Conservation Outings

Jamboree 2019 Family exploration in the woods by Bella Dastvan 10.12.2019 web.pngSierra Club is working to provide opportunities to get outdoors to explore, enjoy, and protect and appreciate nature to protect the planet for everyone with the Outdoors for All Campaign www.sierraclub.org/outdoors-for-all  People enjoy and are attracted to being outdoors. We learn better, improve our health, and feed our souls when we are in nature. Conservation issue based outings are a great way to bring together activists and volunteers, to educate and bring attention and build momentum for important environmental issues and campaigns and to learn and appreciate the natural environment we are saving.

In Maryland, Outings are an important component of geographically based campaigns involving land use, transportation, and natural area preservation such as 10 mile creek, ICC, Mattawoman Creek Watershed/Chapman Forest, and energy related campaigns such as retiring coal plants in Montgomery County and Baltimore and Southern MD, and preventing coal and fracked gas transmission and pipelines. We have hiked, biked, canoed, walked, used outings as a component of conservation campaigns to raise the profile with media releases and to bring public officials out with us for an enjoyable and educational experience.

On conservation issue education outings, participants not only experience and learn about the outdoors and the critters and plants and biological systems in the natural environment, but learn about local conservation issues, the links between physical conservation, implementation of legal protections, and the work that goes into passing good laws to protecgt the environment. Making these connections helps people understand the process from concept to implementation and allows them the opportunity to make a positive impact.

Several Sierra Club entities lead outings in Maryland. Below are the links to regional and statewide outings hosts around Maryland, D.C., and Virginia.

 Invasive Plant Removal Outings Locations 

Danielle Seely removes invasive stilt grass RuthSwanPark 6.2010webInvasive weeds have been brought to the US from other continents. Most alien plants don’t spread, but a few with no natural predators will take over and cover everything. Invasive species are the biggest threat to our native plants and animals after habitat loss.  Learn to identify some native plants versus invasive weeds and use hand pulling or other techniques to control their spread. Join in at a location near you!

 

Sample Past Trips

On Sunday, August 13th the Maryland Sierra Club hosted a hike in Maxwell Hall Park, located in Hughesville. Under a beautiful sunny sky, the group of 26 volunteers, staff, interns, and even a few children, began a lovely hike through the park to a vista where the Chalk Point coal-fired power plant dominates the horizon.
 
 
On Saturday, June 3 we celebrated a beautiful National Trails Day with a hike around the Potomac. In fact, our hike was the only National Trails Day hike in the United States that visited a foreign country-- the Swedish Embassy, that is! Our group traveled 8 miles around Georgetown, Arlington, and D.C. over the course of this hike, guided by our fearless leader Barbara Saffir.
 
 
 
 
 

     August 6, 2014
Last weekend, on July 26th, I joined the Beyond Coal Team as it hosted a hike along the historic C&O Canal Towpath to see one of Maryland’s last coal-fired power plants, the Dickerson Generating Station.

 

 

 

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