Statements by Candidates for Chapter Executive Committee
DON MCBRIDE: I have been a Sierra Club member and participated in outings from the Sierra Nevada to the Adirondacks to Tibet for over 35 years. I have been on the Raritan Valley Group ExCom since 2001, serving as Group Chair in 2006 and 2008.
I am also a member of the California-Nevada Outings Subcommittee where I have led outings for the last 6 years. In 2007 I successfully lobbied Rep. Mike Ferguson with a native Alaskan to support the ban on oil drilling in ANWR. I recently lead a successful statewide effort to revise the New Jersey BPU rules for Vegetation Management. (See p. 4)Source: newjersey.sierraclub.org/njs_sierran/Sierran_09D.pdf
Annual Sierra Club Appreciation Day Celebrated
Senator Robert Menendez, BPU Commissioner Joseph L. Fiordaliso, and Raritan Valley Group-member Donald McBride were the principal honorees at the Club's Nov 22 social event honoring our political heroes, financial benefactors, Trenton staff, and volunteer activists. As for many years, Pretty Brook Farmhouse, on the grounds of the Princeton Day School, was the venue.Chapter Director Jeff Tittel described Sen. Menendez as "ahead of the Club" on most environmental issues, and as an "insider's senator" with the tenacity and ability to convince other senators of his positions in opposition to offshore oil drilling, protection of Alaskan and Utah wilderness, and the importance of action on Global Warming. The Senator briefly described some of his current efforts to promote health care reform.
April - June 2010
More on the Chapter's Annual Appreciation Day
In addition to honoring Senator Robert
Menendez, as reported in the previous
Newsletter, annual awards on Nov 22
went to BPU Commissioner Joseph L.
Fiordaliso and Raritan Valley Groupmember
Donald McBride.Don McBride explained how, as primarily a leader of national Club outings, he had become politicized into activism to counteract a stupid decision, both nationally and in New Jersey, to require clear-cutting of excessively wide swathes under high-voltage power lines. (See his article on p.4 of our Oct-Dec, 2009, issue.) Don conducted research on the practical limits to the need for clearing, and found that the BPU was vastly overprotective. He then provided BPU Commissioner Fiordaliso with technical documents and analysis to convince him the rules needed revision, and helped him successfully champion revision of the BPU's previous ruling to make it more environmentally friendly. The Commissioner, who represents the public on the Board, then told how a mother had contacted him about saving a threatened tree she had planted as a memorial to a son who had been killed in Iraq.
Commissioner Fiordaliso has been a consistent proponent of balancing the safety and reliability of the electrical grid with environmental concerns. In the initial hearing on the issue he pointed out the value of trees as a carbon sink and aesthetic resource, in light of New Jersey's nickname as the "Garden State". He even evoked Joyce Kilmer's famous poem "Trees". When one utility ignored a Commission letter and continued to cut under the old rules, the Commissioner intervened on behalf of township officials and the Sierra Club and forced them to comply with the new guidelines. He made countless visits to tree cutting sites, meeting with citizens, municipal officials and the utilities to get all sides of the story.
The photographs below show (left to right) Don McBride, Commissioner Fiordaliso, Chapter Chair Ken Johanson, Assemblywoman Linda R. Greenstein (D, 14th District), and Chapter Director Jeff Tittel. Credits for them are due to Meiling Chin, George Fluck and Wynn
I've been leading trips for national outings since 2005.
Introduction to Backpacking - Watson Lake - 2010
50+ Ridgetop Rambles | Yoga and Hiking | Intro to Backpacking | Humphrey's Basin Basecamp
See also: Sierra Club Outings