Name: Teri Shore
Member Since: 1996
Chapter Leadership Position: Chair, Sonoma Group, current; previously, 1996-2016, Backpack Section Leader and Steering Committee Member, Backpack Section, San Francisco Bay Chapter.
Residence: City of Sonoma, Sonoma County, since 1988.
Q: How did you become involved with Sierra Club?
A: Getting out into the wilderness on Sierra Club backpacking trips. Then I became a backpack leader taking others out into the wild for the past 20 years for the Backpack Section of the San Francisco Bay Chapter.
Q: What environmental issue are you most passionate about, and why?
A: Protecting wilderness. Wild lands are the last strongholds of biodiversity for all creatures. It has always been a Sierra Club priority. The wilderness is the only place where I am fully and truly myself. In 2014, I solo-hiked the John Muir Trail and raised $1,500 for the Sierra Club in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act.
Q: How has your involvement with Sierra Club changed your life?
A: Sierra Club has helped me learn and grow in so many ways. I’ve evolved from a nature lover to a leader to a policy expert to, most importantly, a passionate defender of wilderness, the environment and our planet.
Q: How do you hope to see Sierra Club evolve at the local level in the next year?
A: We are reenergizing and mobilizing our membership on county and city climate change actions where we can make a significant and measureable difference. Let’s make Sierra Club a more visible and effective player in the political landscape with leadership and team work. More action, less talk.
Q: What is one of your fondest memory participating in a Sierra Club event or activity?
A: About five years ago on a Yosemite backpacking trip led by Randel Mowen and Lloyd Sawchuk, we rose at 3 a.m. with headlamps to summit Half Dome at sunrise with no one else around. After descending to camp for food and rest, we then day-hiked to the top of Cloud’s Rest where we gazed in ecstasy at the granite expanse of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows and beyond.
Q: What is your favorite thing about living in Northern California?
A: We have it all: incredible lands where hawks fly and mountain lions roam, air and water growing healthier, visionary people, amazing activists, progressive politics, fantastic food, writers and bookstores, music, art, poetry. Everything except good public transportation in every neighborhood to slow the traffic, stop the sprawl and end climate destruction! Welcome SMART train, electric vehicles, driverless cars and homes for all!
Q: Where in the outdoors would we most likely to find you?
A: Yosemite always. In Sonoma County, Sugarloaf Ridge State Park or Hood Mountain Regional Park and on the coast at Salmon Creek and Bodega head or exploring any and all of our growing parks and open space, including the fabulous wetlands along San Pablo Bay.