Please Donate to Sierra Club California’s Wildfire Relief Fund

This is one of the most heartbreaking messages I've ever had to write. Our beloved California is on fire. Staff and Sierra Club members have lost their homes. Entire towns have been obliterated. And dozens have already died or been hospitalized.

Northern California's Camp Fire is now listed as the nation's deadliest wildfire on record.

Meanwhile, fueled by the famous Santa Ana winds, the Woolsey Fire west of Los Angeles has scorched almost 100,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of structures. And the Hill Fire that for two days threatened Ventura residents, is only now nearing containment after burning more than 4,500 acres.

It's devastating.

We need to do everything we can for those who need us most: local organizations assisting folks on the ground.

That's why I’m reaching out today. To ask if you can donate to help our friends and neighbors, many of whom are still in the path of these lethal fires. We are raising money for groups working on the ground — organizations like the North Valley Community Foundation, the California Community Foundation and more.

Please, donate an emergency gift to the Sierra Club California’s Wildfire Relief efforts now. 100% of funds donated will go directly to wildfire relief and recovery in Northern California, Ventura County and Los Angeles County.

The fires we are seeing sweep California with ever-increasing intensity and frequency are the painful result of climate change — no question. Longer droughts and rising temperatures are making these record-breaking fires harder to fight. And rural fires spread so quickly that they're taking urban centers — like Santa Rosa, Redding, and Paradise, which was utterly annihilated over the weekend — down with them.

But while we work on the longer-term issue of climate change, we have immediate humanitarian crises to address. Much of northern California is blanketed with unhealthy smoke, and air quality in the Los Angeles area is also extremely poor. The elderly, homeless, children with asthma, and others with health challenges will need care as local groups also work to care for families who have lost everything.

Even in the face of such overwhelming loss, you can help: your donation today will support those who have been displaced from homes or jobs and provide immediate needs assistance, medical care and more.

Please, contribute what you can to support locally-led fire relief efforts in California. Remember, 100% of your contribution will support those affected by some of the deadliest, most destructive fires in the state’s history.

When the smoke clears, we will pick up the pieces and continue doing the work we must do: fight what Gov. Jerry Brown calls "the new abnormal," and reverse the deadly climate change that threatens to destroy the Golden State, county by county.

Everyone affected by these fires — and those still in their paths — remain in our hearts. In the meantime, thank you for your support.

Photo: Camp Fire, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.