November 2024
Dear Friend,
Each fall I ponder this year-end letter, and each time I am inspired by the continuing support you provide to protect our local environment through your Loma Prieta Chapter. Because of you, we have the strength to continue our critical environment-saving work and confidently face the never-ending challenges ahead.
You have proven time and again that our joined forces can make positive and lasting change for our region and beyond, so I ask you today to increase your commitment to our environment by making your most generous year-end gift to help us reach our $40,000 goal.
This year, your gift helped us collaborate with youth and local activists to successfully protect $100,000 of funding for the Climate Smart San Jose program that was slated to be cut.
With your help, we successfully advocated for Santa Clara County, Palo Alto, and Los Altos, to create Bird Safe Design and Dark Sky ordinances. An estimated one billion birds die annually in the United States from crashing into buildings. Artificial light at night harms all life, for example by interfering with hormones that trigger bird migration and increase cancer risk in humans. Robust Dark Sky and Bird Safe Design ordinances are critical to safeguard wildlife and humans.
With your support, we have been building a vocal community of advocates to demand the adoption of science-based, nature-based solutions to sea level rise to be included in the development of the Bay-wide Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan ensuring the protection of both our communities and local wildlife. We have educated and organized scores of activists who are lobbying decision-makers, bringing awareness and transparency to worrisome proposals like OneShoreline, a 2.65-mile barrier in the Bay, off the coast of Burlingame and Millbrae, or proposed biotech laboratories with undisclosed safety levels, and demanded minimizing of environmental impact to the proposed East Palo Alto Ravenswood Business District.
Additionally, your gift enabled our campaign to protect the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve from the expansion of the Palo Alto Airport. Our letter was joined by dozens of local organizations which opposed an expansion that would have taken dedicated parkland and wetlands while increasing greenhouse gasses and air pollution. We educated community members and organizations who joined us in giving public comments to the Palo Alto City Council, after which Council directed City staff to not expand the footprint of the airport!
This work is a testament to our mission and your generosity's impact. However, the need for our work has only intensified.
Your Loma Prieta Chapter will stay dedicated to our environment in 2025. We will
- raise our voices against health threats, like the proposed biotech laboratories by the Bay shoreline and the in-Bay barrier off the coast of Burlingame and Millbrae, until truly environmentally sound alternatives are presented,
- support cities in implementing the San Francisco Bay Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan to protect our Bay and surrounding communities,
- work tirelessly to protect birds, public health, and the night sky through Bird Safe design and Dark Sky policies,
- continue educating new generations of dedicated advocates, ensuring our environment always has strong defenders, and
- continue connecting people of all ages to the beauty of our fantastic outdoors through our acclaimed outings program.
If you have not yet contributed to your Loma Prieta Chapter, please know that more than 70% of our budget comes from individual donations, so gifts from people like you are essential to our environmental work. How much we accomplish in 2025 depends on your support. Please take this chance to double your positive impact on our future; make your year-end most generous gift possible by our January 1st deadline.
The next time that you enjoy and benefit from our local open space, remember that you can do so because of all of those who have supported your Chapter's environmental advocacy. Please make your most generous gift possible to your Loma Prieta Chapter so that we can continue our critical work.
Sincerely,
James Eggers, Director
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter
