Former Sierra Club President (1980-1982), Educator and volunteer conservationist campaigning for protection of the California Desert, the Giant Sequoias of the Sierra Nevada, and wilderness in California and the nation.
Joe Fontaine was camping in California's Sequoia National Forest with a group of Boy Scouts in 1962 when he saw a clearcut that looked like "a war zone." First he got angry, then he got involved. And he's never let up the pressure to protect his beloved forest.
Joe's frequent testimony before Congress and visits with key decision makers contributed greatly to the creation of the Giant Sequota National Monument and the designation of several wilderness areas including the Golden Trout Wilderness in the southern Sierra mountains of California. Joe served for years as the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Sierra Club Sequoia Task Force.
Following Muir's wisdom that when people got to actually know a place, they would work to protect it, Joe wrote a guidebook called The Kern Plateau and Other Gems of the Southern Sierra. based on his lifetime exploring these mountains; camping, hiking, backpacking, and flying over every corner of the southern Sierra.
Fontaine was awarded the Sierra Club's highest award, the "John Muir Award" in 1995, for his long career working to protect the southern Sierra Nevada, Mojave desert lands, the giant Sequoia, and other California wilderness areas.
Fontaine says, "I have spent the last 40 years working on the goals Muir set for the Sierra Club when he played the key role in founding the organization in 1892. His writing and ideas have been an inspiration to me during that time. He has truly been an inspiration to me personally and to all of the members of the Sierra Club which has grown to over 750,000 strong. Furthermore John Muir was one of the primary founders of the environmental movement in the United States which has become quite effective here as well as in the rest of the world. In short John Muir is regarded as one of the greatest men in American history."
After President Clinton's designation of the 328,000 acre Giant Sequoia National Monument on April 15, 2000, many of us believed (mistakenly, it turns out) that Joe and the other grassroots volunteers who worked with him had achieved not only a victory for wild forests and future generations, but a personal one as well. With Carla Cloer and other activists, he had spent years writing letters, lobbying, organizing rallies, filing lawsuits, testifying at public hearings and challenging timber sales. After the Monument Proclamation, Fontaine said, "John Muir was pushing for the protection of these groves a century ago. I like to think we've scratched something off his to-do list." Alas, within four years later Muir's axiom proved to still be true: "The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, and we cannot expect to see the end of it. So we must count on watching and striving for these trees." Proposals from 2004 clear up to 2025 from the Forest Service and Congress repeatedly call for more improper logging in this beleagured area.
Sadly, his beloved wife "Bugs" (so named due to her love since childhood for all of the creatures of the world), passed away on February 22, 2025. She not only assisted Joe in all his efforts, but was dedicated to making sure that other grassroots volunteers were honored for their efforts. Her infectious laugh will be missed by all who knew her.