We hope you all enjoyed your winter holiday and found plenty of opportunities to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
With wool socks and hats even the coldest days feel warmer!
In this newsletter — an update on the Indiana Legislative Session, upcoming Winding Waters Group events, local Sierra Club Executive Committee election results, Indiana state trivia, and how to stay updated and get involved with our work!
LEGISLATIVE SESSION 2026
Thank you Senator Greg Walker!!!
The Winding Waters Group would like to thank Senator Greg Walker of District 41, encompassing Bartholomew and part of Johnson County, for taking a stand against redistricting in December of 2025. Sierra Club members, along with tens of thousands of fellow Hoosiers, worked actively to relay to legislators our disapproval of redistricting, and Senator Walker listened. We hold on to this hope that our voices are being heard, and encourage all readers to get involved in the legislative session and contact your legislators about issues important to you!
In most years, the Indiana legislative session starts in January, but this year it started in December 2025, and the Hoosier Chapter has been busy getting ready.
Why would the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy club, be involved in the Indiana legislative session? The Sierra Club started in 1892 as a hiking club, but members quickly realized that the beautiful outdoor areas they enjoyed were vulnerable to environmental degradation and destruction. With no one outside of policymakers to protect natural areas, environmental advocacy was born. The Hoosier Chapter Sierra Club and Winding Waters Group are actively involved in affecting policy, lobbying legislators to support clean water, air, and soil policy, as well as the transition to renewable energy. Supporters attend Renewable Energy Day in January and Conservation Day and Water Stewardship Day in February at the Statehouse every year, where we meet with our local legislators as well as connect and plan with fellow advocacy groups in the state.
Please join us in our mission!
The Winding Waters Group welcomes all supporters in our trips to the Statehouse. Hot topics in Indiana this year are an agency bill impacting the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (SB 277), a State Forest Bill that would require the Division of Forestry to log our state forests (HB 1414), several bills expanding access to solar programs (SB 74, SB 196, HB 1084), and the influx of data centers ( HB 1333). If you are interested in learning more or in joining us, please contact Julie Lowe at j_lowe66@yahoo.com
Know your legislators?
Enter your address here to learn who your legislators are, and find their contact information.
Hoosier Chapter Sierra Club members, volunteer leaders, and staff at Renewable Energy Day at the Statehouse Tuesday January 20, 2026. Photo: Megan Anderson.
Upcoming Winding Waters Events
2/03 Tuesday Conservation Day at the Statehouse
2/04 Wednesday Winding Waters Program 6:00 Red Room Bartholomew County Public Library
The Winding Waters Group welcomes return speaker Chris Riccardo from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance to open a window for us on environmental advocacy happening in Utah!
2/09 Monday Indiana Water Stewardship Day at the Statehouse
3/04 Wednesday Winding Waters Program 6:00 Red Room Bartholomew County Public Library.
Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter and Winding Waters Group elections are over. Thank you for your vote!
Please welcome Bob Borella to the Winding Waters Group Executive Committee! You can learn more about Bob in the November 2025 newsletter. Mary Beth Wert and Eric Riddle were reelected.
Please also welcome new members to the Hoosier Chapter Executive Committee: Abby Hastings, Skyler Johnson, Beverly Riddle, and Nicole Snider.
Indiana State Trivia
Test your random fact knowledge about the Hoosier State (answers below):
What is the Indiana State bird?
State tree?
State mammal?
State insect?
State flower?
The answers are: cardinal, tulip poplar, none!, Say’s firefly, and peony.
Wait, the state flower is the peony? That doesn’t make sense, because all the other answers in the list are native to Indiana, but the peony is not native. In fact, the Indiana Native Plant Society (INPS) is lobbying legislators to change the state flower to butterfly milkweed. If you want to learn more or get involved, check out the INPS information page.
Did you know? The Hoosier Chapter Sierra Club has many active groups in the state!
Find out more about what fellow Sierra Club members are doing in Indiana, and learn how to participate.
The Uplands Network is based in Bloomington and serves the surrounding counties. You will find events and our newsletter here.
The Heartlands Group is based in Indianapolis and serves the surrounding counties, and has a newsletter.
Sierra Club’s Indiana Beyond Coal Campaign is advocating for a cleaner, healthier, more affordable Indiana. Efforts for the campaign are focused on moving beyond extractive fossil fuels and equitably transitioning the grid to renewable energy like wind and solar. To get involved with the Beyond Coal Campaign and the efforts to move Duke Energy beyond coal, please email megan.anderson@sierraclub.org.
