News

Check out Vinod Khosla speaking at the Sierra Club Energy Solutions Forum:

FY08 Requests for Lands Funding

The Sierra Club, along with other conservation groups, has asked Congress to fund several important acquisitions this year in the Checkerboard country. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), new chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, a long time supporter of park and forest conservation, crafted a bill that increases allocations for acquisitions, but did not specify which projects.

In early May, an enthusiastic group of Checkerboard volunteers made significant progress in removing invasive species from the forest around the oxbow in the Mid Fork Snoqualmie valley. The group was led by Tor McIlroy, restoration coordinator for the Mountains to Sound Greenway, and MidFORC’s Mark Boyar. The prime target was a lovely but smelly little plant called herb Robert. A native of Europe, it thrives in the shadows under the forest canopy. It is so prolific that it will overwhelm native flowers such as bleeding heart. Blackberry and dandelions were also removed by the work party. Thanks to Checkerboard volunteer Harry Romberg for organizing this annual service trip.

Cascade Checkerboard Project Success:

Improved Ski Facilities but Less Impact on Wildlife

The Sierra Club, Alpine Lakes Protection Society, and Conservation NW have agreed with Ski Lifts, Inc. (SLI) on a revised master plan for the ski areas at Snoqualmie Pass. The company’s earlier proposal was evaluated in a Draft EIS a year ago. After reviewing the lengthy critiques submitted by the Club's Cascade Checkerboard Project and other conservation groups, Dan Brewster, manager of the ski area, approached Checkerboard Project Director Charlie Raines to discuss what type of package might meet the company’s needs while addressing the groups’ concerns. After several months of discussions among the groups, an agreement was worked out based on the preferred alternative (#5) in the DEIS, with key changes at Alpental and Hyak. Thus, most of the upgrading of the facilities proposed by SLI will proceed, as will the purchase of the 480-acre property in Mill Creek for mitigation.

Our region is struggling with how to deal with two huge problems — global warming pollution and traffic congestion. While many of our public officials from cities to the statehouse have acknowledged both problems, few have connected the dots to see that we need to reduce our car emissions and improve our transportation system in order to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

Pierce, Snohomish and King County councils will soon review the combined "Roads and Transit" package, including the next phase of Sound Transit (ST2) and a large road infrastructure package from the regional transportation investment district (RTID) Combined, the package will cost $17.7 billion.

There has been a lot of talk about congestion pricing lately. The Sierra Club had an opinion piece in the Puget Sound Business Journal on Friday, 6/8: "Roads, transit package fails to stop greenhouse gas" which talks about the proposed RTID/ST2 ballot measure and why it is not the answer to our problems. (If you are not a PSBJ subscriber, you can link to the text of the article here.)

This spring, King County Executive, Ron Sims, released a study titled Destination 2030 - Taking an Alternative Route which studies stytem-wide pricing for all the limited access freeways in the region.

The only way to seriously reduce our vehicles' contribution to climate change is to reduce vehicle miles traveled

Letter to Shawn Bunney, Chair of Executive Board of the Regional Transportation Investment District and John Ladenburg, Sound Transit Board Chair:

The Sierra Club urges you to consider addressing the public's concerns over global warming, land-use and fiscal responsibility in the draft "Blueprint for Progress" roads package you are developing. As we've communicated in our prior comment letter*, we support a fully-funded Sound Transit 2 plan and a regional transportation road package that prioritizes "fix-it-first" highway spending and projects that improve roads for transit and HOV use.

A reduced package prioritizes moving goods and people, making infrastructure safer and addressing global warming pollution

In a letter to the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) Board, the Sierra Club released an outline to illustrate how leaders could refocus the RTID funding package to address the serious issues of global warming, fiscal accountability and regional mobility. It highlights projects that enhance transit reliability on major highways, improve local grid mobility and prevent a ballooning of carbon dioxide pollution in the region.

“There’s still time for our public officials to ramp down the exuberant funding on highway spending in the draft package,” said Mike O’Brien, the Cascade Chapter Chair. “As gas prices soar, it is wrong to lock us into a highway-building program that doesn’t help our region’s mobility. We cannot sacrifice Sound Transit by weighting it down with an overreaching, fiscally irresponsible highway spending bill that digs the global warming hole deeper.”

The Sierra Club is providing comments on the joint Roads & Transit investment package proposed by the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) and Sound Transit (ST).  We evaluate and comment on the proposals of the two regional agencies together since they are being presented to the public as a regional transportation plan, and the vote is presently structured to produce an all up or down outcome.  We sense--as others in the region do--the need to address transportation planning and investments in a comprehensive and holistic manner.

We first summarize the Club’s position on the joint ballot proposal.  The important criteria by which the Sierra Club evaluates the transportation projects is described, followed by specific assessments of the RTID projects, and then the ST Phase 2 projects.  We offer recommendations for alternative projects, and suggest alternative ways of structuring a regional transportation plan.  

These week-long training sessions in organizing skills led by the nation's top student organizers. Learn to develop effective groups that can tackle serious environmental issues, and network with other activists to build your region's student environmental movement. Then take what you've learned and put it to into action at your high school, on your campus and in your community.

APPLY NOW online at www.ssc.org/sprog

For more contact: Jon BarrowsSSC Trainings Directorjon@ssc.org