History of the Sierra Club
Founded in 1892, the Sierra Club is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States. Its stated mission is to "explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth."
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Organization
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As of July 6, 2009, the Sierra Club has sixty-five chapters across the United States. Thirteen of its chapters are located in California. At the national level, the Sierra Club is led by a president, elected biennially, a 15-person board of directors, and an executive director.
Founder
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The Sierra Club was founded in 1892 in San Francisco, California, by famed conservationist John Muir. Muir also served as the club's first president.
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Initial Triumphs
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Led by John Muir, its president from 1892 to 1914, the Sierra Club helped establish Glacier and Mount Rainier national parks, pressured the California legislature to cede Yosemite Valley to the federal government and fought for the preservation of California's redwoods. In President Theodore Roosevelt, the Sierra Club found a politician sympathetic to conservation, and in 1905 the federal government successfully obtained stewardship over Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove.
The Hetch Hetchy Controversy
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In the early 20th century, the city of San Francisco had numerous problems with the privately-owned water company that supplied its citizens with water. Citizens were irate when the company failed to provide adequate water to fight the fires that raged through the city following the great earthquake of 1906. As a result, local politicians hatched a plan to dam the Hetch Hetchy valley to provide more reliable water service. The Sierra Club, citing threats to the local ecosystem, vigorously opposed the dam. Nonetheless, a bill to dam Hetch Hetchy passed Congress in 1913, handing the Sierra Club its first major political defeat.
The National Park Service
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National parks were originally overseen by the Department of the Interior. Believing that the Department lacked the expertise and manpower for such an important task, the Sierra Club successfully lobbied for the creation of the National Park Service, an agency formed in 1916 to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
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