► Learn about recent conservation victories in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.
► Take action to protect crucial environmental regulations.
► Read about trees and long-term carbon storage.
► Learn about the new regional roadmap for responding to rising seas - RSAP.
► Take a hike!See the comprehensive list of Chapter activities available through mid-September.
Protecting Nature Through Local Action
We've recently seen several important conservation victories in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.
Biodiversity in Mountain View After several years of community advocacy, Mountain View adopted its Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan and Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan. Together, these plans establish biodiversity as a core community value and recognize that parks can support healthy ecosystems as well as recreation.
Measure D Voters approved Measure D, renewing funding for the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter endorsed the measure to protect open space, restore habitat, improve climate resilience, reduce wildfire and flood risks, and expand opportunities for people to enjoy nature.
Bird-Friendly and Dark Sky Standards San Mateo County adopted updated Design Review Ordinance standards that include Bird-friendly building design and Dark sky lighting requirements for new development in portions of the unincorporated County. The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter has supported these provisions, which will reduce bird collisions, limit light pollution, and better protect wildlife, while promoting more sustainable development. Read the full article on these victories.
Membership Social and Advocacy Updates
Sunday, August 30th 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
We're excited to invite you to our Membership Social and Advocacy Updates, to help you connect with leadership, meet fellow members, and learn more about our Chapter's work and active campaigns.
Whether you're looking to learn how you can make a difference in your local community, pose questions to Chapter leaders, or simply meet other members with similar interests, this event is the perfect place to connect with like minded people in a relaxed setting.
Learn about key developments, including these:
The Massive Hyperscale A.I. Data Centers that are coming to our neighborhoods, and
Proposition 45 (sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce) and its devastating effects on environmental safeguards such as CEQA.
We look forward to welcoming you and helping you make the most of your membership. See you there!
Our Last Chance to Protect Crucial Environmental Regulations
Local CA Senator Becker is an author of SB 1370, an environmentally destructive bill that would waive California environmental laws for large-scale projects up to 3,000 acres under the guise of wildfire prevention.
The bill could be voted on as soon as this week. We need your voice to make sure Senator Becker pulls this dangerous bill and stands on the side of the environment, public health and vital ecosystems.
An underground story of roots, microbes, and the quiet climate heroes nobody invites to conferences
Most people walk into a forest and look up. They admire the cathedral ceilings of branches and leaves, the dappled sunlight peaking through, limbs that can look like they’re auditioning for a fantasy film. But if you really want to understand how forests fight climate change, you have to do something far less glamorous: look down.
When it comes to long-term carbon storage, the real action is happening underground, where roots, microbes, and minerals are quietly running one of the most efficient climate operations on Earth. Read this full article on carbon storage.
The RSAP: A Regional Roadmap for Responding to Rising Seas
The San Francisco Bay shoreline crosses dozens of city and county boundaries, but sea level rise does not stop at jurisdiction lines. Water moves across borders. Wetlands, wildlife, groundwater, contamination, and flood risk are all connected. A decision made in one city can affect neighboring communities, nearby habitats, and the health of the Bay as a whole.
For years, sea level rise planning around the Bay has been fragmented. Some cities have done significant work, while others are just beginning. Some projects have looked only at one property, one neighborhood, or one shoreline segment, without fully accounting for impacts on the broader Bay system. Planning for our interconnected future requires a coordinated approach based on a shared framework of priorities.
That is where the RSAP helps. The RSAP is important because it does more than tell cities to plan; it helps define what good planning should include. Learn more about this regional roadmap.
The Tricky Art of Growing Oysters in the Lab So They Can Survive in the Field
We often talk about the benefits of protecting our existing Bay shoreline ecosystems, and their ecosystem components, such as tidal marshes, mudflats, eelgrass beds, and oyster beds. This photo essay from KneeDeep Times is a fascinating look into efforts to build the oyster population just south of us in Elkhorn Slough.
Learn how nature can help 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.
ACT: No AI Data Centers on Our Public Lands
The Trump administration has approved the first-ever data center on federal public lands -- and did so without any environmental review or meaningful public input. This could become the blueprint for using public lands across the country to build massive industrial data centers, causing increased water use and unchecked air pollution.
Last month, demolition began at Lehigh Quarry, opening a new chapter for polluted Permanente Creek. This milestone is the result of more than two decades of advocacy and collaboration between Sierra Club, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, and community partners.
As shared by Yoriko Kishimoto, a Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Director, “I’m so proud of how all the environmental organizations collaborate effectively together.”
Join us as we honor the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Board of Directors as our 2026 Guardians of Nature Honorees for their leadership in protecting the open spaces, wildlife, and communities we love.
COMMENT LETTERS
650 Harry Road (former IBM Almaden Research Center)
"The proposed rezoning is consequential. It would replace site-specific Planned Development zoning with conventional Industrial Park zoning on approximately 35 acres, allowing a broader range of industrial uses than the existing PD permits. It also raises important questions not adequately addressed in the staff report, such as the adequacy of the City's CEQA determination in light of SB 131 (2025), the loss of existing site-specific PD protections, whether conventional Industrial Park zoning is appropriate for this unusual property, and permanent protection of the approximately 565 acres proposed for Open Space zoning."
"The City’s EIR makes two important findings. First, Masson Estates alone would cause significant and unavoidable impacts related to emergency response, evacuation, wildland fire, and emergency access, even after mitigation. Second, when Masson Estates is considered together with other proposed development, including Encore Estates at the Mountain Winery, the combined impacts on emergency access and evacuation would also be significant and unavoidable. The EIR concludes that these cumulative impacts would remain significant and unavoidable."
"The update of the San Mateo County Safety Element provides an opportunity for the County to proactively address the public safety risks of Life Sciences/ Biotech labs. Public safety emergency response for biotech labs impacts local and national security through pathogen containment failure, dual-use material theft, and slow local-federal coordination. When local first responders lack specialized training for hazardous biological agents, accidental or intentional releases can rapidly escalate from a local containment breach into a widespread public health crisis."
Fight Tyranny and Save Our Oceans in One Click!
The Trump administration, via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is trying to cut funding to California’s Coastal Management Program, which we desperately need as our oceans warm and oil companies further pursue offshore drilling. The Coastal Management Program (CMP) is a program created under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, designed to protect coastal resources and marine life, ensure public access to coastal spaces, and offers the state federal consistency review to make sure that federal government decisions are aligned with the enforceable policies of the program. Attacks on the CMP can impact everything from subsea and ocean desalination to offshore drilling or other industrial projects like SpaceX, and ship speed rules, despite a number of marine mammal deaths and injuries in recent years.
Listers: a glimpse into extreme bird watching, a YouTube movie, is an irreverent and funny look at bird watching's big year challenge. The Big Year is a challenge to see how many species of birds you can spot within a certain geographic area within one year. I first saw a 2011 movie, The Big Year with Jack Black and Steve Martin, which was charming and fun. Then a fellow paddler recommended the YouTube 2025 documentary film, Listers: a glimpse into extreme bird watching. Two brothers, probably in their early 20s, embark on their Big Year with little to no birding experience and live out of their van. The film pokes friendly fun both at extreme birders and themselves. The creative and entertaining graphics really add to the appeal of the film.They include many gorgeous pictures of birds with their names in the lower left hand corner. You don't have to be a birder to enjoy and laugh with this film. You might even become a birder because it makes birding look like a lot of fun, between challenges! I have seen the film three times and I am still chuckling.
Monday, September 14th, 6:30 - 7:30 pm
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.
Inhaling worn tire particles and other micro- and nanoplastics increases cardiopulmonary and lung cancer risk
Research recently published in Nature, Communications Earth and Environmentindicates that about 4% of particulates found in urban air, in Leipzig, Germany, comes from plastic. Of those particulates, 65% comes from tire wear. Other significant plastics of note include polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). By integrating exposure, risk assessment and analytical data, researchers calculated that urban dwellers may increase risk for cardiopulmonary mortality by 9% and lung cancer mortality by 13%.
A Consortium of Scientists and Researchers Call for Global Regulation on Plastic Pellet Transportation at Sea
Earlier in 2026, Cambridge University Press published a call for the International Maritime Organization to classify pre-production plastic pellets, commonly known as “nurdles,” as harmful, environmentally hazardous substances. This step would "trigger mandatory requirements for packaging, marking, documentation, stowage and emergency response” as explained in this guide to shipping dangerous goods by sea. Decades of study on the impacts of nurdles has shown that, when these manufactured microplastics spill into the environment during transport, for example during a shipping accident, fish, birds and other animals often mistake them for food. This can cause starvation, or immune system disruption from chemicals that are added to the pellets. In the United States one can show support for a related Federal bill, H.R.7543, the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act, by signing a petition.
Your connection: Join our Plastic Pollution Prevention Committee as we educate ourselves and others on how to identify and address the growing list of harms inflicted on the environment and public health by prolific and unnecessary plastic production.
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.
Historic August
Aug 2nd, 1924: birth of James Baldwin Aug 9th, 1916: establishment of Lassen Volcano National Park, CA August 16, 1933, just two months after the Loma Prieta Chapter was founded, the actress, dancer and singer Julie Newmar was born. Aug 30, 1944: birth of Molly Ivins, in Monterey, CA
2026.08.05: Chapter Director joined Loma Prieta Day Hikers for Felton to Wilder Ranch (15 miles, 2000 ft gain).
"The point is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world." - James Baldwin
