October 2025 update from Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter
October 22, 2025
Get outdoors with us this fall!
Happy October! We hope you're able to get outside and enjoy the first signs of fall, wherever you are in our beautiful state.
In this issue:
📚 Come to our virtual Book Club 🌳 Find out about open houses for our state forests ⚡ Join us in the fight to move beyond data centers and dirty power 🌱 Read about the trees planted in celebration of forest defender Andy Mahler 🥾 Get outdoors with Sierra Club
Plus all our regular features — like photos from you, our readers — and much more!
Happy reading,
Rebecca Dien-Johns Chapter Coordinator
P.S. We're encouraging all our readers to check out MyAccount - it's where you can control all your email preferences, and where members will find the Executive Committee election voter portal later this year too. If you missed the info in our July newsletter about using MyAccount, you can find it here!
Join our Book Club!
I want to invite you to join us for our last couple of Chapter Book Clubs this year. While we certainly hope most folks are able to make time to read the book prior to Book Club, it is also okay to show up having read some of the book or to have your fellow Book Clubbers sell you on the book!
This November we are reading Is A River Alive by Robert Macfarlane. This book challenges us to continue conversations from earlier Book Club selections, including Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, about other than human beings and our relationship to them.
In December we will have two options for readers that are rooted in hope and challenge us to examine how we communicate about the climate and the moment we are in. One is a collaborative work, Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua. The other option for our December meeting is Climate Optimism: Celebrating Systemic Change Around the World by Zahra Biabani, a Gen Z climate activist, advocate, and social media influencer.
Tue, Nov 4, 2025; 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (Eastern) Hoosier Chapter Book Club: Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
Tue, Dec 2, 2025; 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (Eastern) Hoosier Chapter Book Club: It's Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua OR Climate Optimism by Zahra Biabani
Colleen Curtin Outreach Coordinator
State forests to offer open houses
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will offer open houses at numerous state forests on Oct. 28, 29, and 30.
From the DNR website:
During the events, Hoosiers can learn more about outdoor recreation available at state forests and how the properties’ professional foresters work to manage the properties for long-term forest health.
A guided hike will be offered at 5 p.m. during each open house. Attendees who want to go on the hike should meet at the forest office.
In addition to attendees being able to ask questions and comment, Hoosiers can submit written questions or comments here: Forestry: Submit A Public Comment.
Volunteer leaders Lora Kemp and Julie Lowe Lora stretched across a tree in the Martin State Forest in April 2024. Photo: Kurt Kemp.
Celebrating Indiana Folk Hero, Andy Mahler
Volunteer leaders Lora Kemp, Marilyn Bauchat, and Julie Lowe plant native dogwood trees at the Heartwood Reunion.
Members of the Hoosier Chapter celebrated the life of Andy Mahler with folks from around the country over three days at the Lazy Black Bear in Paoli, Indiana. At the Heartwood Reunion, they helped plant four dogwood trees in the names of the Chapter, Winding Waters Group, Heartlands Group, and Uplands Network. The trees will grow to encompass the circle of communication where Andy led many problem-solving and community-building discussions to unite the many groups of Heartwood. These opportunities will continue for future generations as we continue the grassroots movement to protect our forests.
Lora Kemp, Vice Chair, Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter Marilyn Bauchat, Chair, Uplands Network Julie Lowe, Chair, Winding Waters Group
Moving Beyond Dirty Power and Data Centers
It’s time to take action to stop data centers from creating a dirty and expensive future for Indiana!
Utilities across the state are attempting to pollute our communities by building massive gas plants and keeping coal online for Big Tech’s profit. Let's learn how we can push back together.
Join the Indiana Beyond Coal Campaign for "Moving Beyond Dirty Power for Data Centers" webinar on Nov. 12 at 7:00pm ET.
Sierra Club staff and volunteer leaders are passionate about getting out there and spreading the word about issues that matter to Hoosiers!
Rebecca, Colleen, Kasey, and Jesse at the Wildergarden Block Party in Indianapolis on Sept. 28, 2025.
On Sept. 28, staff and volunteer leaders tabled at the Wildergarden block party in Indianapolis.
"This was one of my favorite tabling events this year! I was joined behind the table by Heartlands Group Chair Jesse Kirkham, Hoosier Chapter Executive Committee member Kasey Jackson, and Hoosier Chapter Coordinator Rebecca Dien-Johns. We had a wonderful time and connected with attendees interested in what they could do to affect change locally at this critical moment." - Colleen Curtin, Outreach Coordinator.
Sierra Club outings leader Laurie Elliott led the first two of three Rail-Trail walks in Bloomington on Oct. 1 and Oct. 15.
"These outings are designed to be more inclusive of accessibility needs than our treks in the woods.
The trails are mostly paved and intended to be a good option for people who prefer an even terrain or paved walking surface. Strollers, wheelchair users, and other mobility devices are welcome." — Marilyn Bauchat, volunteer leader.
Welcome to this regular feature where we look back and share photos from our past.
This month we travel back to April 2017, with this photo of Hoosier Chapter volunteer Nicole Snider at the People's Climate March in D.C.
"My niece, hubby, and I went to D.C. for the march and were part of a crowd of at least 200,000. Also, I met Al Gore! Pretty cool!
Besides the amazing turnout and celebrity sightings, I found the event tiring and hot and empowering and amazing! Marching past all of the iconic buildings in the home of American democracy doing the most democratic thing — peacefully protesting — with thousands and thousands of fellow Americans who deeply care about the attack on science and our environment. It was really a singular day."
Thank you Nicole for sharing this with us!
Nicole Snider at the People's Climate March in 2017. Photo: Alyson Arrowsmith.
Readers' Photos
Thank you so much McKalah Meier for this beautiful photo of the sunrise at Moore’s Creek State Recreation Area, Bloomington, taken May 2024.
Do you have a photograph of Indiana nature — past or present, micro or macro — that you would like to share?
We'd love to see it and perhaps feature it in a future newsletter.
