{"id":42813,"date":"2022-01-10T14:22:42","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T21:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sierra-club-threatens-to-suspend-20000-member-colorado-chapter\/"},"modified":"2022-01-10T21:22:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T21:22:42","slug":"sierra-club-threatens-to-suspend-20000-member-colorado-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sierra-club-threatens-to-suspend-20000-member-colorado-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Club threatens to suspend 20,000-member Colorado chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kayaking
Kayaking and rafting swamp monsters ran Gore Creek in Vail in protest on June 10, 2019, where Interior Secretary David Bernhardt was keynote speaker at the Western Governors Association meeting. The protest was organized by Colorado Sierra Club, Conservation Colorado and other environmental organizations. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The national Sierra Club is threatening to suspend local leadership of the 20,000-member Colorado Chapter of the environmental group and replace it with a temporary board of dedicated local members, national and local leaders said.<\/p>\n

No one incident led to the threat of suspension, the leaders said. Instead, they cited years of unresolved conflicts between the Colorado leadership and executive committee and volunteers, which Sierra Club relies on heavily for outdoor work, trip organization and contacting politicians and regulators on policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sierra Club Board has a responsibility to act in the best interest of the organization and our millions of members and supporters. We do not take these steps lightly, and we are welcoming input before making any final decisions,\u201d national President Ramon Cruz said in a statement emailed Friday.<\/p>\n

A mass letter to Colorado members last week cited failures to resolve the problems \u201cafter efforts over a number of years \u2013 including training, coaching, and individual accountability measures \u2013 have failed to help chapter leaders move through ongoing conflicts and address cultural issues at a more systemic level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suspension looms, the letter went on, because of an \u201congoing recurring pattern and concerns about inappropriate behavior, harmful and non-inclusive management culture, and ongoing harmful impacts that continue to be raised by internal stakeholders and documented by external professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Chapter spokesman Thomas Young said suspensions are rare but not unprecedented among the 63 local chapters across the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe national board has tried a variety of conflict resolution attempts over the last two years and they just haven\u2019t worked out,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

The national office encouraged chapter leaders and members to weigh in on the Colorado situation through the end of January. Membership privileges will not change, nor will local staff roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo decision has been made on suspension at this point. They\u2019re seeking input throughout the rest of the month, and we\u2019ll take it from there. But as far as the operations of the chapter, nothing\u2019s going to change,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

On a policy level, Colorado\u2019s chapter has been heavily involved in issues ranging from the impact of the Central Interstate 70 rebuild on neighborhoods, cleaning up pollution and emissions from the oil and gas industry, air pollution that impacts national parks and other pristine areas, and reduction of local plastic use.<\/p>\n

Last summer, Politico reported on an internal review of national and local Sierra Club conflicts, including accusations of mishandling workplace discrimination and harassment within the organization.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National leadership cites ongoing conflicts between local management and volunteers, and says it may appoint other Colorado members to take over. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42813"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}