Dear Supporter,

Happy Fall

News from the Chair
by Nick Cheranich

Greetings fellow environmentalist. The Napa Sierra Club Group has been busy these past couple months, reaching out to our community and supporting local partners. We joined several outreach and fundraising events where we highlighted critical environmental issues and shared our vision for a healthier, saner future.

One of the highlights was seeing our student intern, Kate Bit (pictured above), speak before the American Canyon City Council. Her powerful remarks on the urgency of protecting wetlands in the face of climate change reminded us all why youth voices matter in this fight. 

Our other student interns have been doing inspiring work as well. From advocating for the protection of Salvador Creek at Vintage High School to launching a brand-new environmental podcast, these young women are showing what passionate, committed leadership looks like. Their energy and vision exemplify the Sierra Club’s mission to protect our planet and engage communities in meaningful action. We invite you to read and listen to their contributions below. (Photo: At Vintage High, from left to right, Jessica Hutchinson, Principal, Vintage High School; Yvonne Baginski, Napa Solano Audubon Society; Claire Mulligan and Arya Adhye, both Napa Sierra Club Student Interns; Chris Malan, Institute for Conservation and Advocacy; Nick Cheranich, Chair, Napa Sierra Club Group) 

Speaking of which, if you know of any young person who might be interested in our student internship program, please ask him or her to email me for more information.

We also staffed a booth at the Meet Me in the Streets event in American Canyon and attended the Evening at the Ruins fundraiser hosted by the American Canyon Community & Parks Foundation (ACCPF). Our collaboration with ACCPF goes back years—through both donations and hands-on support for programs like Outdoor Connections and Watershed Explorers. (Photo: the Sierra Club table from Left to Right: Chris Benz, Paulina Zambrano, Alicia Bales, Nick Cheranich, Rich Richardson, Robert Raven, Joelle Gallagher, Jennifer Palmer, and Bridget Caldwell.)

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And now, it’s our turn to host! On November 14, the Napa Group will hold our own community event at Skyline Park. Admission is free, but space is limited. If you’d like to reserve an early spot, see the details below—we’d love to have you join us. (Photo: Skyline Park, by Josiah Roe.)

📅 Friday, November 14, 2025
🕠 5:30 – 8:30 pm
📍 Skyline Park, Napa

• Please RSVP, here

The evening will feature:
•    Complimentary beverages, including fine local wines, and catered food from Napa’s best.
•    Live music performed by a professional musician between speakers.
•    A lineup of speakers, including National and State Sierra Club leaders, addressing pressing environmental issues.
•    Networking opportunities with other local environmental organizations and politicians.
•    Building social capital amongst ourselves, while having a good time.

Hosts include our dedicated student interns (right), whose work has been at the heart of recent community efforts.

We hope you can join us for this special evening of food, conversation, and community.

• Please RSVP, here

Although the event is free, if you would like to donate to the Napa Sierra Club directly, please click here. Your donations help in part to provide our student interns with a stipend for their hard work. Thank you!

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Other Napa Group Efforts
Several of us in the Executive Committee have also been engaged in the early stages of both the Napa County General Plan update and the Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Our priority is to ensure these documents reflect strong, enforceable environmental protections. “Business as usual” is no longer acceptable. Instead, we need a bold vision for Napa County—one that looks 10, 20 years ahead and confronts the realities of global warming and biodiversity loss with creativity and urgency.

Here’s how you can help: stay tuned for upcoming public hearings and comment periods. When these opportunities arise, adding your voice can make a real difference in shaping the county’s future.

Proposition 50: Redistricting Reform
This November, California voters will consider Proposition 50, a new measure that would give our state greater control over how congressional district boundaries are drawn. The intent is to ensure fairer representation and reduce the influence of gerrymandering practices seen in other states.

As of this writing, the Sierra Club has not yet taken a position on Prop 50, and before we do, we want to hear from you—our members. Your perspective will help guide our decision-making. Please share your thoughts by emailing us at the link below. For more background on the proposition, click here.

Mark your calendars! It was great to see so many new faces at our last Sept. 15th meeting. Our next Conservation Committee meeting will be Monday November 17th, 2025 at 6:00PM. If you would like to attend, just click on the RSVP button below and I'll send you a Zoom invite a few days before the meeting. Thank you.

- Nick Cheranich, ExCom Chair
napavalleysierraclub@gmail.com
 

Student Interns Help Protect Endangered Chinook Salmon in Salvador Creek
Article by Arya Adhye and Claire Mulligan, Student Interns; Photos by Nick Cheranich

After attending Vintage High School (VHS) for almost three years, the two of us, Claire and Arya, observed many instances of habitat invasion and damage to the creek that runs through campus. Students often throw their garbage into the creek, and even fished for and harassed salmon during a major spawning season last year.  

Back in the early months of this year, we decided to start a project to increase awareness of the creek, with a particular focus on endangered Chinook salmon that spawn in it. This was also part of our internship program with the Napa Sierra Club. As mentioned, previously, there have been incidents involving the fish in the creek, which stemmed from a clear lack of knowledge of their importance. We decided that the students must be educated on what the Chinook salmon are, and why they should save, rather than harm, them.  

So, we began by writing a blurb about the salmon for the VHS Tapes. For those who don’t know, the VHS Tapes are a series of videos watched weekly by the entire school, and are a great way to gain a large student audience. In “Aina’s Nature Walk” portion, a section of the VHS Tapes reserved for environmental subjects, we included an anecdote educating students about the endangered creatures that passed through our creek every year. (Photo: From left to right, Jessica Hutchinson, Principal, Vintage High School; Yvonne Baginski, Napa Solano Audubon Society; Claire Mulligan and Arya Adhye, both Napa Sierra Club Student Interns; Chris Malan, Institute for Conservation and Advocacy; Nick Cheranich, Chair, Napa Sierra Club Group) 

At the same time, we got together with local environmentalists to create informational signs installed along the creek. We first walked along the creek, surveying ideal locations to place these signs. (Photo: One of the posted signs.)

Once we figured out which areas were city land versus school property, we decided on the specific places where signs would be most effective.

With the help of Yvonne Baginski (a passionate environmentalist), and the Golden State Salmon Association, we created six metal signs, which included the life cycle of the Chinook and how to avoid disrupting them. These signs have been installed (see photos below!), just in time for the fall spawning season of the salmon, which occurs from October to December.

We hope to continue to raise awareness for these salmon in our last year at Vintage High. Hopefully, even after we graduate, Vintage’s student body will become more aware of the important and endangered Chinook salmon right here in our backyard.  

Student Intern Speaks Out on Wetlands Protection
Article and photos by Nick Cheranich

Our student intern, Kate Bit, recently spoke before the American Canyon City Council about the urgent need to preserve local wetlands in the face of sea level rise caused by global warming. The American Canyon native joined a presentation led by Mark Stevenson of the Napa-Sonoma Audubon Society, who outlined the severe impacts climate change poses to hundreds of species that depend on wetlands for survival.(Photo: Ms. Bit presenting to the City Council.)

In her remarks, Ms. Bit explained how the Bay Area is already experiencing flooding from high tides, storm surges, and increasingly intense storms. The consequences are profound: natural habitats that once protected shoreline communities are under threat, transportation networks face disruption, untreated wastewater is pouring into the Bay, and parks and open spaces risk submersion. “We are already seeing the costs of inaction,” Ms. Bit told the council. “If we delay, the choices left to us will only get harder, and the future for our communities and wildlife will be way less secure.” (Photo: Mr. Stevenson during his presentation.)

She also highlighted the importance of the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP), adopted last year by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and the California Coastal Commission. This regional framework guides the Bay Area’s response to rising seas. Under state law, local governments—including American Canyon—are now required to develop Subregional Shoreline Adaptation Plans that align with the RSAP and submit them for approval.

In closing her presentation, Ms. Bit quoted directly from the RSAP:
“Put nature first whenever possible. Prioritize natural infrastructure solutions that benefit ecosystems and the health of the Bay as well as people, especially in the near-term. Adapting to rising sea level will require a mix of green and gray infrastructure. Working with nature, instead of against it, can produce better results for both people and wildlife.”

Reflecting on the experience afterward, Ms. Bit said: “It was both exciting and a little daunting to stand before the City Council, but I felt it was important to press the urgency of wetlands protection. If local governments don’t act soon, the problems we face today will seem like nothing compared to what’s coming, especially during my lifetime.”

We are deeply proud of Ms. Bit’s determination and her clear, passionate advocacy for protecting the wetlands that safeguard both people and nature.

Legacy is often defined as the desire to leave the world a better place for future generations.

At the Napa Sierra Club Group, our mission is to conserve natural ecosystems, promote sustainability in land and water use, and reduce carbon emissions. Our projects focus on issues that matter to Napa County, where local action can make a real difference.

We're working to protect the environment for those who will inherit it, but we can't do it alone.

It's not enough to just support the cause financially—real change happens through action.

So, let's do it for them!

We’re seeking passionate individuals to join our Conservation and Executive Committees. Whether you bring expertise in research, organizing, or education—or you're eager to learn—we welcome your involvement. If you or someone you know has skills and experience that align with our mission, we need your help.

Prepare to make your legacy count. Take the first step by joining us at our next Conservation Committee meeting (RSVP here). 

For further information, email us, in care of Nick Cheranich, at napavalleysierraclub@gmail.com. Thank you!

A Surprisingly Easy Way to Boost Your Attention Span
Article by Dana G. Smith, courtesy of the New York Times

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,  
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,  
There is society where none intrudes,  
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:  
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,  
From these our interviews,  
in which I steal From all I may be,  
or have been before,  
To mingle with the Universe,  
and feel What I can ne'er express,  
yet cannot all conceal.” —Lord Byron 

In 2008, 38 students at the University of Michigan set out on a walk. Half of them wound their way through the trees in Ann Arbor’s Nichols Arboretum for 2.8 miles, while the other half navigated the same distance on the busy streets of downtown. A week later, the two groups swapped routes. 

Both times before they set out, the students took a test that challenged their attention and working memory, where they were given progressively longer sequences of numbers that they had to repeat back in reverse order. When they returned to campus, the students took the test again. Walking through town improved their performance slightly, but walking in nature boosted scores by nearly 20 percent. 

“You didn’t even need to like or enjoy the nature walk to get these cognitive benefits,” said Marc Berman, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, who conducted the study while he was a graduate student at Michigan. People who walked on a cold January day experienced just as much benefit as those who did the experiment in July. 

The effect that nature has on our minds has been studied many times before and since, and the research generally — though not always — finds that exposure to green spaces boosts our cognition and creativity, not to mention our mood. 

Many of us have experienced firsthand the natural world’s ability to revitalize us — a moment of clarity after summiting a mountain, or renewed focus following a lunchtime stroll in the park. Scientists are trying to understand exactly why that happens. 

In his new book, “Nature and the Mind,” Dr. Berman attributes the cognitive benefits of nature to “attention restoration theory.” First proposed in the 1980s by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan (both of whom were psychology professors at the University of Michigan when Dr. Berman was a student there), the premise is that our ability to focus is a finite resource that gets easily used up, and being in nature is an effective way to replenish it. Article continues with this free paywall link. 

We Often Miscalculate Our Climate Choices, a New Study Says
by Caleigh Wells, courtesy of Associated Press

It turns out many Americans aren’t great at identifying which personal decisions contribute most to climate change. (Graphic credit: risingpixel)

A study recently published by the National Academy of Sciences found that when asked to rank actions, such as swapping a car that uses gasoline for an electric one, carpooling or reducing food waste, participants weren’t very accurate when assessing how much those actions contributed to climate change, which is caused mostly by the release of greenhouse gases that happen when fuels like gasoline, oil and coal are burned. 

“People over-assign impact to actually pretty low-impact actions such as recycling, and underestimate the actual carbon impact of behaviors much more carbon intensive, like flying or eating meat,” said Madalina Vlasceanu, report co-author and professor of environmental social sciences at Stanford University. 

The top three individual actions that help the climate, including avoiding plane flights, choosing not to get a dog (because of the amount of meat products they eat) and using renewable electricity, were also the three that participants underestimated the most. Meanwhile, the lowest-impact actions were changing to more efficient appliances and swapping out light bulbs, recycling, and using less energy on washing clothes. Those were three of the top four overestimated actions in the report. (Photo credit: shutterstock.)

There are many reasons people get it wrong .

Vlasceanu said marketing focuses more on recycling and using energy-efficient light bulbs than on why flights or dog adoption are relatively bad for the climate, so participants were more likely to give those actions more weight. (Photo credit: metroforensics.blogspot.com)

How the human brain is wired also plays a role. 

“You can see the bottle being recycled. That’s visible. Whereas carbon emissions, that’s invisible to the human eye. So that’s why we don’t associate emissions with flying,” said Jiaying Zhao, who teaches psychology and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Article continues here.