Loma Prieta Chapter eNewsletter: February, Volume 2
February 24, 2025
YOU Can Make a Difference; Read How in This eNewsletter
► Register for the Bay Alive webinar on March 20th and learn how you can help locally.
► Send a letter telling Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta to protect California water from the Trump Administration.
► See our recommendations for Sierra Club's Board of Directors elections.
► Read stories of love found on the trail with the Loma Prieta Chapter.
► Send a comment to help save the monarch butterfly.
► Help protect the foothill yellow-legged frog, send a comment today.
► Take a hike! See the comprehensive list of Chapter activities available through mid-March.
The Bay is Rising, Let's Rise to the Challenge Together! Webinar | March 20th | 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Join our sea level rise action network to help safeguard our Bay communities and precious ecosystems before it’s too late.
In December 2024, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) adopted the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP), a comprehensive framework to guide sea level rise planning for the entire Bay Area. This plan establishes robust regional guidelines and standards that local jurisdictions must follow to access prioritized state funding.
Now, it’s up to us to ensure that our communities implement the RSAP effectively to turn this strong plan into reality. Please join us on March 20 for our webinar "The Bay is Rising, Let's Rise to the Challenge Together!" to kick off this crucial campaign. Learn why the RSAP is so important, our key priorities for sea level rise adaptation, and how you can take action in your own community. As part of our sea level rise action network, you’ll receive tools and training to effectively advocate and take action locally to ensure strong, effective, and coordinated sea level rise adaptation all around the Bay.
Tell Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta to protect California water from the Trump Administration!
President Donald Trump has instructed the federal government to exert control over California’s water systems and we need your help in demanding that Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta stand up to him!
The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter recommends a vote for Chad Hanson, Maya Khosla, Nancy Muse and Igor Tregub in the upcoming election for the Sierra Club’s Board of Directors.
The exact closing date for the election, typically in late April, should be announced soon. Please be on the alert for the notification of ballot availability.
Love Found on the Trail
Happy Valentine's Day!
Explore a trail with the one you love. Explore a trail with someone you'd like to know better. Explore a trail and maybe find love!
Read these stories of love found on the trail with the Loma Prieta Chapter.
Explore, Enjoy, Protect. LOVE!
Scoping Comments for Environmental Impact Report for Plan Bay Area 2050+
"We are appreciative that PBA 2050+ is now recognizing the need to address environmental issues by proposing a new “Plan Bay Area 2050 + Environment Element” (EN1) into its Blueprint Strategies. However, this Strategy fails to address and incorporate into the Blueprint the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s (BCDC) recent adoption (December 2024) and incorporation into the Bay Plan of its Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP) as required by the passage of SB 272 (Laird). This action included the RSAP’s Subregional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (SSAP) Guidelines that every local shoreline government (and county) jurisdiction must use to develop its own Subregional Shoreline Adaptation Plan and then submit it to BCDC for approval by 2034."
Don’t you 💓 the Redwood Shores Ecological Reserve?
Take action now towards POSITIVE significant impacts before Redwood City determines Redwood Shores’s fate since presenting several woefully inadequate studies echoing claims of Redwood LIFE’s “less than significant” environmental impacts.
Discover opportunities for you to engage in February and March and protect Redwood Shores’s shrinking bayfront ecosystems before the City fastracks this massive, multi-hazardous, permanently detrimental Redwood LIFE plan.
Join the changing tide needed to sway the City’s current course!
Sea Level Rise Webinar Series
Learn how nature can help us fight sea level rise with cost-effective and sustainable solutions. Watch recordings of our webinar series with SF Bay experts and please share with your local elected officials.
Help Save the Monarch Butterfly
With its iconic orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is one of North America's most recognizable and loved species. Yet the entire population of monarch butterflies is at serious risk of extinction due to habitat destruction from pesticides, irresponsible development, and climate change.
Packaging waste is everywhere and plastic plays a large role. Eventually all plastic waste breaks down into micro and nano plastics, contaminating the entire earth. Nearly every package in our pantries is either plastic or contains a plastic liner, which is why we were so excited when with the rice flour box pictured above. No plastic! Not even an inner liner! Perfect. The next step is to tell other companies to fix their packaging. Come join us as the Plastic Pollution Prevention Committee works to eliminate unnecessary plastic!
During 2019 and through 2021 there were multiple Community Meetings to discuss the upcoming project, and Community feedback was solicited and recorded. In 2022 Staff changed those plans apparently without contacting anyone from the Community or Council. Specifically, “mulch” in the planned dog park was replaced with “synthetic turf.” More egregiously, “synthetic turf” was added to the Boulware children’s playground area, previously assumed by the community to be natural grass. The City should remove synthetic turf from Boulware Park. It was never the public intention to allow plastic grass anywhere in the park but it appears to have been added in the final plan, somewhat surreptitiously, and in several areas.
We have been following the evolution of the 80 Willow Road proposal and wish to reinforce and support the comments sent to you earlier by Naomi Goodman, resident of Menlo Park, on the Scope of Work for the EIR consultant. We will be submitting scoping comments when the NOP for the EIR is issued. However, we are now requesting that you include the following items into the “Scope of Work” in the RFP for the EIR consultant (or in an addendum to the RFP) for the upcoming environmental impact report for the project: 1. a geotechnical study with soil borings; 2. A biological resource assessment of the creek; 3. A traffic study; 4. Public safety.
Follow Us on Bluesky
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter is now on Bluesky! Please take a moment to follow us @sierraclublp.bsky.social.
Stay up to date on all of the outings we offer, our conservation work, calls for action when we need your comments, the comment letters we submit, our Bay Alive Campaign work helping Bay shoreline communities prepare for sea level rise, and so much more. We hope to see you there!
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes designating 760,071 acres in California as critical habitat for four distinct population segments of the foothill yellow-legged frog. The species is threatened by habitat degradation, climate change, and invasive species. Critical habitat includes streams and upland areas essential for survival and recovery, with half on federally managed lands. Efforts to balance conservation with wildfire risk reduction and water infrastructure operations are ongoing. Please comment by March 17, 2025.
2025 Basic Backpacking Course
Join the 2025 Basic Backpacking Course in April! Learn the essentials of safe and enjoyable backcountry travel, including the gear, skills, and planning required to be responsible stewards of our precious wilderness ecosystems. The course consists of four Wednesday online sessions; an in-person Saturday demonstration and training hike; and overnight backpacking trips to Henry Coe State Park in May and the Sierra Nevada in June! Basic Backpacking has been offered by the Loma Prieta Chapter for over five decades. The class always fills up quickly, so act fast. Learn more and register.
A deep Thank You to everyone who showed up to urge the Santa Clara County Supervisors to ban new installations of plastic turf. Unfortunately the Supervisors could not get to a majority though three separate motions were made.
We are deeply grateful to Board President Otto Lee who proposed the ban and to Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga who supported the strictest version of the proposed ordinance.Read the full update and see our suggested action items.
In the Community
Cleanups (March 1st and 15th), and Nature Journaling (March 6th), and from our friends at Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful.
We were proud to celebrate Joe Simitian as our 2018 Guardians of Nature Honoree. Watch our tribute video.
One of the best ways to safeguard a thriving and just future is by ensuring that your Loma Prieta Chapter remains a champion for the environment of Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Benito Counties. Naming us as a beneficiary in your bequest will provide meaningful and enduring resources that will allow continued local and powerful environmental activism.
Please contact our Chapter Development Coordinator Justyna Guterman for the specific language for your estate planning and/or read more here. For additional information about planning a bequest please contact Julia Curtis, (800) 932-4270.
Your connection: If you know someone with a garden, whether vegetable, fruit or flowering, let them know: Compost is the best fertilizer, soil conditioner and soil biodiversity driver! A Sierra Club analysis found PFAS “forever chemicals” in biosolids-based fertilizers. If a gardener still wants to use a store-bought fertilizer, it’s best to switch to products verified by the Organics Materials Review Institute. The SCLP Plastic Pollution Prevention Committee has grappled with PFAS chemicals found in plastic products and recommends avoiding products known or suspected to include PFAS.
Photographers, see the great images in our Chapter Annual Summaries and help protect local nature with your images! Share with us your high-resolution photos of local nature, with or without people, to inspire local residents to support Loma Prieta Chapter work. Please contact Chapter Development Coordinator Justyna Guterman.
Feb 14, 1817, approximate birth of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass Feb 18, 1909, birth of Wallace Stegner Feb. 20th, 1902, birth of Ansel Adams _________________________________________________________________________________
“Poets, prophets and reformers are all picture-makers -- and this ability is the secret of their power and of their achievements. They see what ought to be by the reflection of what is, and endeavor to remove the contradiction.” Frederick Douglass
2025.02.015, Chapter Director led Loma Prieta Chapter's Day Hiking Section in Joseph P. Grant (aka Grant Ranch) County Park: 17 miles, 2500 ft elevation gain.
