Newsletter- February 2022 update from Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter
February 24, 2022
Celebrating Black History month, how to take action on climate, and much more...
Welcome to our February newsletter. In this newsletter, we celebrate Black History Month, you can get to know our new volunteer leaders, and hear how our staff and volunteers have been speaking out on important issues, like the Mid-States Corridor. We have opportunities from Sycamore Land Trust and Solarize Indiana, events you can attend, a guest blog we know you will love from trash picker extraordinaire Abby Sechler, plus our usual readers' photos and recommendations sections, and much more!
Our chair, Julie Lowe, encourages support of her local NAACP 3071 branch who do great work in her home town of Columbus and Bartholomew County. Check out the social media posts shared by the Winding Waters Group, which Julie also chairs, celebrating Black History Month and highlighting activists and environmentalists.
The Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films, and they have selected 28 films for the 28 days of Black History Month which "convey a message about Black people’s expansive contributions to cinematic history."
Happy reading, watching, and learning!
Get to know our Executive Committee
In our last newsletter, we were excited to announce the newest members of our Executive Committee. In this issue, we're delighted to share with you some extracts from their biographies which are now on our website. You can read about them and all of our team here!
Hi. I’m Roxanna Caldwell. I’m a lifelong Hoosier from Monticello, Indiana living in Indianapolis for over 20 years now... Growing up spending a lot of time on the lake & in the woods I’ve always been passionate about environmental & conservation issues. The more I learn about ongoing air & water quality issues and environmental inequity locally, I wanted to find a way to help. I’m glad to work with this excellent organization and connect and support Indiana’s diverse landscapes.
Born and raised in northwest Indiana, William Schenher has enjoyed a distinguished career in banking and corporate treasury. After 20 years in corporate treasury, he returned to Indiana to focus on family and turn his attentions to his local community. In 2019, Mr. Schenher was accepted into the University of Notre Dame’s Inspired Leadership Initiative, a year long, immersive program for those looking to start the next chapter of their lives choosing to focus his studies on climate change and the environment.
Paul Fuchs grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and after graduating from Purdue University in May 2020, moved to Indianapolis. His interest in conservation and environmental work grew tremendously during college, when he began his effort to visit all of America’s National Parks and found himself regularly rock climbing outdoors, while simultaneously learning about the alarming anti-environmental policies of the previous administration.
"Trash picking is my therapy" - Guest blog from reader Abby Sechler
"Hi! I'm Abby, and I’m an intentional trash picker! Trash picking is my therapy. I get to experience all of mother nature's beauty, learn about the flora and fauna, exercise my body, refresh my soul, AND leave the planet a little better than when I found it - all in one! With every piece of trash, you get instant results and gratification of a job well done, especially knowing that no one else will have their nature experience dampened by unsightly trash in an otherwise pristine environment."
Q: How many pieces of trash do you think Abby and her partner collected form Eagle Creek Park in one day? Make your guess now!
Read Abby's inspiring blog to find out the answer, discover how she got started, and how you can get involved!
Abby and her son David, who loves trash picking too!
Send your legislators a message: Hoosiers want true climate solutions.
Indiana legislators are putting Hoosiers on a dangerous path, refusing to listen to urgent concerns about climate change and the need for greater access to renewable energy. Instead, they are pursuing false, harmful and expensive schemes on behalf of special interests.
In this 2022 legislative session, legislators have refused to hear many bills that would have extended net metering (SB314, HB1136) and those that would have cleaned up toxic coal ash pits (HB1335 and SB412). Instead, legislative leaders are moving bills that offer false climate solutions such as HB1209 (paves the way for unproven carbon sequestration from new industrial sources of emissions throughout the State) and SB271 (puts the financial burden of expensive, unproven nuclear reactors on utility customers even before they are built and producing electricity.)
Tell your legislators that you reject this path and you want them to pursue true climate solutions by accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, reinstating fair compensation for rooftop solar, cleaning up toxic coal ash pits, and providing meaningful support to coal communities transitioning to a clean energy economy.
Wendy Bredhold, Senior Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign in Indiana and Kentucky.
Mid-States Corridor four-lane highway proposal is Not Needed, Not Wanted!
In 2017 the Indiana State Legislature passed a bill that allows municipalities participating in a regional development authority (RDA) to create a fund specifically for regional infrastructure projects and contribute local money to those funds. The legislation also permits these RDAs to apply for federal FASTLANE grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which fund road and bridge projects. Dubois and Spencer counties, Jasper and Huntingburg agreed to come together to form an RDA (See: County discusses financing of Midstate Corridor, Dubois Herald.)
This is what led to the Mid-States Corridor RDA, an entity responsible for the proposed bypass road that would ultimately connect Dubois County to I-69. Although the Mid-States Corridor RDA and Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) are conducting the required Tier-1 Environmental Study to identify a preferred corridor, “No Build” is an option.
That is what the people of the Coalition Against the Mid-States Corridor are hoping for, “No Build”.
IKC board member and Orangeville Rise Preserve Property Manager Carla Striegel-Winner spoke at the Town Hall-style meeting about the caves and karst of Orange County. Here, she holds up a list of 260 caves and karst features that were provided to Lockmueller, on request, by the Indiana Cave Survey. These are just the known features. It is estimated that several times more features would be affected.
The message the Coalition Against Mid-States Corridor want Governor Holcomb and others to hear is that this highway is not needed and not wanted. In fact, the Coalition sent a post card to every law maker in the Indiana Statehouse including the Governor saying so.
People have joined together from Dubois, Martin and Orange Counties to oppose this new terrain four-lane highway and are not leaving it to hope. They have organized, contacted Governor Holcomb and Indiana lawmakers, and have held two Town Hall meetings already this year in Dubois and Orange Counties, and they are looking to organize in Lawrence County if there is interest from the community. The group is formed by those that would be affected: Indiana landowners, business owners, farmers and families, including environmental and conservation groups that oppose the highway like the Indiana Karst Conservancy and protectors of the Hoosier National Forest. This highway plan would tear through multi-generational homes and farms, businesses, historic churches, cemeteries, and other such landmarks. The Orange County Amish rely on their faith, community, and farmland to flourish. The devastation that this unnecessary project would cause them is horrible to imagine.
The environmental destruction would be great, affecting the Hoosier National Forest, the Lost River Drainage Basin and its unique karst landscape made up of sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, and springs and the naturally preserved beauty and ecosystems. Please contact Governor Holcomb and your legislators and let them know if you do not approve of the plans that the Mid-States Corridor RDA have for the state of Indiana.
Julie Lowe Chair of the Executive Committee, Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter
Learn more: Caves, Karst and Route "O No" of the Mid-States Corridor by Carla Steigler-Winner on Wednesday, March 2nd at 6pm ET (online event): Carla will help us discover the Indiana Karst Conservancy, including what karst is and why caves are worth protecting. More info and register here.
Sierra Club staff and volunteer leaders are passionate about getting out there and spreading the word about issues that matter to Hoosiers!
Earlier this month our Chapter Director, Amanda, spoke at the monthly meeting of Northwest Indiana Green Drinks, where she provided an update to attendees regarding legislation currently moving through the Statehouse.
If you have events coming up that you would like the Sierra Club to have a voice in, please reach out to us at hoosier.chapter@sierraclub.org
"Indiana legislators are putting Hoosiers on a dangerous path" - Wendy Bredhold, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Indiana and Kentucky, in her opinion piece for the Indiana Environmental Reporter: The Indiana Legislature's False Climate Solutions
“Eventually, there will be issues” - Hoosier Chapter Executive Committee member and longtime volunteer leader and activist, Richard Hill, is quoted in this Washington Post article: Biden begins crackdown on power plant pollution.
Take action to protect Rattlesnake Campgrounds in the heart of the Owen-Putnam State Forest!
The Indiana Division of Forestry is currently marking the timber in Compartment 4, Tract 12 for a timber Harvest. Rattlesnake Campgrounds is an extremely popular recreation area in Owen County’s State Forest system with people utilizing it for hiking, hunting, mountain biking, and foraging for food including mushrooms.
There will be a public meeting at Owen County Public Library in Spencer to inform the community about this threat to the forest on Monday, February 28 from 6-7:45 PM.
For more information, contact Lora Kemp, Chairperson, Owen-Putnam Friends of the Forest - lorakemp1221@gmail.com
Callery Pear Take Down Challenge with Sycamore Land Trust
We are excited to share this news from our friends at Sycamore Land Trust!
From their newsletter: Earlier this year, our Stewardship team noticed that a beaver had brought down a callery pear tree we had planned to remove at our Sam Shine Foundation Preserve. "If a rodent can do it, so can we!" we joked.
Sycamore Land Trust isn't just removing these trees from their own properties- they're encouraging you to remove yours!
If you remove a callery pear tree in your yard between now and April 2022, Sycamore Land Trust will give you an extra free tree seedling of your choice at their Arbor Day Tree Giveaway!
Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter and the Dunelands Group presents America's Red Rock Wilderness – Fighting Climate Change & Saving Wild Utah
Thursday, March 3, 7pm ET/ 6pm CT (online)
Clayton Daughenbaugh is the Organizing Director and Midwest Regional Organizer for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. He's also a long time Sierra Club volunteer currently serving as Vice-Chair of the National Wildlands and Wilderness Grassroots Network Team and is recipient of the William Colby Award the Clubs top recognition for volunteer leadership. Join him for this talk on the fight to save America's Red Rock Wilderness. Register here.
Upcoming Winding Waters Group events
Our annual Sierra Club Winding Waters Group Native Plant Sale is here! Please browse the 2022 plant brochure and check out favorites from the past as well as some new additions including more grasses and button bush. Deadline to receive order form: April 1st, 2022
Caves, Karst and Route "O No" of the Mid-States Corridor by Carla Steigler-Winner on Wednesday, March 2nd at 6pm ET (online event): Carla will help us discover the Indiana Karst Conservancy, including what karst is and why caves are worth protecting. More info and register here.
Upcoming Southwest Indiana Network events
Shawn Dickerson is the Evansville City Arborist and will be presenting on Evansville Urban Forestry on March 8. (Zoom event)
Tri-state Creation Care will hold its sixth annual conference on Saturday, February 26, from 9 am-noon at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, located at 5130 Lincoln Ave, Evansville. This event will also be held on Zoom. See the Facebook page for more info.
Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives Mental Health Workshops
Untreated or ignored stress and mental health issues in rural areas impact quality of life, economic development and lives of farmers, the agriculture workforce and rural families. To raise awareness and help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health in the agriculture industry the Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives program was created by the Indiana Rural Health Association.
The free workshops through the Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives program are open to the farming community, including agribusinesses and related service industries, the faith community, local leaders and families.
What have you been reading, listening to, or watching lately? We'd love to hear from you. Use the button below or email rebecca.dien-johns@sierraclub.org
That's all for this month. Thank you so much for your readership and support! As ever, please don't hesitate to get in touch- we always love to hear from our members and readers! Not a member yet? Join today!
