Sierra Club

You could use Twitter or Facebook to ask friends for hiking and biking recommendations -- but then you'd have to wait for a response. Check in with Trails.SierraClub.org to find a trail or share a favorite of your own. What's hot: "Find a Trail" does just what it says, but I found it much easier to browse this site (which is still being developed) by states instead of getting specific in my keyword search. Rather than look for easy hikes in Los Angeles, I searched California trails and found 195 results, including Aliso Creek Trail and Bikeway in south Orange County, Big Bend Trail in Laguna Beach and Bridge to Nowhere in Angeles National Forest.

These days "cool school" doesn't just mean that a university has laid-back drinking policies. A "cool school" is one that recycles waste, provides transit and saves energy, according to the Sierra Club's report card for eco-friendly universities With about two-thirds of applicants reportedly taking eco-friendliness into account when choosing a college, three California schools that were among the Sierra Club's top 20 have something to brag about....

Harriet Allen, an environmentalist who mentored generations of desert activists and played a key role in the 1994 passage of the landmark California Desert Protection Act, has died. She was 95. Allen died Sept. 30 of complications related to old age at a Kaiser hospital in San Diego, her family said. "She waged a decades-long battle to educate everyone that the desert matters," said Elden Hughes, a longtime desert-protection activist. "The fact that the desert has sustained itself as well as it has is a tribute to Harriet Allen.