2009 Annual Chapter Retreat - Okefenokee
Join us this fall for our Annual Chapter Retreat at the Okefenokee Swamp! Come and celebrate our 10 year anniversary of the Georgia Chapter’s victory over DuPont. This year we will meet at Laura Walker Park, near the Okefenokee Swamp, Friday, October 30th through Sunday, November 1st. This National Wildlife Refuge consists of more than 162,000 hectares (about 400,000 acres) embracing 92% of the Okefenokee Swamp, a large hydro logically intact swamp that is the source of two rivers, one that flows into the Atlantic and the other into the Gulf of Mexico. The Refuge also has extensive and essentially undisturbed peat deposits.
Okefenokee is one of the world's largest naturally driven freshwater ecosystems with a diversity of habitat types, including 21 vegetative types. The Refuge's fauna is also renowned worldwide for its diversity of amphibians and reptiles, mammals, birds, fishes, and invertebrates and perhaps as many as 1,000 species of moths. Unlike many other significant wetland areas, the swamp is the source of rivers rather than their recipient, as in a delta, and therefore escapes most disturbances to natural hydrology and water flow. The Refuge's undisturbed peat beds store valuable information on environmental conditions over the past 5,000 years and are a significant source of information related to global changes.
Since it will be Halloween weekend, and a full moon, we plan to offer some extra fun, family-friendly activities. We’ll be staying at the Group Camp facility at Laura Walker Park, 10 minutes from Waycross. We’ll have dorm housing for over 120 people, plus a large dining hall, picnic pavilion, and a Premier Pioneer Campground with hot showers. Housing this year will bring you closer to nature! You’ll need to bring your own sleeping bags, towels, pillows, and other items. Each dorm has 4 bunk beds, sleeping 8, with a nearby bath house. If you'd like the luxury of a motel room, we are making arrangements with a nice motel in Waycross, 10 minutes away, so that we can get a reduced rate.
Our outings, workshops and other activities on Saturday will be at nearby Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge, using our friends at Okefenokee Adventures. We’ll have kayak and canoe trips in the swamp, float trips on the St. Mary’s river, hikes with naturalists in the forest, and more. And of course we’ll have workshops on topics like modern forestry management practices, community supported agriculture, eating locally, and Georgia politics. Sunday’s activities will be either at Laura Walker Park or in the Waycross area, with more workshops, and outings. Our annual awards dinner will be “costume optional”, followed by apple-bobbing, story-telling and songs around a bonfire. We will be trying to have a “waste free” event this year. To accomplish this, we ask for you to bring your own canteen or water bottle and consider bringing cloth napkins.
Please click here for more information on our chapter website, and join us in the swamp for an unforgettable Halloween! Registration forms are available.
Inner City Outings (ICO) demonstrates the Sierra Club's ability to bring its message of environmental stewardship into urban communities.
Sierra Club volunteer outings leaders recognize that many youth growing up in urban environments have little or no access to nature due to lack of income, awareness, and skills. In close to 50 cities in the United States, dedicated ICO volunteers take youth who would not otherwise have access to the outdoors on safe and fun wilderness excursions. Many of these youth have never been outside their immediate neighborhoods, let alone into wilderness places.
This year, the Georgia Chapter will participate with ICO to bring 12 children to the Georgia Chapter Annual Retreat. Please help make this possible with your donations. Many ICO participants credit the program with helping them to succeed in school and work toward personal goals. $100 can help a child experience the Okefenokee Swamp. To make a donation to ICO please contact Genie Strickland at 404-607-1262 x 221. Checks should be made out to Sierra Club Foundation - Georgia Chapter ICO.
Sierra Club Meetings
Smart Energy Team Meeting, Monday, October 5th, Seandra Rawls - Chapter Staff, 404-607-1262 x 222 RAIL Committee Meeting, Monday, October 26th, 6:45p.m., Jim Dexter 678-313-2407, jimdex@aol.com Fundraising Committee Meeting, Tuesday, October 27th, 6:30p.m., Sandy Stewart & Erin Wetty - Co-Chairs, call 404-607-1262 x 225 |
Environmental Events
Georgia's ENERGY STARŪ Sales Tax Holiday ENDS TODAY
October 4th
Start saving today with the upcoming sales tax exemption. Georgians will be able to buy energy efficient products with NO state or local sales tax from Oct 1 thru Oct 4, 2009. This includes items up to $1500 with the ENERGY STAR logo and bought for personal use.
U2 Can Help Save the Environment
Tuesday, October 6th, 4p.m. - 7p.m.
Vine City Marta Station
Volunteer with one of the five Smart Energy volunteer teams who will be launching a “Smart Energy, No Coal” photo petition at the upcoming U2 concert in Atlanta on Tuesday, October 6th! Please rsvp to Seandra Rawls at seandra.rawls@sierraclub.org.
Washington County Coal-Fired Power Plant Permit Hearing
Tuesday, October 20th, 6p.m.
Ridge Road Elementary School Cafeteria, 285 Ridge Road, Sandersville, Georgia 31802.
The proposed Washington County coal-fired power plant recently received its pollution permits. As required by law, these permits are up for public comment. Please consider attending and join the growing group of people who are engaging to comment on this dirty proposal. A public hearing will be held in Sandersville Georgia on October 20th. To attend this hearing or find out more about what you can do, click here.
Healthy Places Research Group (HPRG) Meeting
Tuesday, October 20th, 8a.m. - 10a.m.
Georgia State University, University Center 44 Courtland Street, Room 460/465
The Healthy Places Research Group, winner of the 2005 Golden Shoe Award for Pedestrian-Friendly Research, is a collaborative effort involving Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, Georgia Tech's College of Architecture, and the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development. It also involves professionals from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers, students, and others interested in exploring the co-relationship between the built environment and the health of communities. Participation is open to anyone interested in exploring the characteristics and advancement of healthy places.
Georgia Chapter Grand Opening!
Thursday, October 22nd, 6:30p.m. - 8:30p.m.
Georgia Chapter Office 743 E. College Ave, Suite B, Decatur, GA 30030
The Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club has moved offices. The Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club is now located in Decatur, GA. Because of the generosity of our donors, the Georgia Chapter will be saving precious funds by moving to Decatur and enjoying a new location rent free! Please join the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club to celebrate our new office, enjoy some refreshments, and be present for our ribbon cutting on October 22nd! Please RSVP to the Chapter Office, 404-607-1262 x 221.
Hemlockfest
Friday - Sunday, November 6th - 8th
HemlockFest is an annual benefit music festival to increase public awareness and generate funds to help save the Eastern and Carolina Hemlock trees. Funds raised each year are used for support of the Georgia laboratories rearing adelgid-devouring beetles, education and research on the Hemlock woolly adelgid problem, and assisting businesses and homeowners to protect Hemlocks on their private property. Learn more by clicking here.
Georgia Chapter Wish List
As you may know, the Georgia Chapter recently relocated to Decatur close to East Decatur Station right next to the Avondale (E7) Marta Station. With the opening of the Georgia Chapter’s new office, we are looking for several items that could make the office even more functional and take advantage of our new space. Please, if you can help with any of the items below contact Genie Strickland in the Georgia Chapter Office at 404-607-1262 x 221.
Interested in reading more?
If you have missed an issue of Footnotes Online you can view them online in our Footnotes Online archive by clicking here. You can also sign up for alerts in order to take action at times when we need decision makers to hear from you. Click here to view the newest edition of the Georgia Sierran. We need your help!