhill, Conservation Chair
Mobile Bay Sierra Club

TCHS Students Learning About Our Environment at Camp McDowell

Watch the video here.

Alabama Chapter Sierra Club’s CCL Delegate Report

By Carol Adams-Davis

Every year in the fall, the Sierra Club National Board of Directors holds a joint meeting with the Council of Club Leaders (CCL). The Council of Club Leaders consists of one delegate from each Sierra Club Chapter (64 chapters across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico) and has an Executive Committee (ExCom) that is voted on by the CCL. The CCL delegates who attend the annual meeting interact with National staff and share ideas with other Chapter leaders from across the country. The 3-day meeting also coincides with the Annual Awards Banquet and the Sierra Club Foundation Board meeting.

This year the CCL meeting was held in Oakland, California at the new Sierra Club national headquarters. All of the workshops, meetings and presentations occurred in the new office space.

The planned presentations dealt with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; State of the Chapter; Developing Leaders Engaged in Movement Building; Chapter Fundraising; and Building Power for Change through Leadership Development. We also had a choice to attend smaller breakout sessions devoted to topics including Ready for 100, Supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline Fight; Beyond Dirty Fuels; and Sierra Club Food and Agriculture Landscape Analysis.

Following the educational portion of the gathering, we turned our attention to the resolutions sent in by Chapters around the country for CCL consideration to present to the National Board of Directors. A total of 15 resolutions had been sent to the CCL Resolutions Committee from various Chapters; 11 were being recommended for adoption, 4 were not. All were discussed and considered.

The Alabama Chapter voted to co-sponsor Resolution #11, along with the Montana Chapter and others. The Resolution urged the National Club to adopt an ultimate goal of no more than a one degree Celsius increase in global temperature.

Other resolutions approved for recommendation to the Board of Directors included three focusing on improving the relationship between National staff and Chapters:

Resolution #2: Legal Strategy (sponsored by the Iowa Chapter) The CCL requests that the Sierra Club Board of Directors ensure that litigation decisions be made in collaboration with affected Chapters.

Resolution #3: Encouraging National Campaign Staff to Respect Work of Chapters and Groups (sponsored by the Lone Star Chapter) The Council of Club Leaders requests the Board of Directors to encourage the National campaign staff to become familiar with and respect the work of, and community relationships developed by, chapter and group staff and volunteers, and to reflect that knowledge and respect when dealing with the press and the public.

Resolution #4: Encouraging New Employees to Attend a Chapter or Group Event or Activity (sponsored by the New Jersey Chapter) The Council of Club Leaders requests the Board of Directors to adopt a policy encouraging those newly hired Sierra Club employees whose duties include regularly engaging with volunteers to attend at least one chapter or group executive committee meeting, conservation meeting, or other comparable event or activity within the first six months of employment to help staff and volunteer leaders become better acquainted with each other’s roles.

Additional resolutions called for better scientific rigor in fundraising appeals (Resolution #1), broadening of the Club’s Clean Energy Vision to encourage bicycling and walking as attractive options (Resolution #5), enhanced and permanent support for local outings programs (Resolution #8), banning injection well activity in seismic-prone localities (Resolution #9), and taking a position supporting regulations aimed at reducing production and consumption of Sugar Sweetened Beverages (Resolution #15). All these adopted resolutions were presented to the Board of Directors at the joint portion of our Annual meeting.

The Annual Award’s Presentation recognizes individuals, groups and organizations for their contributions to the world of conservation and the ideals embodied in the mission and vision of the Sierra Club. Recipient of the Club’s highest honor, the John Muir Award, Indigenous Environmental and Social Justice Activist Tom Goldtooth flew in directly from Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota, where he and representatives from many other First Nation tribes and allies join to lend their support to the Standing Rock Sioux as they fight the Dakota Access Pipeline. Tom’s comments when accepting the award were incredibly inspiring.

From left to right, Executive Director Micheal Brune, John Muir award recipient Tom Goldtooth, and President Aaron Mair. Photo taken by Carol Adams-Davis

For more information about the Sierra Club Annual Award Winners please go here.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST WEEK from the National Sierra Club's "Hitched" newsletter

• THE MOVEMENT GROWS- Guess what? The Sierra Club is now up to 2.7 million members and supporters! And we expect that number to continue to rise.
• ENDANGERED EPA- With Scott Pruitt looming as the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Sierra Club staff and supporters aren't letting their elected officials and the public hear the end of it. Here's Michael Brune on  CNN, and here's just one great media hit from Sierra Club folks who are showing how the attacks on EPA are detrimental to all states.
• THE TRUMP NIGHTMARE- As the Trump administration continues its onslaught of attacks on just about everything, we remain committed to fighting it all. Border wall, anti-immigrant moves, censorship, healthcare, trade - we're on it.
• ZOMBIE PIPELINES- As part of Trump's week of garbage ideas, he also is helping advance the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. Our response? Hell no.

SAVE THE DATE: People's Climate Mobilization, April 29, 2017, Washington DC

We're excited to let you know that the People's Climate Movement is planning a movement-scale mobilization in Washington, DC on April 29, 2017. Following the election, the mobilization is more critical than ever before. It will be a key moment for the climate movement to come together and show our country, and the world, that we remain strong and will continue fighting for racial, economic and climate justice. It will also strengthen and provide momentum so that local and state campaigns can win bolder policies and raise the demand for an equitable transition to a new energy economy.

In addition to the mass mobilization on April 29, the People's Climate Movement will be organizing massive distributed events across the country in the first 100 Hours of the Trump Administration. We will organize bold actions throughout the first 100 days and we will be in Washington DC on April 29th to let the Trump Administration and the world know that we are going to keep fighting for everything and everyone that we love.

The Sierra Club will launch our action page and social media outreach this week and next in parallel with the launch of the People's Climate Movement First 100 Days Fight for Climate, Jobs and Justice website. Look for more details soon on where and how to get involved.

The Sierra Club will be playing a leading role in helping to plan and do turn out for the event in coordination with hundreds of partner organizations. The People's Climate Movement is a large and diverse coalition, focused on ensuring strong leadership from across the climate and climate justice movements.

Feel free to reach out if you have any initial questions. Maura Cowley (maura.cowley@sierraclub.org) from the Federal and International Climate Campaign is Sierra Club's representative on the People's Climate Movement Mobilization Support Team.

from Scott Elkins, National Sierra Club

At the January meeting of the Montgomery Group, the following were elected to lead the Group during 2017:

• Group Chair & Chapter Delegate - Bob Hastings
• Treasurer - David Norwood
• Outings Leader - Roger Wolczek
• Conservation Chair - Karen Stine
• Secretary - Diana Hastings
• Additional Executive Committee Members - Bob Villafane and Lynn Shaw

PROCEDURE FOR SENDING MATERIAL TO THE ALABAMA SIERRAN

Many thanks to Roe Hyche, Bob Hastings, and Peggie Griffin for agreeing to be the new newsletter committee.
The newsletter is put together monthly, and material for the newsletter should be sent to plgriffin@comcast.net, with a subject line of "For the Editorial Board" no later than the 15th of the month. Group newsletter editors may continue sending group meeting information and calendars of events to Joe Watts at joe@joewatts.com, no later than the 25th of each month.
Guidelines for Material:

• The newsletter committee is seeking articles about Alabama environmental issues, articles highlighting Alabama’s special beautiful places, and engaging write-ups about group and chapter activities.
• Articles should be originally written for the Alabama Sierran, factual, and timely.
• A link to another publication should only be used rarely, but if a link is to be used, a full summary of the information (at least a paragraph long) should be written, with the link provided for more detailed information.
• The newsletter committee has the right to make any changes, so that material will meet these guidelines

Outings and Events