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Outdoor Focus: Sierra Club and sportsmen form new friendship
By Dan Vierria - dvierria@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, May 1, 2008
Story appeared in SCENE section, Page E10
Choosing between whether to fish or cut bait, the Sierra Club has made a decision to partner with anglers and hunters in its conservation quests. Its new Sierra Sportsmen online network at Sierrasportsmen.org is a Web site that unites seemingly polar opposites: the Sierra Club and sportsmen.
Jon Schwedler, national Sierra Sportsmen organizer, said working together is "long overdue." Roughly one in five of the 700,000 national Sierra Club members is a sportsman. The regional Mother Lode chapter includes about 15,000 households in the Sacramento area.
"We've come full circle," said Schwedler from his home in Albuquerque, N.M. "John Muir was encouraged to start the Sierra Club by Teddy Roosevelt (a sportsman). Both sides now realize we don't need more enemies, we need more friends."
Environmentalists, according to Sierra Club spokeswoman Kristina Johnson, are embracing sportsmen as allies in the common causes of combating mercury-contaminated water, saving salmon from global warming and protecting elk range from oil drilling.
The Web site is a modern tool of unity, serving both activism and activities. To kick off the launch, Sierra Sportsmen features a photo contest, video, the blog "GreenNeck," columns and an online store.
"Part of it is building bridges with other groups and finding out the common ground we have to put strength behind issues we care about," Schwedler said.
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