Sierra Club

My wife and I have taken Sierra Club-sponsored tours to Puerto Rico, Peru and Bolivia, and recently China. We think they are quite a value and really exciting, informative trips. Sierra Club, 3435 Wilshire Blvd., No. 320, Los Angeles, CA 90010; (213) 387-4287, www.sierraclub.org/outings. Richard Ramirez Valencia

The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, working in concert with a number of environmental and energy activists and researchers in Washington and Montana, announced Thursday a new push to get Puget Sound Energy to stop buying power from coal-fired Colstrip Generating Station in Montana. According to EPA rankings, the facility is the eighth most egregious emitter of greenhouse gases among power plants in the U.S. The campaign announced this as a "bold move" in their nationwide push to negotiate closure dates for coal-fired plants, or to get them switched to cleaner-burning natural gas, since PSE is also a leader among utilities in developing wind farms and pushing for greener forms of electrical generation.

WASHINGTON -- The Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Environment America and Clean Water Action have jointly endorsed President Obama in his reelection bid, signaling steps that the Democratic base is taking to rouse its members now that the general-election race has begun for all practical purposes. The announcement Wednesday is the earliest any of the groups have issued a presidential endorsement, with the exception of the League of Conservation Voters' 2004 backing of Sen. John Kerry against President George W. Bush.

WASHINGTON -- The Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Environment America and Clean Water Action have jointly endorsed President Obama in his reelection bid, signaling steps that the Democratic base is taking to rouse its members now that the general-election race has begun for all practical purposes. The announcement Wednesday is the earliest any of the groups have issued a presidential endorsement, with the exception of the League of Conservation Voters' 2004 backing of Sen. John Kerry against President George W. Bush.

Sierra Club mountaineers should direct their frustration not at the club leadership, but at lawyers who, whenever there is insurance or an organization with "deep pockets," generate multimillion-dollar lawsuits, and against juries which award "free money" in ever-increasing amounts ("Ban on Mountaineering Causes Rift in Sierra Club," Part I, Feb. 17). The mountaineers should work for a waiver law that would protect nonprofit organizations from liability, and if this fails, which is likely given the lawyers' stranglehold on Sacramento, for a separate club with fees high enough to pay for lawyers' Rolls Royces and $500 lunch bills.

The Sierra Club, the nation's largest and oldest environmental advocacy group, has named Michael Brune its next executive director. A longtime environmental organizer who has headed the Rainforest Action Network for the last seven years, Brune will succeed Carl Pope in March. Pope, the organization's executive director since 1992, will stay on as executive chairman and devote himself to climate change issues. Brune is moving from a small, feisty group known for its attention-getting stunts to a pillar of the mainstream environmental movement.

As an environmentalist, Michael Brune made a name for himself by spearheading an unrelenting and ultimately successful campaign to pressure Home Depot into phasing out sales of lumber from endangered rain forests. Now, Brune is taking the reins of the Sierra Club at a time when much of the movement has turned away from confrontational tactics in favor of compromise, especially on the push for sweeping new federal legislation on climate change. Brune, who took on Home Depot while heading the Rainforest Action Network, recently discussed his approach to the climate change issue.

The chairman of the Sierra Club, one of the nation's most influential environmental groups, has stepped down amid discontent that the group founded by 19th century wilderness evangelist John Muir has strayed from its core principles. The departure of Carl Pope, 66, a member of the club for more than 40 years, comes as the nonprofit group faces declining membership, internal dissent, well-organized opponents, a weak economy and forces in Congress trying to take the teeth out of environmental regulations.

Elden Hughes, a crusader for wild places and a leader of the Sierra Club's battles to protect desert wilderness from development and abuse, has died. He was 80. Hughes, who died of prostate cancer early Sunday at his home in Joshua Tree, Calif., was a visionary and inspirational figure who mentored generations of activists in fights to reduce the environmental damage of developments, including renewable energy projects on pristine landscapes and wildlife. Hughes was among a dozen environmentalists invited to the White House in 1994 when President Clinton signed the landmark California Desert Protection Act, which created a new national park in the eastern Mojave Desert and elevated Death Valley and Joshua Tree from national monument to national park status.

Life in the wild Re "Reaching out over feral cats," Nov. 19 These feral cats in South L.A. are not actually stray cats. They flourish and thrive because of the seemingly well-meaning humans who feed them. Without that food, many would die. Responsible pet owners keep their cats in their homes, where they are safe from other predators. Trapping, spaying and then releasing these feral cats won't do any good. These cats are not vaccinated against disease.

With the U.S. Senate poised to begin debate on a bill that would greenlight the controversial Keystone XL pipeline as early as Tuesday, activists and other citizens have barraged the Senate with more than 350,000 petitions opposing the legislation in less than five hours. Activists Bill McKibben , Robert Redford and other celebs such as Kyra Sedgwick and Ian Somerhalder have joined the Natural Resources Defense Council, 350.org, the Sierra Club and other groups in coordinating the petition effort . The goal is 500,000 messages to the Senate by Tuesday.

Gale-force winds were whipping whitecaps and spray across Mono Lake when Robert Hanna spotted a distant hiker. It was a crummy day to chat up a stranger in a state park, but Hanna was upbeat, as usual. He stepped hurriedly along a trail to introduce himself. "Hello there!" Hanna said, flashing a toothy smile. "Do you know that California wants to shut this place down? Would you like to sign our petition to keep it open?" "Yeah, I guess so," the man said. "Wow! That's great," Hanna said, reaching to shake his hand.

Elden Hughes, a crusader for wild places and a leader of the Sierra Club's battles to protect desert wilderness from development and abuse, has died. He was 80. Hughes, who died of prostate cancer early Sunday at his home in Joshua Tree, Calif., was a visionary and inspirational figure who mentored generations of activists in fights to reduce the environmental damage of developments, including renewable energy projects on pristine landscapes and wildlife. Hughes was among a dozen environmentalists invited to the White House in 1994 when President Clinton signed the landmark California Desert Protection Act, which created a new national park in the eastern Mojave Desert and elevated Death Valley and Joshua Tree from national monument to national park status.

Life in the wild Re "Reaching out over feral cats," Nov. 19 These feral cats in South L.A. are not actually stray cats. They flourish and thrive because of the seemingly well-meaning humans who feed them. Without that food, many would die. Responsible pet owners keep their cats in their homes, where they are safe from other predators. Trapping, spaying and then releasing these feral cats won't do any good. These cats are not vaccinated against disease.

The chairman of the Sierra Club, one of the nation's most influential environmental groups, has stepped down amid discontent that the group founded by 19th century wilderness evangelist John Muir has strayed from its core principles. The departure of Carl Pope, 66, a member of the club for more than 40 years, comes as the nonprofit group faces declining membership, internal dissent, well-organized opponents, a weak economy and forces in Congress trying to take the teeth out of environmental regulations.

Dear Sierra Club Colleagues, After 38 years with the Sierra Club, I am opening my dance card to new partners. In December, I shall stand down as Chairman to undertake a new initiative. My hope is to pull together a broad front of environmental groups, labor unions, clean-economy innovators, mainline manufacturers, civil rights organizations, and state and local officials to insist that candidates for public office in 2012 address the role of innovation, clean technology, and manufacturing in rebuilding the American economy and restoring the American middle class.

They've got trouble right here along the banks of the Arkansas River. It all has to do with the artist Christo, whose lavish and iconoclastic installations invariably create controversy wherever unfurled. And in this postcard-pretty corner of Colorado, about 115 miles south of Denver, renowned for fly fishing, whitewater rafting and the vertigo-inducing Royal Gorge suspension bridge, it is no different. For 18 years the artist has had his sights on a stretch of river that runs through Big Horn Sheep Canyon between Canon City and Salida for a project he calls "Over the River.

Richard N. Goldman, a San Francisco philanthropist and civic leader who co-founded the Goldman Environmental Prize to recognize grass-roots environmental activism around the world, has died. He was 90. Goldman, a passionate supporter of environmental causes, the Jewish community and Israel, died Monday at his San Francisco home, according to his family. The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, created in 1951 by Goldman and his wife, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has given away more than $680 million since its inception.