April 2024 update from Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter
April 19, 2024
Take action to protect our state forests!
Happy Earth Month!
Celebrate Earth Month with your local Sierra Club by coming on one of the many spring hikes we have coming up! Make sure to scroll down to find out more.
In this issue, we have a special guest blog about finding queer joy in nature, updates and information on the Duke rate case and protecting our state forests, all our upcoming events, plus our regular features - like photos from you, our readers - and much more!
Rebecca Dien-Johns
Chapter Coordinator.
Duke’s Proposed Bill Increase
On April 4, Duke Energy Indiana filed a rate case with state regulators, proposing a 19% rate hike for residential customers. Duke generates 90% of its power using fossil fuels today. Robyn, Hoosier Chapter Director, put it best: "Regulators at the IURC can’t keep allowing Duke to put our money into polluting resources; we need to see investments in clean energy that benefit our communities." (Duke Energy residential bills could rise by 19%; advocates plan to intervene - Daily Journal)
You can sign-up to volunteer, attend upcoming events, and more at bit.ly/beyondcoalaction24. Please watch your emails and our social media pages to share the latest news and opportunities to take action.
Megan Anderson
Senior Field Organizer
megan.anderson@sierraclub.org
Finding Queer Joy in Nature
Group Photo after Queer Indiana’s September 2023 Pride Hike. Photo: Tyler Moore.
Nature and the outdoors have always been a sanctuary for me. One of my fondest memories as a kid was running through fields chasing fireflies until I was forced to come inside. As I got older, it became my place to dream. Most of the life I live today was and continues to be manifested on a trail, hammocking between some trees, or sitting in my kayak.
Hello, my name is Tyler Moore. I am a 28-year-old queer individual who uses he/him pronouns. I was born and raised in Bloomington/Ellettsville, Indiana. I am the founder of a local community organization, and I am in the process of transitioning it into a non-profit organization, Queer Indiana.
What is the State of Your State Forest?
Make your voice heard!
Indiana’s State Forests are being logged at an alarming rate. Not every inch of public land should be used as a commercial timber forest. Of the approximate 160,000 acres of state forest in Indiana, only 4,000 acres are protected from no logging. That means only 4% of Indiana’s State Forests are set aside for “No Logging.”
Earth Day is April 22. Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring and inspiration for the Environmental movement of the 1960’s & 70’s, said, “Never let your voice be silent.” We will be activating our voices.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD in this State Forest Action Alert. The Martin State Forest 30 Day Comment Period is OPEN now.
Volunteer leaders Lora Kemp and Julie Lowe stretched across a Chinkapin Oak tree in the Martin State Forest. Photo: Kurt Kemp
Solar Eclipse
How was your Eclipse Day, readers? I was pretty pleased that I had the perfect tee to wear: this don't block the sun shirt from a Sierra Club campaign to promote solar energy.
On the day of the eclipse, we sent an email asking our readers what they predicted Indiana would look like at the time of the next total solar eclipse in our state in 2153. Here are two of our favorite answers!
Joab Schultheis:
"In the year 2153 all energy will be clean energy.
Hoosiers will have to contend with a changed climate and the severe weather that will result. Hoosiers will be in a multi-decade effort to expand wetlands as a way to deal with severe flooding. They'll not look kindly at legislative efforts this decade that have done away with our natural wetlands. We'll probably still be properly disposing of the coal ash that is perched on the edge of so many of our waterways. On the bright side, our air and our water will be cleaner than it is today."
Photo: Rebecca Dien-Johns
From reader Christina Magers:
"A community garden on every corner! Churches with orchards and beehives and native plants, elderly people living side by side with young children and families instead of secluded in retirement homes. Local markets and roadside stands will be more common than supermarkets. Plastic will mostly be a thing of the past, replaced by some fully degradable backyard-compostable material for any packaging that would still be used. We would be harvesting energy from the sun, wind, water, and probably some other lovely clean methods that have yet to be discovered. Mental health would be prioritized, education would be practical. Broken social and political systems would be acknowledged and redeemed. Neighborliness and hospitality would be the norm :)"
Thank you to everyone who responded! We always love to hear from our readers.
Rebeca Dien-Johns
Chapter Coordinator.
Flashback Friday
Welcome to this occasional feature, where we look back and share a photo from our past!
This month, we travel back to September 2019.
Our McKinney Philanthropic Fellow Ashlyn Devine participated in the Indianapolis climate strike at the statehouse, as part of the global strikes that took place at that time.
Ashlyn comes to the end of her fellowship at the Hoosier Chapter this month. Thank you so much, Ashlyn, for all your invaluable hard work at Sierra Club! We will miss you, and wish you all the very best in your future endeavours.
Photo supplied by Ashlyn Devine.
The annual election for Sierra Club’s Board of Directors
is now underway!
The annual election for Sierra Club’s Board of Directors is now underway. Each year, five of the 15 members of the Sierra Club Board of Directors end their three-year term. A list of candidates is selected by a combination of a nominations process and a petition process. Sierra Club members have the opportunity to vote on five candidates to fill the empty seats.
A democratic Sierra Club demands grassroots participation. If you have been a Sierra Club member since January 31st 2023, you are eligible to vote.
The Hoosier Chapter recommends a vote for Clayton Daughenbaugh in the upcoming election for the Sierra Club’s Board of Directors.
Sierra Club staff and volunteer leaders are passionate about getting out there and spreading the word about issues that matter to Hoosiers!
Photo supplied by Julie Lowe.
Several Winding Waters Group members are volunteers for the Bartholomew County Blazing Stars CISMA, (Cooperative Invasives Species Management Area). The Blazing Stars organize Weed Wrangles and "strike team events" in our city and county parks to reduce invasive plants and "free the trees". Cummins, Inc. has partnered with the Sierra Club Winding Waters Group to facilitate environmental sustainability in our community by joining us in our invasive species management work.
This event and several more scheduled through out the year is volunteer led thanks to Cummins, the Blazing Stars CISMA and the Winding Waters Group. Employees of SICIM, Bartholomew County Soil & Water Conservation District, and the Purdue Extension office support the volunteer work with resources, organization and rubber boots on the ground!
The photo is in the early morning of our first event together at Mill Race Park. Pictured in the foreground on the left is Dewayne Fillmore, Cummins Liaison and on the right, Buffy Dunham, Blazing Stars CISMA strike team coordinator. Cummins employees volunteering that morning are in the background waiting to hear instruction from Buffy on what an invasive plant is and why it is so important that we control them.
Julie Lowe
Chair - Conservation Committee
Volunteer leaders Rebecca Lorenz, Marilyn Bauchat, Greg Grant, and Julie Lowe attended the Sentinel Landscape project partnership meeting in Bloomington Indiana on Tuesday March 26th.
Sierra Club members shared the need to preserve the small portions remaining of the Little Cypress Swamp in Knox County.
Jesse Kirkham (Sierra Club Heartlands Group chair), Diana Ensgin (author), and Charlie Wiles (executive director, Center for Interfaith Cooperation) at the launch of Diana's book, Faith, Hope, Action.
The Hoosier Chapter was a partner for the event, and we talked to many people about environmental issues in Indiana.
The first photo here was taken by Megan Boomershine in May 2023. She says: "I was flabbergasted when I saw it - I turned 40 this year and never ever have I saw one in person my whole life. I almost didn't know what to do; it was in the road eating a dead deer. But I took a while to snap out of it and get my phone out to get the picture. It moved to the field and just looked at me and when I got the pictures it flew off. It was so beautiful and huge, way bigger than I'd have ever thought. I had no idea bald eagles were in Northern Indiana. Let alone just outside Wakarusa Indiana. I just couldn't believe it!"
The second and third photos were sent in by Michael Goldberg, and were taken in March 2024. He believes this is a juvenile bald eagle, on a tree at the edge of Geist Reservoir, near Indianapolis.
Do you have a photograph of Indiana nature that you would like to share? We'd love to see it and perhaps feature it in a future newsletter!
Use the button below or email
rebecca.dien-johns@sierraclub.org
