Allegheny Group

The Allegheny Group was organized in the early 1970s. It is one of 11 groups comprising the Pennsylvania Chapter. Other Western Pa. groups are centered in State College and Erie. The Allegheny Group’s first projects involved legal battles to oppose granting strip mining permits which threatened irreplaceable local water supplies. It also fought in and out of the courts to protect the Clarion River from pulp mill wastes. It also did a study of lands on the Allegheny National Forest that might qualify as Wilderness areas under the 1964 National Wilderness Act. It was instrumental in getting bills introduced in Congress to protect three areas as Wilderness, and succeeded in obtaining Wilderness status for the Hickory Creek area and a number of Allegheny River islands. The group also played a role in restricting the use of off-road vehicles on the Allegheny National Forest. Members may become involved in various conservation committees that work on such issues as air quality, population, carrying capacity, oil and gas, wetlands, recycling and political education.

In 2004 the national Sierra Club opened up a Field office in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh office houses four staff working on the Building Environmental Community program, the Blue Green Alliance, Sierra Student Coalition, and other national priority programs and campaigns. The Allegheny Group also uses the office for committee meetings and activities. The office is in a building that can be reached from Bigelow Blvd or Craig St, in Suite 202. The building’s Bigelow address is 3875 Bigelow Blvd. The mailing address is:
425 N. Craig St.
Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

The office telephone number is 412-802-6161.

Contacts

If you cannot find what you are looking for on this website, the following may be helpful:

• National conservation issues
• Local conservation issues - email Nathaniel Doyno: n dot doyno at gmail dot com or Marilyn Skolnick: emkhs at concentric dot net.
• Membership information - email Stephanie Simmons: snsimmons at gmail dot com.
• Monthly meeting information - email Don Gibbon: dongibbon at earthlink dot net.
• Outings information - email Bruce Sundquist: bsundquist1 at windstream dot net.
• Comments regarding this website - email Mike LaMark: lamarkmichael at yahoo dot com.

Officers and Committees

• Group Chair – Claudia Kirkpatrick
• Vice-Chair - Tom Hoffman
• Secretary - Barbara Grover
• Treasurer - Robert Lang
• Conservation Co-Chairs - Peter Wray and Marilyn Skolnick
• Political Chair - Peter Wray
• Communications Chair - Mike LaMark
• Newsletter Editor - Marla Ferrence
• Membership - Stephanie Simmons
• Webmaster – Carol Nichols

Issue Committees

• Air Quality - Marilyn Skolnick
• Environmental Justice - Tom Hoffman
• Global Warming - Peter Wray
• Hays Woods - Peter Wray
• Mining - Phil Coleman
• Mon Fayette Expressway - Marilyn Skolnick
• Public Lands - Jim Kleissler
• Sustainable Agriculture/Urban Gardening - Don Gibbon
• Transportation - Marilyn Skolnick
• Water - Stephanie Simmons

Huplits Wildlife Grants

The Allegheny Group is responsible for managing an annual contribution from the Huplits Family Trust. Each year the Huplits Wildlife Grants Committee conducts a competition for grants to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat. The deadline for the 2009 competition will be April 30. For more information, please contact committee Chair Chris Seymour (tophseymour at gmail dot com).

Sierra Club: General Information and History

Pennsylvania Chapter

The Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club consists of ten Groups, of which the Allegheny Group is one. In addition to managing the overall functioning of the Groups in Pennsylvania, the Chapter Executive Committee oversees the operation of the Club’s Harrisburg office. Executive Director Jeff Schmidt is in charge of lobbying on state legislative and regulatory issues. With delegates from the Allegheny group, the Chapter Executive Committee meets six times a year, including an annual family retreat weekend.

About the National Sierra Club

The Sierra Club was founded in California in 1892. It has long been recognized as one of the nation’s most active and effective national groups working for environmental integrity through public education, lobbying, and legal action. The national membership was 625,000 in 2000. In recent years the Sierra Club has focused its environmental advocacy on clean air and water, open space and wild places, conservation of natural resources, wise use of land, and improved mass transportation. For more information regarding the national Sierra Club activities or for membership information, contact them at 85 Second St., Second Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105-3441 (415-977-5500) http://www.sierraclub.org

Programs

The Sierra Club has a number of programs aimed at broadening the base of public commitment to the conservation ethic and environmental protection through environmental advocacy in the political arena. These include:

Washington DC Lobbying Office

The national club supports a staff of about fifty in Washington DC to lobby on Federal environmental issues. Current legislation of interest to the Club can be found at www.sierraclub.org/legislativetracker/.

National Outings

The National Sierra Club sponsors about 300 trips yearly, both national and international, for people of all ages and skill levels. A few of the dozen or so trip categories are: base-camp, canoe-kayak, backpacking, ski-touring, river rafting, cleanup. Most local groups sponsor weekend outings also. Details are available at www.sierraclub.org or in Sierra magazine.

Sierra Club Foundation

This non-political arm of the Sierra Club receives tax-deductible contributions for such purposes as research (forestry, wildlife, wilderness-impact, etc.), sponsoring conferences, producing films, books and other educational material, purchasing land, paying for public-interest lawsuits, etc.

National Publications

Numerous outstanding publications on environmental matters are produced by the national Sierra Club. These include professional-quality films, slide shows, photographic essays, The Planet (a monthly summary of club activities, conservation news and related legislative activity), the Sierra (the bimonthly magazine of the Sierra Club), soft-cover books, and group- and chapter newsletters. If you have email, you can join any of numerous listserves that help you keep abreast of all sorts of environmental issues, goings-on in the Club, and other issues.

Environmental Law Program

In 2000, the Sierra Club launched an expansion of its legal program. Working with grassroots activists, the expanded Environmental Law Program brings the national might and vision of the Sierra Club to the local level, and fights for the rights of local communities using the resources and reach of the nation’s oldest and largest environmental organization.