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PUERTO RICO NAMED SIERRA CLUB'S NEWEST CHAPTER Puerto Rico Members and National Directors Call For Protection of Pristine Coastal Area San Juan, PR - The newest Chapter of the Sierra Club was chartered February 19 by the 113-year old conservation group's national Board of Directors in San Juan. Puerto Rican Sierra Club members formally petitioned the board to become the first new Sierra Club chapter in more than 10 years. Puerto Rico will be the Club's first Spanish speaking chapter. "It is with pride and pleasure that we welcome the Sierra Club of Puerto Rico as the 64th chapter of the Sierra Club," said national Sierra Club President Larry Fahn. "And we are proud to support the Puerto Rico Chapter's first environmental campaign calling for the permanent protection of the Northeast Ecological Corridor, which faces the risk of development by Marriot and Four Seasons." Over the last two years, Puerto Rico Sierra Club members have worked to urge the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to designate its Northeastern Ecological Corridor (NEC) as a nature reserve. The pristine coastal area is currently threatened by the construction of over 1,900 residential and tourist units, two 18-holes golf courses and a 9-hole golf course, as well as related development of the Four Seasons' San Miguel Resort and Marriott's Dos Mares Resort. Located on approximately 3,200 acres of the El Yunque Rain Forest on the eastern corner of the main island of Puerto Rico, the NEC is one of the Caribbean's last great-unprotected areas. It contains an extraordinary array of tropical habitats seldom found in other parts of the world and includes all of the coastal wetlands found in Puerto Rico, such as coral communities, mangroves, pre-Columbian forest, and a bioluminescent lagoon. The diversity of habitats have made the area home of the federally endangered Puerto Rican Plain Pigeon, the Snowy Plover, the Brown Pelican, the Puerto Rico Boa, the Hawksbill Sea Turtle and the West Indian Manatee, and other 40 critical species considered rare or endangered. In addition, it is one of the most important nesting grounds for endangered Leatherback sea turtles in areas under US jurisdiction. "We are proud to become the newest chapter of the Sierra Club and look forward to continuing its long history of protecting the planet here in Puerto Rico," said Patricia Burke, the first president of the Sierra Club of Puerto Rico. "We hope that people from throughout the island and the states will join us and other environmental organizations in our efforts to protect our beautiful, but rapidly declining island. We must protect places like the Northeast Ecological Corridor from development so that we and our children have special places to visit." Members of the Sierra Club in Puerto Rico have been working toward becoming a Chapter for more than two years. During that time, the group formed conservation, outings, legislative, student and membership committees, and focused on urban sprawl, solid waste, and enforcement of environmental laws. "In Puerto Rico, we need to focus on complying with and enforcing existing environmental laws before even thinking about creating new ones. We all must keep paying close attention or they will never be enforced," said Ramón Luis Nieves, former Puerto Rico National Parks Administrator that the Sierra Club of Puerto Rico Chapter's first Legislative Chair. In addition to Fahn, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, 14 Directors, and other staff and volunteers visited Puerto Rico last week to charter the chapter during the Board of Directors' quarterly meeting. The group also visited the Northeast Ecological Corridor. Sierra Club's more than 700,000 members are friends and neighbors from environmentally conscious communities. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. The Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the country. Founded in 1892 by John Muir, the Sierra Club is a non-profit organization with over 700,000 members and now 64 chapters. For more information please visit: www.puertorico.sierraclub.org. ### |
