Strength and Sustainability

Sustaining the tradition of environmental leadership by the San Francisco Bay Chapter

Just two years ago, the San Francisco Bay Chapter inaugurated its Strength and Sustainability Society, our major-gifts program. To date, nearly 100 generous donors have contributed $1,000 or more each to our annual campaign or to special environmental campaigns.

Did you know that the San Francisco Bay Chapter houses the largest staff of all the Sierra Club's local chapters? That's why we win so many of our local environmental battles. Our staff of 20 keeps our members informed on hot current issues, and mobilizes community activists to fight for habitat and open space, parks and public lands, housing and transportation, and renewable energy and the fight against global warming.

TheStrength and Sustainability Society is open to all members who contribute just $100 a month - or more. Compare that amount to your monthly cable TV, telephone and internet bills - or even to your bill from PG&E. Imagine, if all our 40,000 members contributed the same monthly amount that they pay for the power to their homes, our Chapter would be able to double our budget for environmental action in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and San Francisco Counties!

Of course, not everyone can or does give - and so we are especially grateful to those members who see fit to dig a little deeper and help our San Francisco Bay Chapter meet this year's $1.3 million budget. This year we hope to double the number of members of the Strength and Sustainability Society, and as a special thank-you to our Strength and Sustainability members, we're now beginning a series of special programs. Upcoming is a talk with local chocolate maker John Scharffenberger about his newest efforts to create sustainable hardwoods and organic chocolate cooperatives in Guatemala, and an exploration of the flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada with author and artist John Muir Laws.

If you are interested in joining the Strength and Sustainability Society, please or call (510) 848-0800, ext. 322

This issue's Strength and Sustainability commentary below is by Sierra Club member, hiker, artist, and photographer Hal Smyer of Oakland, with the assistance of Yodeler staff volunteer Wendy Becktold. We hope you'll enjoy his insights.

I grew up in Alabama in a suburban subdivision surrounded by a large area of undeveloped land. I spent much of my childhood exploring this land along with a tract of land that my family owned in rural Alabama. I have many happy memories of roaming the woods with my sister and going hunting and fishing with my father and grandfather. These experiences taught me the value of preserving wilderness, and I have always sought out nature as a refuge. My quest for the most unspoiled places eventually led me to the Western half of the U.S. In the early 1990s I moved to Colorado for an artist-in- residency program in landscape photography and after that to New Mexico where I received my graduate degree in photography. It was out west that I discovered the mountains; I've been a rock climber and hiker ever since.

My wife, children, and I moved to the Bay Area eight years ago when I was offered a job as a graphic artist with a game design company. Since then, I have grown to appreciate the close proximity of so much natural beauty and open land to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. We have inherited these great resources of shoreline, mountains, forests, wetlands, and parks because of the vision of many farsighted planners. The Sierra Club is part of this vision and I look to them to help sustain this jewel.

I have always used the Sierra Club as a reliable voting guide and have made contributions throughout the years, but I have only recently become a Club member and a contributor to the Strength and Sustainability program. The Bay Area is an expensive place to live. Having the ability to live here, I feel that I also have the responsibility to contribute to an organization like the Sierra Club which offers solutions to both our local and our global environmental problems.

I am excited to be living today because I feel that civilization is experiencing a major paradigm shift in its relationship to the natural world. We are beginning to see that attending only to the financial bottom line and short-term gains is leading us to global ruin. This unprecedented urgency has the potential to drive human values and behaviors toward a place more in step with nature - towards harmony, diversity, interconnection and sustainability. Old habits will have to be left behind if we are to live out our full human potential. I, too, still participate to some extent in old habits of over-consumption and the addiction to "endless growth", but I intend to be a part of the movement for change.

I've become increasingly interested in ways both big and small to bring my habits in line with my deeper values - values that took root in the wilderness of my childhood. I am slowly improving my home's energy efficiency by replacing incandescent bulbs with compact florescent ones and updating inefficient appliances such as the hot-water heater, kitchen appliances, and furnace. I have recently installed a photovoltaic solar array tied to the PG&E grid which should supply 90 - 100% of my family's electric power. I would like to share some of the knowhow I have gained from this process. Most people want to do something but don't know where to start. They are busy working and feel daunted by the technical aspect of this kind of project. I'd like to demonstrate just how easy it is.

With small steps such as these, average people like me can make a difference. At the same time, it's hard to be informed about every issue. I know the Sierra Club will be working on my behalf on problems I may not even be aware of. It's their mission to change policy at local, national, and even global levels.

It has pained me over the years to see much of the wild land where I roamed as a child developed. My family still owns some of this land, and we are working to convert it into a "forever wild" nature trust. We plan to preserve about 160 acres of a Southern Appalachian ridgetop in an area undergoing rapid and aggressive development. Our hope is that adjacent landowners will follow suit. We still love to go there and hike; the land trust will allow us to always enjoy the memories of our childhood in these woods. I know the Sierra Club is working to achieve similar goals on a much broader scale. I am very grateful for its tireless dedication to preserving and sustaining our precious resources.

To make a contribution or to find out more about how to support the local Sierra Club Bay Chapter, please contact director of individual giving or call (510)848-0800, ext. 322

Stephen Becker, director of individual giving