About Us

The Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club celebrates its 45th anniversary in 2012! It is the statewide voice for the nation's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. (The national Sierra Club fetes its 120th anniversary this year, too.)

For nearly five decades, the Michigan Chapter has organized the bold action of citizens working together to protect and restore our Great Lakes state’s health and heritage. Click here to see a timeline of our accomplishments. 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.

Our victories are a part of the fabric of life in Michigan, like being able to hike in any one of 10 old growth forests protected by the 1987 Michigan Wilderness Act. We're honoring the 25th anniversary of this landmark legislation with events throughout the year. Check our calendar for details about these and other events in 2012.

Sierra Club has 25,000 members and supporters in Michigan. We are volunteer-led, and we actively coordinate our work on many levels. Sierra Club’s nine regional volunteer groups 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.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club's members and supporters are more than 1.3 million of your friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. Founded in 1892, the Club is America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. 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.

Michigan Chapter Staff and Volunteers Leaders

Who does all this work? Meet your Michigan Chapter staff and Volunteer leaders.

Chapter Awards
Following Sierra Club tradition, Group and Chapter members are asked each year to submit names of individuals or institutions that have made outstanding contributions to the work of the Club. Every fall, during the Michigan Chapter's Annual Retreat, award winners are announced by the Awards Committee Chair.

Sierra Club Job Openings in Michigan

Anniversary Year Activities

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