Friday, January 31, 2025

February newsletter

 


The Coulee Region Sierra Club joins other local and regional organizations in celebrating Transit Equity Days to highlight the importance of good public transportation as a civil right to ensure everyone has access to a full life.

In Wisconsin, the Department of Transportation estimates 31 percent of residents are non-drivers. In the City of La Crosse, up to 40 percent of residents ages 15 and older are non-driver. There are areas of the Coulee Region with similarly high numbers of probable non-drivers. Lack of good public transportation limits access to education, jobs, health care, services, social enrichment, and more. Even where public transit is available, slow service and spotty coverage make travel harder and more time-consuming.

The Scenic Mississippi Regional Transit, a public-private public transportation partnership, will participate by offering FREE FARES on Wednesday, February 5 for riders with a Transit Equity Days flyer (printed out or shown on a phone). The fares for this service which connects Tomah, Viroqua, and Prairie du Chien with La Crosse, are normally $5 per ride (less with a pass).
Learn more about Transit Equity Days in the La Crosse area at https://tinyurl.com/TEDLaCrosse-2025 and about the national Transit Equity Day movement at https://www.labor4sustainability.org/transportation/transit-equity-2025/

FEBRUARY 15 - WISCONSIN TRANSIT SUMMIT      Join fellow transportation advocates on Saturday, February 15 for an impactful summit on multi-modal transportation! Are you passionate about creating a sustainable and connected future for Wisconsin? At this transformative summit where we will build relationships, strategize for legislative success, and plan for action to have an impact at upcoming lobby days and budget hearings. This summit is a unique opportunity to make a tangible impact on Wisconsin's transportation future. Don't miss out on the chance to be part of this important conversation and drive meaningful change. Learn more and register at https://tinyurl.com/25CMRTSummit

COMMUNITY TRAIL FARM     Thank you Josh Hein for speaking with us about the new Community Trail Farm being developed by the Outdoor Recreation Alliance. Josh told us a bit about ORA and its work building and maintaining trails for biking and hiking, the 277 acre farm, and plans for a community education and recreation facility. It’s a major undertaking that will take time; having connections with like-minded individuals and groups will help. View the program at https://youtu.be/XrXiqi0NbLg

CRSC BOARD UPDATE     Board member Avery Van Gaard has decided to resign her CRSC position due to expanding school, work, and life commitments.  We thank Avery for her seven years of service on the board.

Club member Dr. Chris Miller has been approved by the board to take over the open seat. Chris is interested in collaborating with other individuals and environmental organizations to increase our influence and our creative potential in our area. As a primary care doctor for 34 years. she is very aware of the promotion of health through connecting others with  the natural world and is interested in exploring the prescription of more green time by health care providers. In her personal life, Chris has worked to lessen plastic use, remove toxic products from her home, cook with whole foods, garden, compost, and create pollinator habitats. Welcome Chris and thanks!

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION GRANTS     Congratulations to the following Coulee Region educators who will receive CRSC  Environmental Education Grants for the spring 2025 semester! We look forward to reporting on these projects this fall.

  • Chelsey Myhre Foster at the Knutson Memorial Library in Coon Valley for the After School Club which will help bring educational speakers and service learning opportunities to participants in grades K-8.
  • Amanda Ray, Northside Elementary School, La Crosse for a cave tour field trip for third grade students.
  • Liz Ramsay, Longfellow Middle School, La Crosse, to start a school-wide juice and milk carton recycling program run by seventh grade students.
  • Scott Linssen at La Crosse Central High School for a school fly fishing class.

ALDO LEOPOLD CELEBRATION     The celebration of Aldo Leopold started in Lodi in 2000 as a community group reading of A Sand County Almanac. The reading became an annual event, and "Leopold Weekend" became an official state event in 2004. Since then, many communities host programs about Aldo Leopold and his ideas, and the Aldo Leopold Foundation hosts online programs as well. 

In La Crosse, Aldo Leopold celebrations will kick off with a February 27 7 p.m. program at Viterbo University, hosted by the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership, celebrating the centennial of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. A 50-minute stage production of A Visit from Will Dilg will be followed by a discussion and audience Q&A. Learn more at https://www.viterbo.edu/db-reinhart-institute-ethics-leadership/visit-will-dilg

On March 1, a 9 a.m. program at the Nature Place in Myrick Park will look at “Water Ways in the Driftless: Leopold's Land (and Water) Ethics in a time of Deluge,” followed by more displays and programs and ending with an afternoon at the ORA Community Trail Farm. See https://www.viterbo.edu/db-reinhart-institute-ethics-leadership/aldo-leopold-celebration for more.

The Aldo Leopold Foundation will present three online speakers from March 4-6, including Margaret Renki, Camille Dungy, and Amy Tan. Get more information and register for the links at https://www.crowdcast.io/c/leopold-week2025

CLIMATE ACTION HOURS     More than 12,000 Sierra Club members signed up for the first monthly online program to lean about and understand what’s at stake for our future. Climate Action Hours are a place for concerned and overwhelmed people to make sense of what the Trump administration is throwing at us and take meaningful action together. In one hour a month, you'll get the key updates you need to know and take collective action to resist the Trump administration and their corporate polluter allies. These interactive gatherings will take place virtually, so you can join from wherever you live and take action alongside thousands of other Sierra Club advocates. Actions will change month to month, and might include calling your federal representatives or other decision makers, sharing your views on social media, writing a letter to the editor, practicing storytelling, and more. View past programs and register for the next Climate Action Hour, Wednesday February 26 at 5 p.m. Central time, at https://tinyurl.com/SCClimateHour25

BACKYARD BIRD COUNT     Join the world in connecting to birds February 14–17, 2025. In as little as 15 minutes identify and count birds, then submit your counts. Learn more at https://www.birdcount.org/ 

KNOWLES-NELSON LOBBY DAY     Knowles-Nelson Lobby Day, a chance to advocate for our environment, will take place in Madison on March 12.  Hosted by Team Knowles-Nelson, Lobby Day will kick off at the Wisconsin Masonic Center with a morning of advocacy programming to prepare you for meetings with your legislators. The team will provide materials and key talking points about the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Then, you’ll head to the Capitol for pre-scheduled meetings with legislators and their staff. As meetings wrap up, we’ll reconvene with an informal networking session to debrief and connect with fellow advocates.

All are welcome and encouraged to participate in this important day for our state’s future. Together, we will make a difference in shaping conservation policy.  
Learn more at https://knowlesnelson.org/lobbyday/  

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Wednesday, January 1, 2025

January Newsletter

 

JANUARY 14 at 6:45 p.m. COMMUNITY TRAIL FARM with Josh Hein, Outdoor Recreation Alliance. ONLINE.     The Outdoor Recreation Alliance, or ORA Trails, in La Crosse, has taken on its biggest project yet! With the purchase of a 277 acre old farm just minutes from downtown, ORA is creating a space that is truly for everyone. Plans include building 15 miles of trails, restoring various prairies and savanna, removing invasive species, enhancing wetlands, and improving trout habitat and stream ecology. ORA is also teaming up with schools, universities, municipalities, and other organizations to establish education and community programs and events that celebrate all the space has to offer. We will hear from Josh Hein, ORA’s Trail Farm Project Administrator, about the organization and the project, with time for your questions following his talk. Register for this online program at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/HWlLbYKyQ023yg3-ZdoA6Q and, after registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. If you would like to join the meeting by dialing in on your phone, please call 608-315-2693 or email CRSierraClub@gmail.com to sign up. You can learn more about the Community Trail Farm at oratrails.org/trail-farm. 

JANUARY 7 - CHAPTER BOOK CLUB     The first book club selection of the new year is Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb. Sign up for the 7 p.m. discussion, held online, at https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=7013q000002HuZmAAK&mapLinkHref= or call or email to learn how to join by phone. Crossings is an eye-opening account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from the award-winning author of Eager. Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience, so ubiquitous they’re practically invisible to us. But wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill.

JANUARY 5 - ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION GRANTS DEADLINE!     Applications for CRSC environmental education grants of up to $200 each are due by January 5! Schools or community organizations involving young people at the elementary and middle school level within the CRSC region (Crawford, Grant, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland, Trempealeau, and Vernon counties) are eligible to apply. Applications may be completed online, emailed or mailed. Please share this information with educators you know! Learn more at www.sierraclub.org/wisconsin/coulee/Education or www.tinyurl.com/CRSC-Education. 

JANUARY 23 - WISCONSIN CHAPTER VIRTUAL VOLUNTEER FAIR     Start the new year by learning how you can get involved and make a difference. There are countless ways to volunteer with the Sierra Club and this event will help you find your fit and get started.There are in-person, virtual, regular, or occasional opportunities that fit all types of schedules. Join the virtual volunteer fair to learn more, ask questions and meet others who are also looking for ways to make a positive impact and protect the environment. Register here for the 6:30 p.m. fair: https://tinyurl.com/WISC-2025VVF

CRSC BOARD ELECTIONS     Congratulations Dorothy Lenard, Flo Sandok, and Avery Van Gaard who were elected to the  CRSC Board of Directors for 2025-2027! Thanks to all who voted! And special thanks to Carol Miller whose term has ended. The CRSC Board meets monthly to plan club activities and coordinate actions with local and state club members and allies. The next board meeting will be online at 6:30 p.m. on January 28. CRSC members may attend. Email or call for access information.

OUTINGS LEADER TRAINING     If you have a love for the outdoors or have special places or activities you'd like to share with others, please consider becoming an outing leader. As an outing leader you are the bridge that helps connect the people and places in your community. Once trained, you plan the outing and we will help promote it - let’s work together to get people outside in 2025! Leader training may be done online OR there will be one full in-person day on March 23rd in the Black River Falls area. For longer, overnight outings or water based outings, additional training is required. If you are interested, sign-up by filling out the interest form at https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Wisconsin?actionId=AR0493110 or contact Heather at heather.wittrock@sierraclub.org for more information.

RIGHTS OF NATURE     CRSC member Diane Cain forwarded information about the Rights of Nature movement, a decades-long effort, deeply rooted in indigenous knowledge, to officially recognize the natural world and its right to survive and thrive in our legal processes. Since 2006, communities, states, and countries have used the RON to combat environmental degradation and species extinction. In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to recognize RON in its constitution. In Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk Nation, the Wisconsin Farmers Union, and the Milwaukee County Board have passed RON resolutions. If you are interested in signing the petition encouraging Governor Evers to “enshrine the Rights of Nature in our communities and constitution,” sign here:  https://www.change.org/p/rights-of-nature-unite-wisconsin  Learn more about the RON movement in Wisconsin at https://www.rightsofnaturewi.org/

2024 YEAR IN REVIEW     by Kathy Allen, CRSC Board president      Our Coulee Region Group kept busy this year, hosting our own programs and co-hosting events with partners! Here are some highlights from each month.

  • January - We awarded two environmental education grants, one to the Longfellow Middle School Outdoor Adventure Club in La Crosse and another to Westview Elementary's first graders in Platteville for a Monarchs and Milkweed project. See reports from the recipients in our September newsletter online.
  • February - With the Wisconsin Chapter, we co-hosted an online program about the Sierra Club’s new "Transit to Trails for All" initiative as part of Transit Equity Days. A recording of the program is still available on the Chapter's Facebook page (Find "Videos" in the "More" tab).
  • March - We co-hosted a "Know Your Co-op" educational webinar about rural energy, electric rates, and getting involved in your local Rural Electric Co-op. Many of our group members in rural areas belong to rural electric cooperatives. A recording is also available on the Chapter's Facebook page.
  • April - With several local partners, we co-hosted a "Spring into Energy Savings" program about the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act for homeowners and the climate. We also co-sponsored a very popular screening of "Bad River" at the Rivoli in La Crosse and completed our first roadside cleanup along River Valley Drive.
  • May - We hosted an online program, Climate Action in a River City,  with La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds. During his time as co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, the mayor attended international conferences on climate and plastics. A recording of this program is available on our group's Facebook page (search for CRSC - Coulee Region Sierra Club).
  • June - We hosted a "Transit to Trails For All" outing to Mississippi Valley Conservancy’s Hass Tract trail (see photos in our July newsletter). We also co-hosted a rally for clean energy and press conference outside of the Dairyland Power Cooperative annual meeting at the La Crosse Center. And just for fun, we held our summer group potluck at Goose Island!
  • July - We completed our second roadside cleanup of the year.
  • August - We awarded our 2024 High School Environmental Stewardship Award to Logan High School's Rachel Greany (read more in our September newsletter). We also tabled at the City of La Crosse Parks Department's Bluff Bash, a celebration of outdoor recreation.
  • September - We hosted "Clean Energy Benefits and YOU", an online program with Quinn Rowe from WI Conservation Voters. Quinn summarized the information from the program in our October newsletter.
  • October - We completed our final roadside cleanup of the year, co-sponsored Week Without Driving, and tabled at an "Understanding Project 2025" event organized by the UW-La Crosse College Democrats to raise awareness about potential impacts on climate and clean energy programs.
  • November - At the Wisconsin Chapter awards, our group board member and newsletter editor Cathy Van Maren received the JJ & Pat Werner Award, the chapter’s highest honor, given to Sierra Club leaders who have shown an undying commitment to its goals and missions throughout the years. You can see the presentation on the Chapter's Youtube page.
  • December - We closed out the year with a spirited holiday potluck at the home of one of our board members!

VEGANUARY     Veganuary is a world-wide event that encourages and supports people to be mindful of how our food choices affect our health, environment, and climate.  Those who sign up for the month-long challenge will receive information, recipes, support, and ideas to try a more climate-friendly way to eat. Learn more and sign up at https://veganuary.com/en-us/

KNOWLES-NELSON LOBBY DAY     Knowles-Nelson Lobby Day, a chance to advocate for our environment, will take place in Madison on March 12.  More details will be available in our February newsletter for those who might wish to share rides to this important event. Learn more at https://knowlesnelson.org/lobbyday/    

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