March Program POSTPONED

In response to Covid-19, the Sierra Club's national leadership has directed chapters and local groups to cancel all events through mid-April. As a result, we will NOT be holding our program on electric vehicles scheduled for March 31. We are hoping to reschedule for May. Take care, everyone!

On Ecuador

Ecuador, on Earth’s equator, experiences twelve hours of daylight everyday of the year. The sun rises with the cool freshness of a spring morning, embraces the day with a summer warmth, and sets with the crisp clarity of a fall night. This consistent climate allows for native plants to thrive year-round.

Last spring break a few friends and I planned a ten day journey to and from seven cities, spanning three countries—the United States, Mexico and Ecuador. On our third day of planes, Ubers and shuttles we found ourselves in Quito, Ecuador, piling into a taxi with six friendly international strangers, all destined for the Cotopaxi Secret Garden Hostel, three hours outside the city. Our yellow caravan rumbled down uneven stone roads towards the rolling green country side. The last stretch of our drive bounced us around a dirt road riddled with holes and lumps. We rounded one last contour of the rich green highlands, and were delivered safely to our secret garden. 

Tucked-in at the base of a jungle-ous mountain it felt cozy. But turning my back to the mountain it felt vast, opening up to the expansive valley we drove through, where cattle, sheep, horses and llamas grazed. Ducks splashed in a little pond near the garden. Lavender sage grew gentle and fragrant; aloe blossoms added vibrant peachy-pink exclamations; green succulents grew abundant, mesmerizing with their fibonacci-spiraling pedals. My eyes and mind alike tried to digest this abundance of living, lush, flora information. Beautiful and strange. But the most humbling of all gazed out at us all from the clouds above the horizon line. Massive, majestic and close enough to kill every living being in sight—Cotopaxi is her name. She is one of the worlds tallest active volcanos, peaking at 20,000 feet. Since 1738 Cotopaxi has erupted more than fifty times. But for the past seventy years she’s been sleeping, an unusually long nap for her. 

That first evening I laid in the netting suspended over rustling grasses. I watched the sun set and the sky morph, like a slow motion painting. The pink and purple sky was layered with texture behind the horizon of mountains, inactive volcanos and Cotopaxi. Her wide snowy summit would soon be illuminated by the moon, and competing with the stars for brightness. The small pond down to my right reflected the hazy purple-pink of twilight. A couple ducks enjoyed the view with me from their pond. Fog filled in where the cattle grazed, as the sky continued to dim.

Cotopaxi’s lullaby flowered in the deep quiet of the night: cows mooing, crickets chirping, frogs croaking, an occasional duck quack and splash of water. The long grass rustled underneath the net I laid on, making me aware of the cool breeze descending from the mountains—telling everyone to settle in for the night.

This memory may be the most visceral of any I’ve had. Maybe because that was the night I fell in love with the magical, mystical Ecuador.   Carly Rundle-Borchert

March 10 - Clean PowerToolkit

La Crosse, WI – As part of its statewide launch, the Coulee Region Sierra Club, La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat, and Citizen Action of Wisconsin will be addressing members of the media and the public on Tuesday, March 10, at 12:30 p.m. at La Crosse City Hall Lobby, to announce the release of the “Wisconsin Clean Energy Toolkit: Developing a Clean Energy Plan for Your Community.”

Mayor Kabat will detail the progress the city of La Crosse is already making to meet its clean energy goals.  Amy Dummer of Citizen Action of Wisconsin will explain opportunities for private citizens and businesses to convert to clean energy. 

As concern over climate change and its impacts deepens, local communities across Wisconsin are eager to develop and implement clean energy plans. Often, they struggle with how to begin from a technical perspective and how to engage their communities.

A collaboration between Wisconsin Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, and RENEW Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Clean Energy Toolkit is a comprehensive guide to energy policy options in Wisconsin. The toolkit is a resource designed to help guide communities of varying sizes and with differing resources as they consider, craft, and implement clean energy policies.

Towns, villages, cities, and counties in Wisconsin are building the renewable energy economy and leading the way in confronting climate change. The Wisconsin Clean Energy Toolkit recognizes the leadership in Wisconsin communities and the opportunities to expand these efforts across the state.

The toolkit’s release on March 10 will include events in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Racine, Waukesha, and Menomonie.

Text Out The Vote

The Sierra Club urges all members to do what we can to help protect our wild and natural areas, ensure continued access to outdoor recreation, reverse the decline of health and habitat for wildlife, and fight for a livable planet for future generations by making every effort to vote for strong environmental candidates and encourage others to vote.

Why the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse needs a sustainability coordinator

Why the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse needs a sustainability coordinator

   I first want to discuss what a sustainability coordinator is and does before going into reasons why I believe the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse should have a sustainability coordinator. A sustainability coordinator according to EnvironmentalScience.org is, "A sustainability program coordinator implements plans of actions based on policy to improve an organization's sustainability" (EnvironmentalScience.org, 2020). A sustainability coordinator does a lot of different things but here are a few important things they do, they "facilitate communication to the University community through website publication, event planning and outreach as well as support programs around campus such as recycling" (https://sustainability.umw.edu/programs/sustainability-coordinator/, 2020). One reason why I believe University of Wisconsin-La Crosse needs a sustainability coordinator is due to University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire a UW-System college similar in size having one and even going a step further they have an entire student office for sustainability. At UW-Eau Claire students, faculty, staff and administration collaborate and work together to implement different environmental projects, programs and events, which I think is a great way to best see positive change within the campus environment. I think when groups of people work together cohesively it almost always leads to the change many people want to see. I think there are a lot of people on the U-W-L campus who do not want to see this campus lag behind similar sized colleges like Eau Claire in sustainability practices. To learn more about UW-Eau Claire's sustainability program and what they do with their program visit this link below. 

Link to UW-Eau Claire Sustainability page: https://www.uwec.edu/sos/

Link to EnvironmentalScience.org page: https://www.environmentalscience.org/career/sustainability-program-coordinator

Link to University of Mary Washington Office of sustainability page: https://sustainability.umw.edu/programs/sustainability-coordinator/

   A second reason for why I think U-W-L needs a sustainability coordinator is due to strong student and faculty interest in the topic of sustainability on this campus and U-W-L already has a joint committee on environmental sustainability (JCES), a students for sustainability club on campus and a green fund program on campus. On the U-W-L sustainability webpage, I liked how they defined sustainability as, "We, the University of Wisconsin La Crosse community, define sustainability as being both a local and global interaction between economy, environment, and society" (uwlax.edu/sustainability/, 2020). I think understanding what sustainability is and why it is important is a starting point in moving towards seeing a sustainability coordinator being a job on the U-W-L campus. To learn more about sustainability at U-W-L visit the link below to learn more.

Link to UW-La Crosse Sustainability page: https://www.uwlax.edu/sustainability/

   A final reason I believe U-W-L should have a sustainability coordinator is the improvement I believe that would be seen on campus with structure and organization of getting projects, events and programs implemented the best that they can be. A sustainability coordinator would be in charge of things like Green Fund grants, recycling programs, reusable plates and cups on campus, implementing renewable energies like solar power and LED lights among many other things. By having a sustainability coordinator in charge of these things I believe there would be pressure and anxiety taken away from students who are putting so much work into making the Green Fund what it is at U-W-L and sustainable practices on the U-W-L campus the way they are. It is amazing some of the work and commitment students at U-W-L have put into sustainable practices and having someone to take away some of the time and commitment to these sustainable practices I believe would be a great thing. 

March 28 WI Assn of Rail Passengers in La Crosse

Registration for the WisARP Spring Meeting in La Crosse on March 28th is open. Register today! You can register online at

https://reg.planetreg.com/E251038172849

You can register by mail using the attached form.

If you live in the La Crosse area and you can't make it for the whole meeting, just come when you can at no charge. Just let me know that you will be coming. We are making the push to get the second Chicago-Twin Cities train.

Mark Weitenbeck
weitenbeck@sbcglobal.net

March 18 Sierra Club Webinar

Our goal is as simple as it is big: stop the financing of climate destruction. Banks, insurance companies, and asset managers need to stop funding fossil fuels and deforestation, and start respecting human rights and Indigenous sovereignty. Please join us on Wednesday, March 18 for a forum hosted by Lena Moffit of Our Wild America, in conversation with Sierra Club Foundation's Dan Chu, Beyond Dirty Fuels Representative Ben Cushing, and Matt Remle, co-founder of Mazaska Talks, an organization of Indigenous activists moving cities and people away from big banks that finance the Dakota Access, Keystone XL, and Line 3 pipelines, and human rights violators. Join us and learn how you can take action! Date: Wednesday, March 18 Time: 2:00 pm PT / 3:00 pm MT / 4:00 pm CT  / 5:00 pm ET

Lena Moffit Senior Director, Our Wild America Dan Chu Executive Director, Sierra Club Foundation Matt Remle Cofounder, Mazaska Talks Ben Cushing Representative, Beyond Dirty Fuels

RSVP for the Webinar

We’d love to hear from you ahead of the forum, and welcome you to submit your questions in advance. Note, you can also dial into the webinar via phone; instructions will be sent once you RSVP.

Are you a Rural Electric Co-op Member (Or Do You Know Someone Who Is)?

One of the largest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions is our homes - houses, condos, apartments, all of them. There is a program available from the USDA, called the Rural Energy Savings Program, that finances energy saving upgrades to our residences through our Rural Electric Cooperatives (RECs). Upgrades as basic as air sealing and additional insulation to new energy efficient furnaces and air conditioning units or even solar panels on your roof. These upgrades reduce carbon dioxide emissions from your property and immediately lower your electricity usage, reducing your monthly electric bill. You then pay back the loan to your electric utility as a line-item on your electric bill, known as on-bill financing.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin is organizing residents in western Wisconsin to urge their REC to utilize available funds from the USDA and other potential sources. These programs use the funds to upgrade residence’s energy efficiency and see an immediate savings while paying off the initial loan, called Pay As You Save, all the while reducing carbon emissions. Through this project rural Wisconsin will become a leader in reducing carbon emissions through residential energy efficient upgrades.

Thanks to the efforts of Citizen Action members, Vernon Electric Co-op has announced they will be offering their members on-bill financing. This is huge news and Citizen Action wants to celebrate and use this momentum to convince more utilities to join the fight against climate change. We encourage Sierra Club members across Southwest Wisconsin who are also members of Rural Electric Co-ops (RECs) to attend their annual membership meetings. In recent years, RECs have worked hard to invest in solar energy and other green energy production methods. We want to show our support and learn more details about the programs these co-ops will be rolling out to fight climate change!

First up is Vernon Electric Co-op’s annual meeting on March 21st at 110 Saugstad Rd in Westby. A free pancake breakfast will be offered starting at 8:00 AM and the meeting begins at 10:00 AM. If you can make it, please RSVP here. Additional Western Wisconsin Rural Electric Co-op Membership Meetings this spring include (list is not exhaustive):

Riverland Energy Cooperative: Saturday, March 28th, 8 a.m. Pancake Breakfast & Registration, 10 a.m. Meeting, Arcadia High School, 756 Raider Dr., Arcadia, WI 54612

Pierce Pepin Cooperative Services: Saturday, March 28th, 9 a.m. Registration, 10 a.m. Meeting, Ellsworth High School Auditorium, 323 W. Hillcrest St., Ellsworth, WI 54011

Jackson Electric Cooperative: Tuesday, April 7th, 7 p.m. Meeting,  Lunda Theatre, 1202 Pierce St., Black River Falls, WI, 54615

Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative: Saturday, April 4th, 9 a.m. Registration, 9:30 a.m. Meeting, UW Extension Office - Youth & Ag Building, 916 East Elm Street, Lancaster, WI  53813

Richland Electric Cooperative: TBA

Oakdale Electric Cooperative: Saturday, March 21st, 7:30 a.m. Pancake Breakfast & Registration, 9:30 a.m. Meeting, Tomah High School, 901 Lincoln Avenue, Tomah, WI 54660

Please contact Amy Dummer at amymarie311@gmail.com if you are interested in attending any of these meetings or would like more information on the campaign.

March Newsletter

TUESDAY, MARCH 31 at 7 p.m. "2020: The Year of Electric Vehicles" with Jeff Springer, Dairyland Power Co-op. Ho-Chunk Three Rivers House, 724 Main Street, La Crosse.   E-Vehicles are cleaner, more efficient, easier and cheaper to maintain than fossil fuel vehicles, and they are key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Why do industry analysts call 2020 the Year of the Electric Car? What are the EV facts, opportunities, and challenges for individuals, businesses, and communities? We’ll hear from Jeff Springer, Manager, Energy Efficiency and Technical Services at Dairyland Power Cooperative and talk about how we can support the important shift to electric vehicles from private cars to trains, trucks, and buses. We’ll also learn what the CRSC board has planned for the new year, talk about upcoming events, and let members know how they can get more involved. 

MARCH 3 & 7 - ALDO LEOPOLD   The annual La Crosse area Aldo Leopold celebration will include an evening with a Teddy Roosevelt reenactor, a talk about “Birder in Chief - Teddy Roosevelt’s Bird Conservation Legacy,” and a hike led by UWL students. At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, Joe Wiegand will perform as Teddy Roosevelt at Viterbo University’s Fine Arts Center. On March 7, events will be held at the Brice Prairie Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Visitors Center. The events are free and open to the public. More details may be found online. Since 2004, Wisconsin has designated the first weekend in March as a time to honor Aldo Leopold and his conservation legacy. The local event is planned by a group including the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics and Leadership, Friends of the Marsh, Friends of the Refuge, Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Visitor Center, Brice Prairie Conservation Association, and Viterbo University.
A fundraiser for the Friends of the Refuge - Pools 7 and 8 will feature Mr. Wiegand as Teddy Roosevelt at a dinner at the Cargill Room at the Waterfront Restaurant on Wednesday, March 4. Ticket info is available at www.for78.org

MARCH 28 - FIFTH ANNUAL CLIMATE ACTION FAIR  The Sierra Club will table at the fifth annual Climate Action Festival hosted by Coulee Region Climate Alliance. For more information, visit the event page: tinyurl.com/2020caf

SOLAR ON SCHOOLS   The Couillard Solar Foundation (CSF) established the Solar on Schools program to accelerate the expansion of solar power among K-12 schools in Wisconsin. In partnership with Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA), Solar on Schools aims to subsidize solar installations on at least 100 Wisconsin public schools over the next four years. The aim of this program is to show students how clean, affordable energy can be produced on their school and get communities working together to not only reduce emissions from the burning of fossil fuels but also to reduce school district money spent on utilities. Learn more at www.couillardsolarfoundation.org/solar-on-schools/  

A group of La Crosse area students, parents, and community members is forming a local CLEAN SCHOOLS group to urge local school districts to commit to installing solar on their school buildings and grounds. If you would like to get involved, please plan to attend the first meeting on Thursday, March 5 from 5 to 6 p.m. at JavaVino in La Crosse OR email crsierraclub@gmail.com.

SOLAR FOR GOOD   RENEW Wisconsin’s Solar for Good initiative fosters the expansion of solar power among mission-based nonprofits and houses of worship in Wisconsin. Through a partnership with Couillard Solar Foundation, RENEW Wisconsin awards solar panels to nonprofit organizations, helping them switch to clean, renewable, solar energy. Solar for Good also offers small grants for technical assistance to get projects started and see them through to success. Solar for Good has already helped over 70 nonprofits save money on their electric bills that they can reinvest in their missions. The Spring 2020 grant cycle will open on March 1. Applications are due by April 1 with awards announced by April 15. Get more details about past projects and application information at www.renewwisconsin.org/solarforgood/  

WISCONSIN CONSERVATION CONGRESS   The Wisconsin Conservation Congress is seeking nominations for organizations, clubs (either local or statewide), and educators who have made a significant contribution to conservation in the past year. Nominations are due March 26, 2020. The nomination form is at dnr.wi.gov/about/wcc/award.html

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH MEETING   The annual Wisconsin Environmental Health Network Conference, Making the Connection: Environmental Health in Wisconsin, on Friday, March 6  is focused on helping to educate health professionals and the public about environmental health. Hosted by the John Muir Chapter Sierra Club, the conference will be held at the Health Sciences Learning Center, 750 Highland Ave., in Madison from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Register online at www.wehnonline.org.

CITIZEN ACTION ALERTS   Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s Rural-Urban Driftless Co-op Organizer, Ben Wilson, announced recently that Vernon Electric Co-op will roll out “on bill” financing to help members make energy efficiency upgrades to  their homes to reduce carbon emissions and save money on monthly utility bills.  If you are a Vernon Electric Co-op member, please  attend the spring membership meeting on March 21st. You can thank the co-op for participating and learn how to sign up. RSVP: tiny.cc/VEC321Mtg

Members of other co-ops are encouraged to attend their spring membership meetings and ask their boards to participate in this program. You can get more details about the program and about upcoming co-op meetings from amymarie311@gmail.com.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin also wants to help everyone start using their spending power to let polluters know that we demand action to save our environment and fight climate change! Citizen Action’s organizing director Kevin Kane is designing a campaign to help people move their money away from polluters. If you can help design the campaign, please schedule a 30-minute phone call at citizen-action-of-wisconsin.appointlet.com

SOIL HEALTH AND DIVERSITY   By CRSC members, Dave and Donna Swanson   
 Nearly 70 farmers and others interested in soil health and farming gathered on February 22 at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore to hear about “Soil Health & Diversity: Keeping Farms Economically and Ecologically Sustainable” The program featured Scott Mericka of Grass Dairy LLC, Dodgeville, and Mike Miles from Anathoth Community Farm in Luck. Scott and Mike described the farming practices they use that improve soil health, retain soil and water on the landscape, and provide a comfortable, healthy environment for their animals. Each presenter also discussed how they have diversified their farm income to provide a more stable future for their operations. Following the presentations the audience asked questions and shared some of their own experiences. Hosted by Grant County Rural Stewardship with funding from the Food, Faith & Farming Network, the event was co-sponsored by Crawford Stewardship Project, Valley Stewardship Network, Wisconsin Farmers Union, Grant County Farm Bureau and Organic Valley.  

CRSC BOOK CLUB   We have finished our first book, Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Overstory. We have decided to spend two months per book to give more time for reading, pondering, and discussing. Our all-online book club is open to all, but we would especially like to invite Coulee Region group members. To join our Goodreads group, please use this link: tiny.cc/CRSCBookClub

Our book for March-April is Dahr Jamail’s The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption. Dahr is an award winning war and climate reporter and this book was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and named one of Smithsonian magazine’s Ten Best Science Books of 2019. Read more about it at thenewpress.com/books/end-of-ice.

UWL SERVICE LEARNING STUDENTS   
Hi, my name is Marc Carstens and I am a senior graduating in May 2020 at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse majoring in Communication Studies with a Broadcast and Digital Media emphasis and minoring in Environmental Studies. I will incorporate skills I have learned from both my major and minor at UWL in CRSC blog posts. I enjoy watching and playing sports.   My favorite sport to play in high school was baseball, but I still like to play basketball and golf for fun with family and friends. I also enjoy nature and being outside hiking, watching for wildlife and I have traveled to many national parks with my family over the years and always have enjoyed those family vacations.  I am passionate about environmental issues, particularly global warming and in my blog posts through writing, images and in some of my posts audio podcasting research and discuss topics I find of particular importance to discuss in my blog posts. Also, I enjoy talking about renewable energy and the importance of clean water, anything to do with environmental sustainability I enjoy talking about with others. I have experience with podcasting from classes I have taken at UWL and I have my own radio show on the UWL student campus run radio station called RAQ Radio where I talk about sports. I hope to incorporate these skills into blog posts I create for the Sierra Club. 

Hello, my name is Carly. I’m a senior at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I’ll graduate this spring with BA in English: writing and rhetoric and minors in environmental studies, photography, and psychology. I’ll be working with the Coulee Region Sierra Club in my final semester, in the form of a service learning project for my Environmental Capstone class. This will lead my transition from the classroom to the real world. My vision for the Coulee Region Sierra Club is to bring back a John Muir-like spirit of environmental awareness, through nature journals and photography. I will be traveling weekly to different city and state parks in the Driftless region. At each location I’ll slow down to listen and observe the dramas that play out in different near-by ecosystems. My insights will be shared through photography and thoughtful writings. Heated environmental politics on the morning news have drowned out the song of the mourning dove. ‘Environmental’ and ‘issues’ seems to roll off the tongue too easily. To quote Sierra Club’s founder, John Muir, “I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.” I hope to share this news with those who wish to read it.

PLEDGE TO CLIMATE ACTION: ENERGY USE!   Wisconsin relies heavily on harmful fossil fuels. Nearly half of our electricity comes from coal, and another quarter comes from gas. Wisconsin lacks fossil fuel resources of its own, so we spend $14.4 billion a year importing energy from other states and countries. To address this disaster, we need to transition to clean, renewable energy sources. Inside this newsletter are programs available to help us reduce our home energy use. Changing bulbs, turning off lights, and using Energy Star appliances are a first step, but we have to go deeper.

Energy efficiency is the cheapest, easiest way to make an immediate difference. Replacing an old appliance with an Energy Star one, adding attic insulation, and sealing gaps will help. Consider ditching or reducing use of your clothes dryer. Use power strips and turn things off when they aren’t being used - even computers and printers. Work  to reduce air conditioner use. Get a home energy audit. Download home energy use data and track it. Pledge to reduce your energy use by a set percentage every month or year. Check out these tips and ideas at www.energystar.gov/campaign/home

Renewables are coming. Solar prices continue to drop. Battery technology continues to improve. Small solar products - portable solar chargers for your phone, laptop, and other small electronics are inexpensive and widely  available. Solar/Wind clothes dryers (aka clotheslines) are easy to install and use. Solar panel prices continue to drop. If your site is suitable, consider having a site assessment and estimate. The City/County of La Crosse will soon be hosting a solar group buy program, and initiatives described inside may help others in the area.

Advocacy   No matter what individuals do in their homes, the big differences will be achieved when businesses, schools, and communites make changes. Ask your school district to sign up for the Couillard Foundation’s Solar on Schools program. Lobby your municipality to put solar on government buildings. Start a Ready for 100 group in your town or city. Advocate for a community solar garden. Start a Renewable Energy discussion and action team.

VOLUNTEER NIGHT   Thanks to those who came to the Myrick Park Center on Tuesday

night to take part in our very first Coulee Region Sierra Club Volunteer Night. Cassie Steiner and Katie Hogan brought lots of tasks for people to do from data entry to graphics and social media updates. Some people wrote letters and we also welcomed suggestions for our display boards. We met several new members and hope to build on this night’s success with future volunteer nights. If you would be interested in helping to host or set up an April or summer volunteer event, email crsierraclub@gmail.com.