Sierra Club's California Field Offices in 2006

For the Sierra Club's California Field Offices, 2006 was both tumultuous and memorable.

The Field Offices are the part of the Sierra Club charged with Building Environmental Community organizing work, such as our Great Coastal Places Campaign; conducting federal administrative and congressional lobbying; coordinating elections work on federal and some state issues; and providing training, strategic assistance, and general guidance for chapters working on regional and national issues. The California-Nevada-Hawaii regional office has staff working in Los Angeles, San Clemente, Sacramento, and Las Vegas - and now in Fresno.

The year began with an onslaught of anti-environmental legislation emanating from Capitol Hill, and ended with a resounding political victory punctuated by the defeat of Resources Committee chair Richard Pombo, who for 14 years waged a relentless battle to upend wildlife and endangered species protections in the U.S.

Along the way Field Office staff worked with chapter leaders and activists both new and seasoned to achieve numerous local victories, mobilizing thousands of people in support of our coast, our national forests, and our other public lands. We focused especially on building better working relationships with labor, communities of faith, and Latino communities.

Working with Sierra Club California and local chapters, we helped make a difference on state ballot measures and congressional races. Although we lost in our effort to use the initiative process to reduce California's addiction to oil (Prop 87), we began a conversation with Californians that we will continue in 2007, especially via our new Central Valley project and by integrating this work more into all our existing programs.

Thanks to the dedicated work of thousands of volunteers, the landmark Northern California Wilderness Act was signed into law, and two other wilderness bills, for the eastern Sierra and for the San Bernardino National Forest, have begun to take shape. We have high hopes for them in 2007.

Litigation brought by the Sierra Club blocked proposals to allow logging in the Sequoia National Monument, and we were able to block a bill that would have invalidated our legal victory.

For the first time ever, the Field Office added a staffperson in the San Joaquin Valley, Becky Van Stokkum, who is based in Fresno and is working to help reduce oil addiction and air pollution.

The Great Coastal Places campaign had another banner year, mobilizing thousands of activists to fight the destructive toll-road proposal for south Orange County, and blocking a plan to build yet another golf course near Pebble Beach that would have led to the logging of tens of thousands of Monterey pines in the world-famous Del Monte Forest. The campaign is working as well to protect Marin's Tomales Dunes.

Our Southern California forest-protection campaign recruited and mobilized thousands of people to comment on the forest plans for four national forests, and did remarkable outreach to both communities of faith and Latino Californians to ensure that these voices are heard in the forest-protection debate.

Field staff worked with volunteer leaders to address issues of wind-energy siting and power-line transmission routes, seeking to block a massive power line upgrade in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a fight that will continue throughout 2007. We are working with wind-energy developers, sister organizations, and officials at the California Energy Commission on wildlife-protection guidelines for birds and bats at proposed wind farms. This will also be an ongoing area of work in 2007.

Two major litigation battles came to fruition, as settlements were reached to put water back into the San Joaquin and Owens Rivers, reviving stretches that had been dry for decades. As the year wound down, there appeared to be realistic hope building for the removal of four dams on the beleaguered Klamath River.

This is just a sampling of the work we accomplished together this year. The next 12 months will present great challenges as well as great opportunities. To continue the field program we need to raise substantial sums of money in 2007. We will need to inform, train, and develop leaders to become involved in the presidential and congressional elections of 2008. Most importantly, we need to figure out how to work collaboratively to pool our resources at all levels of our organization to confront the threats of global climate change. From our Cool Cities program to implementing California's innovative global-warming laws, we cannot afford to squander human or financial resources. We need to work together, more than ever before.

For the field staff I thank each and every one of you for the help and support you gave us this year. It is a privilege to serve you, our fellow Sierra Club members.

Carl Zichella, Sierra Club regional staff director (for Field Offices)