Sierra Club: 100 Years of Protecting Nature

The history of the Sierra Club is the story of how saving wild places began as a far-out idea and became a popular cause all over the country. Tom Turner's book tells this inspiring story with eloquence, accompanied by outstanding photographs by some of our greatest photographers. The Sierra Club started in 1892 as an outing club in the San Francisco area, focusing on the Sierra Nevada - a mountain range then seldom visited and appreciated by few. Now into its second century, the club has chapters all over the United States and Canada, each a local center of activists working to save nearby wild places. This book shows that the club's strength lies in its members, people who volunteer their time and their creativity in the cause of protecting nature. The book describes how the club operated in several major campaigns, from an early defeat on Hetch Hetchy Dam, built in Yosemite National Park, to the triumph of the Alaska Lands Act in 1980, which doubled the size of the national park system. I was among the club's volunteer activists in the 1960s and later watched its work with appreciation from my job in the Department of the Interior. It was always good news when the Sierra Club stood up for wilderness, because government officials listened.