Sierra Club Michigan Chapter
Fighting Together for Our Future!
The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2017! It is the statewide voice for the nation’s oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. 2017 also marked the national Sierra Club’s 125th anniversary.
Since 1967 the Michigan Chapter has organized the bold action of citizens working together to protect and restore our Great Lakes state’s health and heritage. We secured permanent protection for Pictured Rocks, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and Grand Island. We defended thousands of acres of fragile wilderness areas in Michigan’s public forests. Our activists cleaned up toxic air pollution from incinerators. We helped stop oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes. We set up strong sulfide mining regulations and helped pass Michigan’s first comprehensive water use laws.
Sierra Club has 150,000 members and supporters in Michigan. We are volunteer-led, and we actively coordinate our work on many levels. Sierra Club’s ten regional volunteer Groups and Conservation Committees plus a very active student coalition in Michigan work for healthier communities at the local level. The Michigan Chapter works with volunteer leaders, state agencies and the legislature for better environmental stewardship statewide. Nationally, Sierra Club works to improve federal protections in the Great Lakes basin and across the country.
Our members care about clean water and air, wild biodiversity, and a safe energy future, and they help us work towards these goals by supporting our efforts to:
Raise public awareness of human health and environmental threats.
Monitor water quality to help enforcement efforts.
Build coalitions for our issue campaigns to diversify support.
Find sensible policy solutions to our state’s problems.
Take legal action to stop corporate interests and government from harming public health and resources
Fight for environmental democracy — we lobby on critical environmental issues and report back on lawmakers’ actions — we have a strong citizen lobbyist program, helping connect members to their lawmakers on important issues, and we also rally voters to elect pro-environment leaders.
The Michigan Chapter’s conservation priorities focus on the legacy that every child should inherit—water you can drink, air you can breathe, lakes safe for swimming, and communities free from poisonous waste; clean and healthy energy from local renewable sources that grow our economy and reduce dependence on dirty fossil fuels; wild places that provide clean rivers, wildlife habitat, and opportunities to fish, hunt, hike, and learn about the natural world; and active participation in a democracy that ensures our elected officials fairly represent their voters, not special interests.
The National Sierra Club’s members and supporters are more than 2.7 million of your friends and neighbors nationwide. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. Our mission is to: (1) Explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; (2) Practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; (3) Educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and (4) Use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
Contact
Sierra Club Michigan Chapter
109 East Grand River Ave
Lansing, MI 48906
Representative
Jan O’Connell
Development Director & Energy Organizer
jan.oconnell@sierraclub.org
616.956.6646