The Sierra Club is an environmental organization founded on May 28, 1892 in San Francisco, California by the well-known conservationist John Muir, who became its first president. The Sierra Club has hundreds of thousands of members in chapters located throughout the United States and Canada. It also hires people for campaigns through the Fund for Public Interest Research, as do some other members of the activism industry. The Club's policies are set by a fifteen-member Board of Directors. Each year, five Directors are elected to three-year terms, with all Club members eligible to vote.
In the early 20th century, the organization fought against the damming and flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. Despite their lobbying, Congress authorized the construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River. The Sierra Club continues to lobby for removal of the dam, urging that San Francisco's water needs be accommodated instead by the re-engineering of the Don Pedro Reservoir downstream. The Club also supports removal, breaching or decommissioning of many other dams.
The Sierra Club of/du Canada has been active since 1963. It is now an independent corporation with its own national structure and local entities throughout Canada working on pollution, biodiversity, energy, and sustainability issues.
In 1971, volunteer lawyers who had worked with the Sierra Club established the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. This was a separate organization that used the "Sierra Club" name under license from the Club; it changed its name to Earthjustice in 1997.
The Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) is the student-run arm of the Sierra Club. Founded by Adam Werbach in 1991 and purports to be the largest student-led environmental group in the United States.
SUSPS - group of Sierra Club members wanting the club to support U.S. population stabilization
JMS - group of Sierra Club members wanting the club to adopt a stronger conservation stance
Sierra Democracy - Sierra Club members who oppose the club's "old guard", and support the rights (in Club elections) of reform groups like SUSPS and JMS
Groundswell Sierra - Sierra Club members who oppose the reform groups, and support the club's "old guard"
