By Karl Palmquist, Chair, Sierra Club New York City Group

Fellow Sierrans,

Now is a critical time for our movement. The Sierra Club’s mission—to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet—is more important than ever as the places and ideals we love come under threat. I find that going into nature, whether by nature we mean an urban park, a community garden, or the wilderness that surrounds our city, reminds me why we do what we do. To explore is to be surprised; to enjoy is to connect in a meaningful way. Our goal locally in the New York City Group is to guard urban nature and to advocate for actions that will protect nature everywhere else.

One way that we can serve nature in this way is through being the connectors with the outdoors for our friends, family, and neighbors. Our collaborations with local entities, such as Sierra Club NYC Inspiring Connections Outdoors (ICO), CatRock Ventures, and Sophie Gerson Healthy Youth, among others, enable our Group to support bringing youth from around NYC into the outdoors—anywhere from a local park to the mountains of Vermont. Over the last few years, we have helped ensure that hundreds of kids from NYC have enjoyed the great outdoors.

As you’ll see in this edition of Green Gotham, the NYC Group is rapidly expanding our outings work. We are sponsoring this year’s NYC ICO Film Festival—I encourage you all to buy tickets and attend; it’s a great event. We are hosting more events locally, including game nights, academic lectures, and outings. If you want to get involved, please sign up and let us know!