December 2025 update from Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter
December 17, 2025
2025 highlights and reflections
Hi Supporter,
Welcome to our December newsletter! I hope you are keeping warm, well, and safe this winter.
In this issue:
🪞 Looking back on 2025 - highlights and reflections from our community 📚 Tell us what you'd like to read for our Book Club in 2026 🤖 Our new webpage on all things data centers 🌱 Meet volunteer Buffy Dunham, and support your natural spaces 🗳️ It's time to vote in our Executive Committee elections! 🗓️ Sierra Club events and outings near you
Plus all our regular features, and much more!
Thank you so much for your readership and support this year. It truly means so much from all our team. Keep sending me your photos and recommendations, I love to see them!
Looking back on 2025 — Highlights and Reflections!
As the year draws to a close, we asked our volunteer leaders and staff in Indiana about some of their 2025 highlights. Join us on a trip down memory lane of the last 12 months!
Colleen Curtin, Outreach Coordinator:
“I have loved spending time with you in your communities this year, whether that was joining Susan Schechter in Lafayette for Mosey, proudly listening to Nicole Snider speak on behalf of the Hoosier Chapter in Fort Wayne, catching up with Mark Nowotarski in Jasper for a documentary screening, hiking with Jesse Kirkham, Lori Peters, and Kasey Grau Jackson on a trail in Indianapolis, meeting up with Jennifer Ehara and Dave Wildemann at the Bartholomew County Library, or tabling with Marilyn Bauchat and Greg Grant with the Uplands Network in Bloomington.
Thank you for welcoming me to the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter community this year!”
Mary Carol Reardon, Outings Chair:
“Weed wrangling with other Sierra Club volunteers and meeting new people is certainly a highlight. To see the difference we make as we pull invasive weeds from the Hoosier National Forest is heartening; knowing that we're part of the solution.
The fellowship and laughter that grows among us as we wrangle is priceless. Looking forward to more wrangles in 2026.”
Sierra Club staff, volunteers, and supporters including Colleen, second from left, visiting a solar and wind site in Randolph County. Photo: Nicole Chandler.
Mary Reardon pulling Japanese stiltgrass in Pate Hollow. Photo: Gillian Fields.
As we wrap up 2025 I want to celebrate our Chapter community’s curiosity and commitment to learning more about the issues we all care about. We launched the Chapter Book Club this summer following feedback from members about an interest in diving deeper into some issues and learning more about less familiar topics. To that end we launched in June. We imagined initially that the Chapter Book Club might be a neat summer program but it quickly became more than that. Fast forward almost 8 books later and we are closing out the year looking forward to reading a dozen books with you next year.
If you are looking for some books to add to your 2026 TBR (To Be Read), think about checking out one of our selections from this year.
Interested in what we might be reading in 2026?
These are a few titles we will be considering in the new year. Have a book you think we should read? Email colleen.curtin@sierraclub.org
Colleen Curtin Outreach Coordinator
New Data Center webpage launches
It seems like every five minutes in Indiana, a new data center proposal is popping up. If you've been reading volunteer leader Jennifer Ehara's blog series , you'll know some of the reasons why this has us — and many community members in Indiana — concerned.
We've pulled together some information, resources, and actions onto a new Data Centers page on our website. We hope you find this a helpful resource as we navigate the unprecedented plethora of data center developments within our communities.
One way you can take action today is by sending a message to our decision-makers about the huge burden Hoosiers are paying to have data centers as neighbors: sc.org/INdatacenters.
Outdoor volunteer opportunity — meet volunteer Buffy Dunham, and support your natural spaces
If you are looking for a way to make a difference in your world but are not sure where to start, may we suggest volunteering at a local Weed Wrangle?
If you haven't heard already, Weed Wrangles are organized events where volunteer teams remove invasive plant species from natural areas to allow native species that have been pushed out to return.
Please read this story of one diehard Columbus community volunteer and educator, who shares her invasive species remediation story here:
Jennifer Ehara Winding Waters Group Executive Committee.
This picture shows a tree overtaken by wintercreeper (Buffy pictured most right). Wintercreeper harms nature by outcompeting native species on the flora floor while at the same time providing no sustenance to native fauna. It grows into the bark of a tree, shading out the tree's own leaves and eventually killing it. Aerial stems of wintercreeper produce prolific flowers and seeds, helping to spread it far and wide. At Weed Wrangles and Strike Team we teach you how to control this and other harmful invasive species. Photo: Connie Anderson.
It's time to vote!
Our Executive Committee elections are now live! All Hoosiers with active memberships during the election will have received an email or postcard with details on how to make their voice heard for a democratic Sierra Club in Indiana.
Voting takes place in MyAccount. This is also where you can control all your email preferences.
Sierra Club staff and volunteer leaders are passionate about getting out there and spreading the word about issues that matter to Hoosiers!
Hoosier Chapter staff Robyn and Colleen lead a discussion in Jasper after watching Reinventing Power. Photo: Nicole Chandler.
Hoosier Chapter Director Robyn Skuya-Boss, Outreach Coordinator Colleen Curtin, and Beyond Coal Organizer Nicole Chandler spent the day in Jasper, Indiana earlier this month screening the documentary Reinventing Power and engaging with Chapter members and local community members about renewable energy efforts across the state.
Sierra Club volunteers and staff at Sen. Donnelly's office. Photo courtesy of Monica Cannaley.
This month, we're going back to October 25, 2017. Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter, Heartlands Group, and Indiana Beyond Coal Campaign volunteers and staff attended the Arctic Refuge Day of Action meeting at U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly's office.
Thank you volunteer leader Monica Cannaley for sending this in!
Readers' Photos
Today, I'm sharing this photo taken by my 13 year old, as we drove from picking up a secondhand record player in Greentown, IN back to Indianapolis. My ancient phone was too low on memory to take any photos, so my kid took one on my spouse's phone for me. We love taking the country roads, and the sunset that evening was beautiful!
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.
