For Sierra Club, It’s a Struggle as Old as the Hills : Environment: Local members spearheaded the drive to get Congress to pass the Condor Range and River Act last year. As always, more fights loom ahead.

For most Sierra Club members, theirs is an ongoing war being waged for future generations.

They publish The Condor Call, a monthly newsletter that updates readers on relevant information. They lead weekly beach walks and hikes through the Santa Monica Mountains and Los Padres National Forest. And they pick an area of expertise to call their own.

They do it, members say, to leave the world a better place, or at least as good as it is now.

Although some say that the group’s slow-growth efforts hurt others and that the club is not as strong as in years past, Sierra Club members insist that they’re winning the war against environmental collapse.

“I’m not married and I don’t have any kids, but I’m starting to think about those things,” Los Padres chapter Chairman Tim Frank said.

“I want them to have a decent environment. I want them to be able to grow up and see the natural wonders that I’ve been able to experience.”

Frank’s reason for donating his time to Sierra Club pursuits is typical among volunteers: He cares about what the future holds for humans and their non-human neighbors.

The all-volunteer Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club covers Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. In Ventura County, the Sespe group in the west and the Conejo group in the east each report about 1,500 members, who pay dues of $15 to $33 a year.

Members of the nonprofit organization cite differing views about what is the most critical threat to the environment, but a single theme runs through the rhetoric: Man’s continuing erosion of the planet.

“If somebody wants to put a new golf course in Thousand Oaks and the pesticide runoff from that is going to enter a critical habitat like Mugu Lagoon, which is already threatened with pesticide pollution, then we would look hard at that issue,” said Ron Bottorff, a retired aerospace engineer from Newbury Park who has belonged to the Sierra Club since 1975.

“We would try to influence the way the project is done to minimize the pesticide runoff.”

Other members are zeroing in on Ormond Beach, 100 or so acres of natural wetlands nestled between Oxnard and the Point Mugu Naval Air Station that serves as home to nesting snowy plovers, least terns and other endangered or threatened plants and animals.

“When you have healthy wetlands and coastal areas, you have something that can be used by a lot of people for a lot of different recreational uses,” said Alan Sanders, president of the club’s Sespe group. “That goes for people who merely want to enjoy the presence of wildlife and the view to people who have just the opposite types of uses in mind, such as hunting.”

One of their greatest triumphs, Sierra Club members say, is pressuring Congress to pass the Condor Range and River Act, the only wildlife preservation legislation approved last year.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we got a number of things, among those being 400,000 acres of wilderness set aside and more than 200 miles of new wild and scenic rivers,” Frank said.

“That’s important because we have in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties one of the larger blocks of undeveloped wilderness in the United States. Without that, you could have development of the area and mining of the area. It basically protects the resource from commercial exploitation.”

Sierra Club higher-ups, those who actually get paid to serve the planet, also took notice of the local effort to save condors.

“That was really kind of a home-cooked campaign that relied mostly on local talent,” said Larry Freilich, a regional Sierra Club representative in Los Angeles. “The local group really spearheaded that campaign and saw it through very successfully.”

Local group members vow to keep up the pressure.

This year, they hope to get the California Desert Protection Act through the U. S. Senate with the help of the state’s two new senators. Among other things, it would set aside thousands of acres of the southeastern California desert and grant national park status to Joshua Tree National Monument.

The bill narrowly missed adoption last year without the endorsement of Sen. John Seymour, a Republican appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

“The California desert is an incredible tourist draw,” Frank said. “This year, with Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein both supporting the bill, we expect it to sail right through.”

But some government and business leaders say the Sierra Club is unrealistic about merging commerce and preservation.

Officials in Port Hueneme argue that the Sespe group is undermining efforts to restore Ormond Beach, that it lacks credibility and that it is using questionable tactics to fight a proposed recreational vehicle park.

“In the case of the city’s proposed RV resort and (other) projects, the local chapter, along with its litigation partner Surfside III, have resorted to distortion, intimidation and abuse of process,” said Tom Figg, the city’s community development director.

Furthermore, Figg said, the Sespe group has opposed an agreement involving Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Southern California Edison that would spend more than $200,000 to restore the delicate beach habitat.

“On the one hand, the city of Port Hueneme is sued by the Sierra Club for failing to develop a resource management plan for Ormond Beach, while on the other hand this very same group has tried to prevent the city from achieving this goal,” he said.

The Los Padres chapter conservation chairwoman responds that the Sierra Club distrusts any agency that would police itself.

“The basis for the actions we’ve taken have been the seeming conflicts between the city being the proponent of the (RV) project, but also the agency that would certify the environmental impact report,” Laurie Eusey said.

Port Hueneme Mayor Orvene Carpenter said the RV project, in limbo because of the Sierra Club-initiated lawsuit, would fund more services for those who live there.

“If we could have the RV resort going, we could have kept the cultural center open,” he said. “Some of their goals are sometimes in conflict with what . . . is best for the citizens.”

But Eusey said the dollar argument has been tossed around for too long.

“Environmental care and concern has been thrust aside, claiming that it’s detrimental to the economy, and the Sierra Club disagrees with that,” she said. “Economy and ecology have the same Greek root, eco . It means home, and we believe they both go together.”

Some business leaders say the Sierra Club is often too quick to blame industry alone for environmental degradation.

“To some degree, the Sierra Club may be coming out too late,” said Dave Gable, general manager of Halaco Engineering near Ormond Beach.

“They’re Monday morning quarterbacks,” he said. “They say, ‘Look at how people have wrecked the environment, and it shouldn’t have happened.’ Maybe they’re right, but you can’t point it all at industry. You have to lay some of the blame for misplaced industry at the foot of the planning commissions.”

Colleagues in habitat preservation suggest that the Sierra Club spends too much of its resources on hikes and newsletters and not enough on what really counts.

“Some of the (Sierra Club) chapters are largely activity-based, so they’re not so oriented toward advocacy and environmental protection as other organizations,” said Marc Chytilo, an attorney with the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center.

Some county officials agree.

“The Sierra Club was a lot more active in years past, in the ‘70s or ‘80s when there may have been more environmental clashes,” said Robert Laughlin, a land use manager in the Planning Department. “They seem to not have as regular attendance at many of our hearings.”