A year well spent

In presidential election years, political action always takes a front-row seat in Angeles Chapter activities. And although the Democrats, and the Sierra Club, lost the Big One in 2004, the Chapter was outstanding at supporting winning candidates at the local level. Politics didn't eclipse conservation, however. The Chapter remained at the forefront of important battles in Los Angeles and Orange counties to:

Ó defend open space and wildlife where suburban sprawl directly threatens wild land,

Ó provide and protect recreational opportunities, especially in the urban core, and

Ó continue efforts to ensure clean air and water.

In 2004 the Chapter made strides in five key areas: political action, conservation, outings and hikes, communications and public outreach, and fundraising.

Political action

In 2004, the Los Angeles County Political Committee, led by Susana Reyes, saw 97 percent of its endorsed candidates (37 out of 38) win office. These included contenders for Congress, the California Assembly and Senate, superior court judges, and the Santa Monica City Council. The Orange County Political Committee, directed by Alex Mintzer, was also highly successful-13 out of 19 Sierra Club-backed aspirants won office.

In the presidential campaign, Chapter volunteers raised awareness about the environment with five cell phone parties to reach voters in battleground states; trips to Nevada, New Mexico, and Ohio; and 2,500 postcards fired off to targeted voters.

In 2005 the Chapter will work for the election of an environmentally responsible mayor and council members for the city of Los Angeles.

Conservation

The battle to preserve open space does not take place only in the mountains and deserts.

This year the Chapter's Urban Parks Task Force joined Save Rivers and Parks in gathering 2,000 signatures and organizing community meetings to save Belvedere Park in East Los Angeles from plans by the Los Angeles United School District to build an elementary school on half of the 31-acre site, a much-used regional park.

The San Gabriel River Campaign, a cornerstone of the Chapter's effort to reclaim Southern California's urban rivers, continued to work closely with Amigos de los Rios, a nonprofit agency the Chapter created whose goal is an 'Emerald Necklace' of public parks along the river, which runs 38 miles from Azusa to Seal Beach. This year Rio Hondo Parks, the Woodland Farms Duck Farm (purchased last year with $4.3 million in state funds), and the river's Discovery Center were featured in a two-hour PBS video highlighting degraded urban areas being restored to green space.

Protesting Orange Hills development. Photo by Carole Mintzer

The Puente-Chino Hills Task Force focused much of last year's efforts on the 31-mile-long wildlife corridor that runs from Whittier Narrows in Los Angeles County to the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County. The Chapter is supporting a coalition of involved communities and conservation groups in a $500,000 campaign to mobilize the public when hearings begin this year on the draft environmental impact report for a planned 3,600-home project. The proposed development will block the corridor for both wildlife and recreational use.

In Orange County Friends of the Foothills Task Force spearheaded a letters-to-the-editor campaign to protect critical wildlife habitat near Rancho Mission Viejo from being developed for housing. In 2004 the task force also supported the campaign to protect the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy and San Onofre State Beach, both threatened by the Foothill South Toll Road.

The Open Spaces, Wild Places Campaign announced the much-anticipated completion of its vision and threat maps for Orange County, which will be made available as brochures to local government and the Chapter's 14 O.C. conservation campaigns and task forces. The campaign's goal is to protect and preserve the last remaining open spaces in Orange County by raising public awareness and serving as a unifying voice for the Orange County committees.

Outings and hikes

'Climb the mountains and get their good tidings' wrote Sierra Club founder John Muir. In 2004 Angeles Chapter's Hundred Peaks Section celebrated 50 consecutive years of providing climbing outings in Southern California's mountains. This year the Chapter's Wilderness Training Committee also marked 15 years of teaching participants how safely to reach and explore places of 'good tidings' in the outdoors.

Natural Science Section workshop in Tuolumne Meadows. Photo by Kent Schwitkis.

Last year's program of over 3,000 Chapter-sponsored outings and hikes took participants backpacking, boatpacking, camping, skiing, bicycling, and on conservation projects, physical conditioning hikes, history hikes, field trips for children, camera outings, natural science outings, and wildlife adventures. Outings chair Will McWhinney led the way to promoting and expanding the Chapter's broad array of outings.

Communications and outreach

The Chapter's completely redesigned, more user-friendly website was launched in early 2004, including a press room to serve the media. For its excellent work in developing the site, the Electronic Communications Committee, chaired by Steve Luner, received an award at the National Sierra Club banquet in September.

The Angeles Chapter also gained publicity in car-conscious Southern California for the Sierra Club's Hybrid Evolution auto tours. The tours, featuring Toyota Prius hybrid-engine cars, promoted clean energy and critiqued the Bush administration's dismal record on clean energy leadership. Sierra Club National staff member Brendan Bell was happily overwhelmed by more than 100 Chapter members, many driving their own Toyota Prius hybrids, when he drove a Prius into the city of Orange as part of the tour on July 23.

Fundraising

In the last quarter of 2004, the Chapter launched an aggressive campaign to add more funds to the Chapter's Outings Endowment, which continues. Last year's Chapter-sponsored fundraising travel trips were a great success, raising thousands of dollars for Chapter activities. Fifty members and guests enjoyed themselves on a John Lajeuness-led trip to Costa Rica (this year's trip is already sold out); 100 more cruised the West Coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles; and 70 travelers boarded a ship for a voyage around the South Seas.

Continuing efforts in 2005

The Santa Clara River Campaign is gearing up to comment on the environmental impact report that is expected to be released for the proposed 70,000-resident Newhall Ranch. Campaign chair Lynn Plambeck plans to mobilize local community action and draw media attention to the environmental damage posed by the development, which will irrevocably impact one of the last free-running rivers in Southern California.

The Native American Sacred Sites Task Force will continue its fight to save the former site of the Native American village of Putiidhem. The high-value archeological site is threatened by proposed construction of a private school in San Juan Capistrano.

The Santa Ana Mountains Task Force plans to strengthen its efforts to advocate solutions to local traffic problems that would eliminate the need for a cross-mountain superhighway being considered by Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration. The task force also opposes the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage Project, which would dam Morrell Canyon in the Cleveland National Forest to generate hydroelectric power.

The Harbor Vision Task Force will continue efforts to clean up Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, two of Southern California's worst sources of air pollution, which send exhaust and contaminants from ships and cargo-handling equipment inland into residential areas. The task force will continue to work to increase public awareness of the health hazards posed by port-related activities, to push for an independent cost/benefit policy analysis, to advocate a legal cap on pollution at current levels, and to advocate new procedures and technology to reduce diesel emissions.

In all, the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club has activists involved in nearly 30 funded conservation campaigns and task forces in Los Angeles and Orange counties. As the threats mount to Southern California's environment-wetlands, desert, coastal areas and beaches, mountains, urban open space, even the air we breathe and the water we drink-the maxim that thinking globally means acting locally is now truer than ever. The battle to protect the earth from unwise commercial and consumptive interests begins with each of us, one individual, one neighborhood, one campaign at a time.