The Allegheny Group of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter was organized in April 1970. The Allegheny Group’s first projects involved legal battles to oppose granting strip mining permits which threatened irreplaceable local water supplies. It also fought in and out of the courts to protect the Clarion River from pulp mill wastes. The Group also did a study of lands in the Allegheny National Forest that might qualify as wilderness areas under the 1964 National Wilderness Act. It was instrumental in getting bills introduced in Congress to protect three areas as wilderness, and succeeded in obtaining wilderness status for the Hickory Creek area and a number of Allegheny River islands. The Group also played a role in restricting the use of off-road vehicles on the Allegheny National Forest. In 2004, the national Sierra Club opened a Field Office in Pittsburgh.