Sierra

Sierra Club – There are more than 20,000 Virginia residents who belong to this environmentally concerned group.

When I moved here in 1992 they used to regularly have meetings here. The first time I joined the local group they had an educational session about herbs given by a medical doctor at the public library. For years there was petitioning, picketing, and meeting government officials to stop the plan to use some Mattaponi land for a peninsula reservoir. Result: Mattaponi kept the land. The Club did the same to stop a coal power plant from being built in Surry. Result: There is nothing in Surry to spew out mercury etcetera into my neighborhood.

My last Club newspaper lists 11 chapters. They are organizing (now virtually) to stop fracking plans in a bunch of areas across the state. For fun they have hiking and camping trips, watch films, and eat together.

Examples of newer topics:

“Pass on plastics” with a sewing demonstration of making reusable bags from nylon net. They are durable, strong, washable, and colorful.bags for groceries. The Rappahannock group got a state grant to make the bags.

There is still some concern about Dominion Power rolling out Smart Meters. The Club has helped educate against them so that customers have let state officials know they don’t want them. Smart Meters radiate a lot of harmful EMFs.