While the Sierra Club emphasizes landscaping with native plants, growing a vegetable garden is a far better usage of the landscape than a grass lawn.  Our First Lady, Michelle Obama, has planted a veggie garden on the grounds of the White House, taking out quite a bit of lawn- a high five to her!  She recently told a group of students that are helping her out on this project that the produce that they are growing is going to feed White House staff and guests.  It would be great to go native but if they are going to plant non-natives on the grounds of the White House, a food garden is a terrific way to go, as long it is organic.  And our native butterflies love dill weed!

See a news story about this subject here .

Bring your friends and join the Sierra Club at Cork & Olive in Altamonte Springs for a Saturday evening wine tasting.  This will be an enjoyable event: we’ll sample excellent wines and enjoy good conversation with fellow Sierra Club members. We’ll taste six different types of wine, with fruit and cheese platters for snacking.

May 16, 2009 from 7pm-9pm at Cork & Olive- 955 West SR 436, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714.

Cost is $10.00 per person (pay at the door)

Please RSVP to reserve your spot at this event: Mary-Slater at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or (407) 481-4398

Please go to our Outings page for the latest information on our March and April Outings. These include:

• March 13: Camp & Hike in Seminols State Forest, NE Lake County
• March 15: Hike Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, Palm Coast
• March 28: Bike "Spring to Spring" Trail, Volusia County
• April 4: Bike Cady Way Trail, Orlando
• April 11: Bike Tosohatchee Preserve, E. Orange County
• April 26: Picnic, Kayak & Bike Moss Park, SE Orlando

Non-members are welcome on our outings! Everyone must RSVP the trip leader before attending, and sign a standard liability waiver. See individual outings for contact info.

(This program has been rescheduled from February.)

On April 15th, join us for a discussion of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). KSC includes 140,000 acres purchased by NASA in the late 1950s and is located on the east coast of central Florida. Approximately 6,000 acres are actively used to support space mission operations; the remaining lands are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Immediately north of KSC is the Canaveral National Seashore, managed by the National Park Service. This unique relationship between space flight and protection of natural resources is carefully orchestrated.

All programs are held at Harry P. Leu Gardens. 920 N Forest Avenue, Orlando FL. Door opens at 6:15 PM with light snacks and socializing. Programs are from 7:00 – 8:45 PM. A brief discussion of environmental issues receeds the program. Admission is free and the public is welcome! 

Wednesday, March 18 from 7-8:45 pm.

"As she slips on her flip-flops and temporarily hangs up her parka, Dr. Jane Waterman, biology professor at UCF, will guide us through her decade-long research on polar bears at Churchill, Canada. This may be some of the last research gathered on this population of bears who are slipping into extinction, in possibly as soon as 10-20 years. Dr. Waterman will explain to Central Floridians about the warnings the study provides. Climate change effects include rising sea levels and warmer temperatures, many of which will affect coastal areas such as Florida. To learn about polar bears, climate change, and for an opportunity to see footage from remote cameras of these disappearing Arctic mammals, please join us."

The March/April edition of the Sierran is now available! This month's features include:

• Scenes from our December Awards banquet
• Notes on LEED certification
• New Styrofoam recycling program at the Zoo!
• What does the yearly U.S. energy budget really look like?
• Call for legislative volunteers
• Update on Central FL water withdrawals
• National Sierra elections
• Upcoming outings and programs
• and more!

Click here to view the newsletter.

A big welcome to those members who are looking at the newsletter online for the first time! We hope you enjoy it in living color!

The Alliance for Climate Protection has just produced a new ad about "clean coal" that we thought our members might enjoy. Prodiced by the Coen Brothers (of Fargo and No Countryfor Old Men fame), it offers a humorous look at the claims that "clean coal" technology will solve our energy crisis. Unfortunately, people mean many things when they talk about "clean coal", and this developing technology is not very "clean" yet, at all...

For more information on "clean coal": http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200701/coal.asp

Alliance for Climate Protection's video: http://action.ThisIsReality.org/coenbrothers

(disclaimer: linking to this ad does not imply endorsement by or of the Alliance for Climate Protection)

As everyone is painfully aware, the recent financial downturn has been difficult for us all.  Unfortunately, because our members are feeling the financial pressure, grassroots organizations like the Sierra Club are being hit hard.  In the past several issues of our newsletter, the Sierran, we've mentioned in that our group would like to move forward and start electronic delivery of the Sierran newsletter.  This is both a cost-saving and environmentally friendly measure.  Of course, reducing our paper consumption helps us live up to our environmental ideals (our newsletter is printed on recycled paper now, but reducing any paper use is good for the environment). 

For the past several months, our busy volunteers have been making phone calls, contacting members and asking them to sign up for the electronic newsletter; however, we have not yet managed to reach everyone.  Unfortunately, the current financial crisis has hit the Sierra Club, and the Central Florida Group, unexpectedly hard.  Due to these unforeseen circumstances, we have had to make the choice between our conservation outreach efforts and printing our newsletter.  Therefore, we will not be printing the March/April 2009 newsletter.  We've already sent an e-mail to all our members for whom we have an e-mail address on file, asking them to sign up for the electronic newsletter.  We really do need everyone to sign up!

(click below for more)

For our members who are interested in the night sky, but couldn't make it to our February 21st Outing at Hal Scott Preserve, here's a link to the UCF Astronomy Club's Open House schedule: http://planets.ucf.edu/observatory/openhouse

Open House is held at Robinson Observatory on UCF's Orlando campus several times a month during the school year, weather permitting.  Astronomy students and faculty point out celestial features using several telescopes, including a large 20-inch telescope in a dome.  It's free, and the public is welcome.