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Welcome to the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter!

Congratulations Anne Woiwode on 25 years with Sierra Club Michigan Chapter!

Twenty-five years ago Anne Woiwode began working for the Sierra Club to protect our forests, our air, our water, and our land.  Today Anne is the Club's State Director, and is one of the most respected environmental leaders, not only in Michigan, but across the country.  For Anne's perspective and unique insights on Michigan's environmental movement, read her blog  A Quarter Century with the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.  Watch for special celebration events over the next several months!

Photo at right:  Anne Woiwode celebrates 25 years (and counting!) working with the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter with a beautifully decorated cake presented by the 2010 Chapter Executive Committee at their weekend meeting in January.   Photo by Jan O'Connell.

The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter is your statewide voice for the nation's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization.  Our members and supporters are some 22,000 of your Michigan friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet.

Our current conservation priorities include:

• Stopping the Michigan Coal Rush
  
• Moving to a Clean Energy Future
• Protecting the Great Lakes and the Health of our Communities 
• Safeguarding Michigan's Wild Places  Click here to help find and designate Michigan's Special Places! 

Announcing our new Stopping CAFO Pollution webpage

If you're looking for help to stop a new proposed CAFO or to stop a CAFO that's polluting in your community, this new webpage addition is for you.

Move Michigan Beyond Coal

Michigan doesn't need new, dirty coal plants.  In fact, coal plants will hurt Michigan electric rate payers, send jobs out of state, and undercut our state's progress in becoming a center for clean energy and energy efficiency.  But three utilities still insist on plowing ahead with building unneeded coal plants.  Your help is needed to convince Michigan electric companies to Move Michigan Beyond Coal.  Read more here!

Contact Lee Sprague, Jan O'Connell or Tiffany Hartung to learn more and to volunteer!

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Moving to a Clean Energy Future

Governor Granholm's announcement included her plan to reduce the state's use of fossil fuels to make electricity by 45% by the year 2020.   Read more here! 

Sierra Club has been working for a Clean Energy Future in Michigan, and legislative action on September 18th moved Michigan towards that goal.  When Governor Granholm signs the energy package Michigan will become the 28th state in the nation with a renewable portfolio standard, will require energy efficiency in both electricity and natural gas, and will require integrated resource planning by electric utilities.  During the 20 months of debate on this legislation, Sierra Club volunteers spent hundreds of hours lobbying legislators, sent thousands of letters, emails and made hundreds of phone calls, and wrote letters to the editor to urge support for a strong clean energy future.  The energy package is a first step for Michigan, but as Legislative Director Gayle Miller explains there is still much to do.

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Cleaning our Water, Protecting our Communities

Our Great Lakes State has a lot at stake when it comes to water quality.  Right now Sierra Club’s Michigan Water Sentinels are working on two of the biggest threats to our waters, and you can help with these efforts.

1)      Large scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs or factory farms) are hurting water quality in Michigan’s lakes and streams, including the Great Lakes. These massive factory farms produce more sewage than small cities, but they don’t have to follow the same clean up rules. Sierra Club is working to document pollution violations and to get enforcement of clean water laws to stop the toxic waste from these operations. We’re also working to strengthen our laws to prevent pollution from these facilities. You can help Sierra Club clean up CAFOs in Michigan and track the pollution from these facilities – contact CAFO Water Sentinel Lynn Henning or Rita Jack to find out more.  

2)      Metallic mining is making a resurgence in the Upper Peninsula, and Sierra Club’s Michigan Water Sentinel volunteers are monitoring water quality in streams near the sites of new proposed sulfide mines to provide critical documentation of current clean water quality. (Defending precious resources from contamination depends on knowing what’s at stake.)  You can help with this vital effort – contact Rita Jack to learn more.

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Safeguarding Wild Places

Michigan  has the largest State Forest system in the country. And recently the Department of Natural Resources started developing plans that will determine what lands are protected, how habitat is managed, where to locate recreational areas, and how much logging occurs (and where). With the timber industry demanding increased logging, the growing idea of using wood for biomass energy, plus competing pressures on the land for recreational and economic development activities, Michigan’s state forests are facing a critical crossroads.

Your knowledge and concern for Michigan’s public forests can help move our forests in the right direction and protect our natural heritage. Do you know a special place on Michigan’s state forest lands that deserves special protection?  You can help to nominate and work to protect high conservation value forests by contacting Sierra Club Forest Policy Specialist Marvin Roberson here.

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