"The mission of the Sierra Club is to influence public, private and corporate policies and actions through Club programs at the local, state, national and international levels. The strategy of the Sierra Club is to activate appropriate portions of a network of staff, members, and other concerned citizens, using legislative, administrative, electoral, and legal approaches, and to develop supporting public opinion." Sierra Club Statement of Purposes
As Chair of the Napa Sierra Club, I was not permitted to comment during our Executive Committee election. Now I am free to do so.
I am outraged. It seems there has been a coordinated attack waged by the Ag. industry against activists in the Sierra Club. Deborah Blodgett, Executive Director of the Napa Valley Wine Growers, wrote a letter to the editor in the local press posing as a "proud member" but conveniently neglecting to mention in her letter of her role as a paid staff member and spokesperson for the industry (whose members, by the way, would profit from less regulation). She said "Some actions of some members of the current (Napa) Sierra Club Executive Committee have been quite divisive in Napa," and endorsed four Executive Committee candidates. "The Napa Farm Bureau also ran a front page article in their December "Grower Advocate Hot Sheet" newsletter urging people vote for two candidates "in hope of bringing a moderate and ag friendly voice to the organization."
Other industries, at other times and at other locations, stung by restrictions of their over fishing, their over logging, their piles of leaching slag, have tried to weaken the environmentalists and have wished for a more "friendly and cooperative" Sierra Club. This is not new. Some groups have been rendered ineffectual by ranchers and property rights group members seated on their Executive Committees. Only here have industry organizations been so blatant in arguing for particular candidates in a bald faced attempt to water down the Sierra Club's watchdog function. For an industry that spends millions on cultivating good will through advertising and writing fluff pieces in magazines, this meddling will give the industry a black eye for years to come.
This was an important election yet most of our members did not know that some candidates are opposed to the logging initiative (!), a litmus test in my book. The next two years will prove to be interesting. We have three brand new Executive Committee members. They are an organic grape grower, a vineyard manager who is concerned about chemical exposures to children, and a Lake Berryessa advocate. I welcome them on board.
Reading the papers the future direction of the Napa Sierra Club is in
doubt. Do we continue as the watchdog or the lap dog of the industry?
Do we remain activist, committed, demanding the highest farming practices,
protecting our forest and wild lands, as stated in our mission statement,
or do we instead stop filing lawsuits when governments don't follow the
law, stop reporting polluters to the authorities, stop objecting to water
agency giveaways while neighbors wells go dry, and become merely a contented
and compliant hiking club? I would hope not.
John Stephens, Chair