Conservation

The Conservation Committee recommends conservation policy for the Chapter, identifies conservation priorities, and directs grassroots conservation activities. It is comprised of issue committees that work on specific issues. Members can create committees for new issues as they arise.
Meeting: 4th Monday of each month at 7 pm at the Peninsula Conservation Center.
Chair: Diane Allen, 650/325-3033, dianeallen315@sbcglobal.net

Conservation Issue Committees

Air Quality
Mission: To improve and restore the quality of the air in the Santa Clara Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area through education and advocacy:
• That the Santa Clara Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area comply with and exceed the Air Quality standards in the Clean Air Act so that no child or adult will get respiratory illness from human caused air pollution nor fauna suffer from it.
• That no human caused air pollutants will further degrade the quality of the water and that some day, we can drink directly from the rivers and streams in our watershed.
For information about this committee's current activities, contact: Joyce M. Eden, 408/973-1085, yojo@batnet.com

Coastal Issues
For information about this committee's current activities, contact: Merrill Bobele, mlbobele@comcast.net

Forest Protection
Mission: To preserve, protect, and restore the ecological integrity and native biodiversity of the forests of California, with efforts extending to include the forests of the United States and other regions of the world as appropriate, through education, advocacy, and political action.
Meeting: 3rd Monday of each month at 7 pm, at the Peninsula Conservation Center.
For information about this committee's current activities, contact: Karen Maki, 650/366-0577, karenmaki@earthlink.net

Global Warming and Energy
The Global Warming and Energy Committee (GWEC) is made-up of volunteers who are working to protect the earth's global climate and atmosphere by stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through practical implementation of energy conservation, renewable energy solutions and other climate-friendly alternatives which reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from the Silicon Valley Region. For information about this committee's current activities, check the Committee Website.
Meeting: 1st Sunday of every month, 1 - 3 pm, at the Peninsula Conservation Center (check Yahoo group list for any changes)

Pesticides
Mission:
• To learn about, and help others learn about optimum, least toxic methods of pest control and the laws which regulate pesticide use. This requires a basic understanding of how biological systems interact, of Integrated Pest Management, and of pesticides and how they work.
• To influence lawmakers and other decision-makers to recognize the essential nature of such methods.
• To encourage research to discover even better methods and help convey the results of such research to the public.
Current Campaign: Educating the public about the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) threat and methods of eradication or control.
For information about this committee's activities, contact: Ruth Troetschler, 650/948-4142 rebugging@batnet.com

Sustainable Land Use
Mission:
• To promote sustainable land use and engage our members in creating more livable communities;
• To protect and restore the human and natural environment.
For information about this committee's current activities, contact: Bill Ferguson, 408/946-5096, bill@bill-ferguson.org

Transportation
Mission: To promote the most cost-effective, equitable, least polluting, and least sprawl-inducing transportation system possible. Special attention needs to be given to rectifying the imbalance between the resources devoted to automotive transport, and other modes, specifically, bicycle, pedestrian and mass transit.
For information about this committee's current activities, contact: Gladwyn D'Souza, 650/508-8755, godsouza@yahoo.com

Water
Current Campaign: Water Sustainability
For information about this committee's activities, contact: Mondy Lariz, mondy.lariz@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org

Wetlands
Current Campaign: Protect Open Space in Redwood City. The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter endorses the Open Space Vote measure. Join the campaign to protect Redwood City open space!
For information about this committee's activities, contact: Cynthia Denny, cindyadenny@yahoo.com

Wildlife
Mission: To encourage and support efforts to protect and conserve the indigenous biodiversity and wildlife species of California, the United States, and other regions of the world and their habitats through political lobbying and public education.
For information about this committee's current activities, contact: Ed Smith, edsmith@jps.net

Wilderness
Mission:
• To protect and defend wilderness by working to secure wilderness protection for roadless public lands;
• To promote responsible management of officially designated wilderness areas and public wild lands, through lobbying, public education, letter-writing, and outings;
• To serve as official liaison between the Loma Prieta Chapter and the California-Nevada Regional Wilderness Committee.
Current Campaign: Protect Our State Parks from Closure! Act Now to Prevent this Outrage!
For information about this committee's activities, contact: John Wilkinson, 408/947-0858, johnfw1@mac.com

Zero Waste/Recycling Committee
This is a new committee that is developing its mission. Its activities will focus around advocating for policies to minimize waste that is not safely recycled back into the environment or the marketplace. This includes participation in the Zero Waste Task Force of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.
For information about this committee's current activities, contact: Ann Schneider, 650/988-1368, ZeroWaste.Recycling@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org