The Sierra Club is an American environmental group with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. It was started in 1892 in San Francisco by John Muir, a man who worked to protect nature. The group was part of the progressive movement and was one of the first large organizations in the world to focus on protecting the environment. The Sierra Club has worked to influence policies that support clean energy and help reduce global warming. It also opposes the use of coal, hydropower, and nuclear power. The group usually supports candidates who are liberal or progressive in elections.

In addition to working on environmental issues, the Sierra Club organizes outdoor activities. It has a long history of helping people learn about mountain climbing and rock climbing in the United States. Members of the Sierra Club helped create the Yosemite Decimal System, a way to classify climbing difficulty. They also played a major role in developing climbing as a sport. Much of this work took place in the Sierra Nevada, which is where the group got its name. The Sierra Club only operates in the United States and is legally classified as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare organization. Sierra Club Canada is a different group that is not connected to the Sierra Club in the U.S.

Overview

The Sierra Club's mission is to "explore, enjoy, and protect nature's special places; to use and care for Earth's ecosystems and resources responsibly; to teach people how to protect and improve the environment; and to use legal methods to achieve these goals."

The Sierra Club is led by a 15-person board of directors. Each year, five directors are chosen for three-year terms, and all members can vote. A president is selected annually by the board from its members. The executive director manages the club's daily work. Michael Brune, who previously worked at the Rainforest Action Network, was the executive director from 2010. He replaced Carl Pope, who left because some members believed the group was no longer following its main goals.

In January 2023, Ben Jealous, a former president of the NAACP, became the club's new executive director. He was the first African American to hold this position. His leadership faced challenges, including changes in the organization's structure, job cuts, and conflicts with staff, unions, and supporters. People accused Jealous and the Sierra Club of unfair treatment of workers. In spring 2024, the Progressive Workers Union, which represents more than half of the club's staff, voted to show they did not trust Jealous's leadership.

In April 2025, Robert D. Bullard, known as the father of environmental justice, asked the Sierra Club to remove his name from its environmental justice award. He said the club had not kept promises to protect the Shiloh community, which is mostly Black. Bullard criticized Jealous's leadership after reports that Jealous called Bullard and community members "snakes" in response to public criticism. Bullard then asked for another vote of no confidence. Additional votes from staff, volunteers, and chapters showed growing problems within the organization. In July 2025, Jealous took a leave of absence. On August 11, 2025, the Sierra Club board voted unanimously to end Jealous's employment due to his actions. In September 2025, Loren Blackford was named the club's new executive director.

The Sierra Club operates nationally and in each U.S. state, with chapters named after the 50 states and two U.S. territories (Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.). California has multiple chapters named after its counties. Chapters allow local groups, committees, and task forces to work on specific issues. While local groups handle many activities, the national organization makes final decisions, including creating or removing chapters and managing members.

The Sierra Club is known for two main activities: organizing outdoor recreation, especially in California (particularly Southern California), and advocating for environmental causes through political action. As one of the United States' leading environmental groups, the Sierra Club supports individual candidates for elected office.

History

Journalist Robert Underwood Johnson worked with John Muir to create a large Yosemite National Park around a smaller state park that had been established in 1864. This effort succeeded in 1890. As early as 1889, Johnson encouraged Muir to form an "association" to protect the Sierra Nevada. Early meetings were held to plan the group. Others involved in the planning included artist William Keith, Willis Linn Jepson, Warren Olney, Willard Drake Johnson, Joseph LeConte, and David Starr Jordan.

In May 1892, Willis Linn Jepson, a young botany professor from the University of California, Berkeley, helped Muir and attorney Warren Olney start a new organization modeled after the eastern Appalachian Mountain Club. The first members of the Sierra Club chose Muir as president, a role he held until his death in 1914. The early Sierra Club focused on the needs of white members and excluded people of color. Muir and some associates, including Joseph LeConte, David Starr Jordan, and Henry Fairfield Osborn, were connected to the early eugenics movement in the United States.

The Sierra Club’s first goals included creating Glacier and Mount Rainier national parks, persuading California’s legislature to transfer Yosemite Valley to the U.S. federal government, and protecting California’s coastal redwood forests.

Muir led President Theodore Roosevelt through Yosemite in 1903. Two years later, the California legislature gave Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to the federal government. The Sierra Club’s first major success was helping establish the country’s second national park, after Yellowstone in 1872.

In the early 1900s, the Sierra Club became involved in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir debate, which divided preservationists and conservationists who supported resource use. In the late 1800s, San Francisco needed more water because its supply was limited. In 1890, San Francisco’s mayor, James D. Phelan, proposed building a dam and aqueduct on the Tuolumne River to increase the city’s water supply.

Gifford Pinchot, a supporter of public utilities and head of the U.S. Forest Service, backed the Hetch Hetchy dam. Muir asked President Roosevelt for help, but Roosevelt did not oppose the dam because it was popular with San Francisco residents. A 1908 referendum showed most people supported the dam. Muir and attorney William Edward Colby started a national campaign against the dam, gaining support from eastern conservationists. When President Woodrow Wilson, who supported the dam, was elected in 1912, dam supporters had a friend in the White House.

The bill to build the Hetch Hetchy dam passed Congress in 1913, and the Sierra Club lost its first major battle. In response, the club supported creating the National Park Service in 1916 to move park management away from the Forest Service. Stephen Mather, a Sierra Club member from Chicago who opposed the dam, became the first director of the National Park Service.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Sierra Club focused on social and recreational activities, such as organizing trips, maintaining trails, and building huts and lodges in the Sierra Nevada. Preservation efforts included expanding Sequoia National Park (completed in 1926) and working for decades to protect Kings Canyon National Park (established in 1940). Historian Stephen Fox noted that in the 1930s, most of the club’s 3,000 members were middle-aged Republicans.

The New Deal brought many conservationists into the Democratic Party, and many Democrats became conservationists. After World War II, attorneys Richard Leonard and Bestor Robinson, nature photographer Ansel Adams, and David Brower helped renew the Sierra Club. Adams helped Brower join the club and later appointed him to the editorial board of the Sierra Club Bulletin. After the war, Brower returned to his job at the University of California Press and began editing the Sierra Club Bulletin in 1946.

By 1950, the Sierra Club had about 7,000 members, mostly on the West Coast. That year, the Atlantic chapter became the first outside California. A volunteer board of directors managed the club with a small clerical staff. In 1952, Brower became the first executive director, and the club began competing with larger conservation groups like the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

The Sierra Club gained national attention by opposing the Echo Park Dam in Utah’s Dinosaur National Monument, announced by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1950. Brower led the effort, working with other conservation groups. His publishing background helped; with publisher Alfred Knopf, the book This Is Dinosaur was quickly published. Using lessons from the Hetch Hetchy debate, conservationists lobbied Congress to remove the Echo Park dam from the Colorado River project in 1955. The club’s success in this battle increased membership from 10,000 in 1956 to 15,000 in 1960.

The Sierra Club became a national conservation organization. Preservationists pushed for wilderness protections. The club’s Biennial Wilderness Conferences, started in 1949 with The Wilderness Society, helped pass the Wilderness Act in 1964, which protected 9.1 million acres of public land. Grand Teton and Olympic National Parks were also expanded with the club’s support.

In 1960, Brower launched the Exhibit Format book series with This Is the American Earth and *In Wild

Outdoor programs

In 1901, William Colby planned the first Sierra Club trip to Yosemite Valley. The annual High Trips were led by experienced climbers such as Francis P. Farquhar, Joseph Nisbet LeConte, Norman Clyde, Walter A. Starr, Jr., Jules Eichorn, Glen Dawson, Ansel Adams, and David R. Brower. Many first climbs in the Sierra Nevada were completed during Sierra Club outings. Members of the Sierra Club were among the earliest people to enjoy rock climbing. In 1911, the first local chapter, called Angeles, was formed. It began organizing trips in the mountains near Los Angeles and across the western United States. Steve Roper’s Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, supported and published by the Sierra Club, is still viewed as one of the most important rock climbing guides in the United States. The Wilderness Travel Course is a basic mountaineering class run by the Sierra Club.

During World War II, several Sierra Club leaders joined the 10th Mountain Division. David R. Brower was one of them. He managed the High Trip program from 1947 to 1954 while working as a major in the Army Reserve.

In many parts of the country, the Sierra Club also organizes hiking trips. The Sierra Club’s website has a feature called “hiking near me.” The section titled “Sierra Club Near You” lists all upcoming trips in nearby areas.

The historic High Trips, which sometimes included large groups of over 100 people, have been replaced by smaller and more frequent trips across the United States and other countries. These trips are a major part of Sierra Club culture. In some chapters, they make up most of what members do. Other chapters may offer very few outdoor or recreational activities, focusing only on political advocacy. Chapters in California are usually more active in outdoor activities.

The Sierra Club gives out several annual awards, such as the Sierra Club John Muir Award, the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography, the Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award, the Edgar Wayburn Award for public officials, the Rachel Carson Award for journalists and writers, the William O. Douglas Award for legal work, and the EarthCare Award for international environmental protection and conservation.

Policy positions

The Sierra Club focuses on land management, public access, and conservation. Unlike many similar groups, the Sierra Club has strong local groups in rural areas. These groups work to ensure public lands are used in ways that protect the environment and benefit communities. Many members join the club because they enjoy outdoor activities like hiking on public lands.

In 2023, the Sierra Club sued the Puerto Rican government over plans to build 18 renewable energy projects on more than 2,000 hectares of land. The club argued that the land was important for the environment and agriculture. It claimed that building these projects on farmland could harm Puerto Rico’s food supply.

A major goal of the Sierra Club is to reduce reliance on coal. Through its "Beyond Coal" campaign, the club aimed to close half of all U.S. coal plants by 2017. In 2011, businessman Michael Bloomberg gave $50 million to the club’s anti-coal efforts. In 2015, he gave another $30 million. Since 2010, the campaign has helped close 187 coal plants. Other supporters include the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The CEO of Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas company, donated $26 million to the campaign between 2007 and 2010.

In 2023, the Sierra Club sued Puerto Rico for its plans to build renewable energy projects on land it said was ecologically important and valuable for farming. At the time, Puerto Rico relied mostly on fossil fuels for energy, with only 2% coming from renewable sources.

The Sierra Club strongly opposes nuclear power. It has also lobbied against large hydropower projects and dams, saying they harm wildlife and disrupt habitats. The club fought against building a dam in Yosemite National Park in the early 20th century, but the dam was eventually built. Today, the club still supports removing it. It also supports removing or closing dams like Glen Canyon Dam and four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington. The club opposes importing energy from Quebec’s hydropower plants to New York, claiming it harms the environment and reduces local renewable energy efforts.

Some Sierra Club chapters have opposed solar power projects, while others support them. The club opposed the Battle Born Solar Project, the largest in the U.S., because it could harm desert tortoises. It also sued to stop a solar project in California’s Mojave Desert, saying it would harm protected wildlife.

The Sierra Club has opposed changes to environmental laws that would speed up project approvals. It argues that all projects, whether solar farms or highways, should follow the same review process. It believes improving environmental agencies, not weakening laws, will help projects move faster.

The Sierra Club has sued to block new housing developments and opposed laws that would make it easier to build homes. Critics say this behavior reflects "NIMBYism," a term for opposing development near one’s own home. In 2012, the club sued to stop a large housing project in Riverside, California. In 2018, it opposed a law allowing more housing near public transit in California, even though other groups supported it for reducing car pollution. In 2023, the club lobbied against a law meant to stop NIMBY tactics from blocking housing projects.

In 2023, the club sued Hawaii’s government after the governor tried to speed up housing construction to address a shortage. The club claimed the shortage was caused by developers profiting from land and water use, not a lack of housing.

The Sierra Club is part of the BlueGreen Alliance, a group of environmental and labor organizations formed in 2006. Some members left the alliance in 2012 because the club opposed the Keystone Pipeline.

Immigration has been a divisive topic for the club. In 1996, the club took a neutral stance on immigration levels. In 2013, it changed its position to support fair paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Some critics have accused the club of supporting population control ideas linked to the eugenics movement. In 1969, the club published a book by Paul R. Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, which argued that population growth harms the environment and suggested strict measures to reduce it. Some say the book had racial biases similar to eugenics ideas.

In the 1980s, some club members, including Ehrlich’s wife, supported addressing immigration to reduce population growth. The club believed overpopulation harmed the environment and supported reducing U.S. and global populations. Some members argued that reducing immigration was needed to achieve this goal.

Affiliates and subsidiaries

The Sierra Club Foundation was created in 1960 by David R. Brower. It is a 501(c)(3) organization, which means it is a type of nonprofit group that does not pay taxes. This group was formed after the Internal Revenue Service took away the Sierra Club's tax-exempt status because the group was involved in political activities. In 1963, the Sierra Club added its first chapter in Canada. In 1989, the group opened a national office in Ottawa. Groups in Canada that work with the Sierra Club operate under the name Sierra Club Canada.

In 1971, volunteer lawyers who had worked with the Sierra Club started the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. This was a separate group that used the name "Sierra Club" with permission from the club. It later changed its name to Earthjustice in 1997. The Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) was a part of the Sierra Club run by students. It was started by Adam Werbach in 1991 and had 30,000 members. The Summer Program (SPROG) was a one-week training program that taught young people skills for environmental and social justice activism. The Sierra Club also had a publishing imprint called Sierra Club Books. They published the John Muir library, which includes many books written by the group's founder. The Sierra Club Canada was dissolved in 2023.

The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund is a 527 group that became active during the 2004 Presidential election by showing television advertisements about the major party candidates' views on environmental issues. Through the Environmental Voter Education Campaign (EVEC), the club worked to organize volunteers for activities like phone calls, visiting homes, and sending postcards to highlight these issues in the campaign.

Budget and funding

The Sierra Club's annual budget was $88 million in 2011 and $100 million in 2012. In 2023, the group's budget was $173 million.

In 2008, Clorox donated $1.3 million to the Sierra Club in exchange for the right to use the Sierra Club's logo on a line of cleaning products.

In February 2012, it was reported that the Sierra Club had received over $26 million in donations from the natural gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy. The Sierra Club used the money from Chesapeake Energy for its Beyond Coal campaign to stop the construction of new coal-fired power plants and close existing ones. Michael Brune said he learned about the donations after he became the Sierra Club's executive director in 2010. Brune said he ended the financial agreement with natural gas industry interests.

In 2013, Naomi Klein wrote that the Sierra Club had received large, multi-million-dollar donations from fossil fuel companies, which caused "major controversy" within the Sierra Club and other environmental groups that also received funding from fossil fuel interests.

In 2014, the Energy and Environment Legal Institute notified the Internal Revenue Service that the Sierra Club and the Sierra Club Foundation were not paying income taxes on money earned from selling solar panels for their partners across the United States.

The Sierra Club has an affiliated super PAC. It spent $1,000,575 on the 2014 elections, all of it opposing Republican candidates for office. The Sierra Club is a partner of America Votes, an organization that coordinates and promotes progressive issues.

Donors to the Sierra Club have included David Gelbaum, Michael Bloomberg, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Sierra Club has also received funding from the Democracy Alliance and the Tides Foundation Advocacy Fund.

In 2015, a public relations group called the Environmental Policy Alliance claimed that the Sierra Club and other U.S. environmental groups received funding from groups linked to Russia's state-owned oil company.

In April 2023, the Sierra Club announced a plan to reorganize due to a $40 million budget gap. The following month, the union representing about 400 employees said that dozens of layoffs had occurred and filed two complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

Criticisms

The Sierra Club has faced criticism for opposing projects that build many homes in a small area in California. These projects aim to help solve the state’s lack of homes and reduce pollution that harms the environment. Ethan Elkind, who leads a climate program at UC Berkeley Law, said the Sierra Club’s opposition to California Senate Bill 827 was unexpected. This bill would require cities to allow more homes near public transportation and reduce rules about how many parking spaces are needed for new homes. Elkind asked, "Is the Sierra Club an organization that wants to keep newcomers out of wealthy areas with good public transit? Or does it truly want to help fight climate change by building enough homes in low-pollution areas? Their opposition to SB 827 suggests the first possibility more than the second."

In 2023, the Sierra Club of Hawaii criticized Governor Josh Green for declaring an emergency about Hawaii’s housing shortage and for making a decision that made it easier to build homes and paused strict rules about how land can be used.

In 2025, the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club was criticized for opposing a project that would provide affordable homes in Cranbury.

In late 2020, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming asked the United States Department of Justice to investigate environmental groups like the Sierra Club. She said that these groups’ active involvement in politics and legal matters, along with their views that sometimes match those of opponents, made it important for the DOJ to check for foreign influence in these groups.

In early 2021, as reported by MondoWeiss, groups that support Palestinians asked the Sierra Club to stop trips to Israel that they called "greenwashing." This term refers to efforts that appear to help the environment but may not be genuine. The Sierra Club canceled two planned trips but later changed its decision, saying the choice was made too quickly without consulting others. MondoWeiss reported that the Sierra Club later rescheduled the trips, which included visits to the Golan Heights and Palestinian territories, and did not cancel the trips.

In June 2021, a summary of a report by a consulting firm called Ramona Strategies described many problems, including harassment, unfair treatment at work, and failure to address abusive leaders. The report was created in 2020 after a claim of sexual assault against a volunteer leader became public. It noted that the Sierra Club’s use of volunteer leaders created challenges and suggested changes to its structure as part of a process to address these issues. On August 13, 2021, Michael Brune announced he would leave his role as the Sierra Club’s leader after 11 years and apologized for not ensuring that volunteers and staff felt safe and valued. Politico described his resignation as a major setback for the U.S. environmental movement and the Democratic Party’s support for environmental issues.

Internal elections

The Sierra Club has a long history of holding internal elections, which have often shown deep differences about its goals and how to respond to changes in environmental ideas.

In one election, a group led by Ansel Adams won against supporters of David Brower, who was the club's influential but debated leader. Brower supported strong efforts to protect nature, such as opposing dams in the Grand Canyon and fighting for redwood forests. This conflict showed a divide between the Sierra Club's early focus on outdoor activities and its growing role as a national group pushing for environmental policies. Brower was later removed from his position, marking a major moment of confusion about the club's identity.

By the late 1990s, members disagreed about whether population growth and immigration should be considered environmental issues. This disagreement led to a lawsuit in 2004, where some members accused the club of unfair voting practices during elections. In 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Sierra Club, supporting its election rules.

Later, when the club's leader, Michael Brune, admitted that the founder John Muir made racist remarks, tensions arose about the club's history, workplace culture, and changes aimed at improving diversity and inclusion. Some volunteers claimed leaders were reducing the power of local members in favor of professional staff and reforms focused on diversity.

In recent years, some chapters of the club in different states have argued over "YIMBY" efforts, which support building more housing near cities. Newer members connect this to fighting climate change, while others believe it harms traditional conservation goals.