Midands Group of Sierra Club

HISTORY: Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most enduring grassroots environmental organization in the US and is present in the form of chapters and groups in every state. It is about 120 years old. In the 1970's in South Carolina the fight to get a large tract of bottomland, hardwood forest protected in Lower Richland County was the first impetus that brought environmentalists together to form a Sierra Club organization here. That forest did receive protection and is now the Congaree National Park. (The South Carolina Chapter of the Club is the statewide umbrella; our Midlands Group is one of several groups covering different sections of the state. Midlands includes Richland, Calhoun, Orangeburg, Saluda, Fairfield, Lexington, and Newberry counties. MISSION: “to practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment, and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.” VISION: We ascribe to the belief and practice to move the world to being in a restored condition in which environmental degradation and destruction is a thing of the past. There will be no "sacrifice zones" where industry or other polluters are allowed to destroy the quality of life of people without monetary or political power whose homes, property, and communities existed prior to the industry being sited near, upwind, or upstream from them. Habitats of plants and animals as well as humans are protected. Also, polluters will not be able to destroy quality of air, of fresh or salt water sources, of entire forests, or of indigenous lands that were taken in violation of treaties. Protecting habitat for wildlife protects people! Our drive to support communities facing environmental injustice will result in community access by all to clean soils, air, water, and personal and community access to nature's additional resources for a healthy quality of physical, social, emotional, and spiritual life, no matter the persons' zipcodes.

Our Midlands Group of Sierra Club works to protect the human and natural environment in a manner that all people have equitable access to clean, healthy soil, water, air, and quality of life. Completely volunteer-driven, the Midlands Group, as all Sierra Club groups, seeks to engage with communities without that access and be allies for them. In Fairfield County our Group pioneered the Greening Affordable Rental Properties project to help communities meet their own energy and food needs in ways that mitigate climate change. At a Section 8 housing community in Winnsboro in Fairfield County the goal was to teach residents to be more energy efficient through a variety of tactics, including using electrical energy smart strips and LED light bulbs which we provided. In addition, we introduced residents and the management company to sustainable, healthy, edible yard spaces using organic gardening techniques. Residents can now grow supplementary vegetables on site in raised beds using clean, rich soil. Fruit trees on the property are young and with care will be productive in a couple of short years. In another project we have has been educating people the ins and outs of confounding world of single-use plastics. We have conducted presentations and workshops to teach people of the necessity of reducing use of single-use plastics to improve health -- their own and that of the environment . Although we favor recycling, recycling plastic does not reduce the amounts of plastic waste from single use plastics already within and entering into the environment and destroying life. We focus on not only the problems but also solutions. Another focus is to get people outdoors to enjoy, to explore, and protect nature. Our outings have purpose, which is to build appreciation for nature and the desire to protect it. Once people know what is there and how important it is, they want to ensure it is protected for future generations.