The Sierra Club Foundation Annual Report 2011

THE SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION | ANNUAL REPORT 2011
Nature, as John Muir experienced it, is disappearing. Climate disruption continues, and
demands for development and fossil fuel extraction impede on wild places we used to
call “protected.” Our Resilient Habitats campaign seeks permanent safeguards for vast ecoregions
and iconic habitats. Protecting plants, animals, and people from the Grand Canyon to
the Arctic Circle, from the Everglades to the Cascades, we work with both local activists and
other national organizations to protect America’s most wild places.
GRAND CANYON VICTORY
Each year, four and a half million people visit Grand Canyon National Park, contributing more than $680 million to
the Northern Arizona economy. Home to the desert tortoise, the California condor, and the Kaibab squirrel (a species
found nowhere else on the planet), the Colorado River watershed also provides water for millions of acres of farmland
and people living throughout the Southwest. Unfortunately, lands surrounding the park are prime targets for destructive
ventures: plans for extensive uranium mining on the plateaus surrounding Grand Canyon would industrialize wild
lands and Native American sacred sites while destroying areas important to dozens of rare plants and wildlife.
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