explore, enjoy and protect the planet
Georgia Chapter
Metro Atlanta Group
Welcome!
The Metro Atlanta Group comprises the largest Sierra Club membership within the Georgia Chapter and is dedicated to exploring, preserving and protecting the environment within Atlanta's environs. more info »
Regular meetings are held the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Below is information about the upcoming meeting. See also the Atlanta Group Announcements! below.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 - 6:30 PM
ANNUAL PICNIC at Candler Park
At 6:30 PM, we will meet at the Candler Park picnic area across the road from the pool, and begin eating at 7 PM. It is potluck style, please bring some food to share. The group will provide plates, dinnerware, and cups for those who don't want to bring their own, plus hot dogs and hamburgers. There will be a fire for cooking.
Metro Atlanta Group Executive Committee Meetings
The Ex-Com meets the first Tuesday of every month at 7:30 pm, Athens Pizza House, 1341 Clairmont Rd., Decatur. Members are invited to attend and bring their ideas. Please contact an ExCom member for more information.
Next Ex-Com Meeting: Tues., June 4, 2013, 7:30 PM
Joe Cook, Etowah River User's Guide
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 21, 7:15 PM
Location: Decatur Library
Cook is the executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative and coordinator of GA River Network's Paddle Georgia event. His new book is an appealing and handy look at the biologically diverse and beautiful Etowah River in North Georgia... offers a fascinating history of the area and valuable information for paddlers as well as fishermen. It also helps explorers understand the threats facing the river.
Etowah River User's Guide (Georgia River Network Guidebooks)
Susan Puckett – Eat, Drink, Delta:
A Hungry Traveler's Journey Through the Soul of the South
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 22, 7:15 PM
Location: Decatur Library
Susan Puckett was the food editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution--focuses on her native Mississippi. Part travelogue, part memoir and part photo gallery.
http://susan-puckett.squarespace.com
Atlanta Photographic Society – Jack and Martha present
Date/Time: Thursday, May 23, at 7:30 - 9:30 PM
Location: Unitarian Universalist Congregation Church
Our Metro Atlanta Group members, Jack Harich and Martha Anderson, will show their photos of their trip out west at the APS monthly meeting at Unitarian Universalist Congregation Church, 1911 Cliff Valley Way NE, Atlanta, GA 30329. Enrique DuPrat, an APS Photographer of the Year, shows travels to Cuba, also.
Native Plant Talks and Guided Garden Walks
Dates: Fridays during the month of May. See the Events Calendar
Location: Native Plant Garden at Georgia Perimeter College, Decatur Campus, 3251 Panthersville Road, Decatur, GA (Map & directions)
Each Friday during April and May, they have FREE plant walks starting at 10:30 AM, followed by plant talks at noon in the classroom. Gordon also leads a short hike from that garden through the Privet Jungle to Doolittle Creek, for the brave.
HIKE: Connally Nature Park, East Point, GA
Location: Mulberry Court, East Point, GA [Google Map]
Rated: 1 miles / 1 to 2 mph / 25 ft. elev. gain
Description: This will be a nature walk through a 27-acre forest, preserved in part by Sierra Club members, and including state champion white oak. Bring cameras, plus plant and animal guide books – will the pink ladyslippers be up? Families are welcome. Limit 12. Contact: Gordon Draves, 404-766-3456 or nonsmoke4ga@hotmail.com
Music during Sunday in the Garden at Woodlands Garden, Decatur
Dates/Time: Sundays, 2 - 4 PM
Location: Woodlands Garden, 932 Scott Blvd., Decatur, GA | 404-373-2222
Put on your walking shoes and explore Decatur's seven-acre garden and Georgia Piedmont native plant habitat. The grape ferns and cranefly orchids are up, and soon many of the other wild plants.
Regular Meeting: Tuesday, July 9
Applying Root Cause Analysis to the Sustainability Problem
Jack Harich, a sustainability researcher with Thwink.org, will explain how Root Cause Analysis can be applied to the sustainability problem.
Note: Refreshments at 7 PM; Program begins 7:30 PM.
Regular Meeting: Tuesday, August 13
Local Edible and Medicinal Wild Plants
Ranger Jerry Hightower of Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area will discuss local edible and medicinal plants: how to find them, how they were historically used, what they're good for today, and how to identify them.
Note: Refreshments at 7 PM; Program begins 7:30 PM.
Adopt-A-Stream Program: 10 AM - Medlock Park, Decatur
- Saturday, May 18 (Chemical monitoring)
- Saturday, June 22 (Biological & Chemical monitoring)
- Saturday, July 13 (Chemical monitoring)
- Saturday, August 17 (Chemical monitoring)
Description: Our activities involve Peachtree Creek in Medlock Park, 10 AM - noon. For biologic monitoring, we need many eyes to find the macroinvertebrate critters found in the creek. On September 22, monitoring participants included 10 from Inner Cities Outings with several college mentors who found clams, damselfly, and dragonfly larvae. During June, the 3 salamanders or newts didn't count, for they have backbones [macro = large enough to be seen with naked eye; invertebrate = animal without backbone].
Location: Directions to Medlock Park »
Contact: For information about chemical monitoring and dates, call Larry Kloet at 404 636-7226. For more details about biological monitoring, call Nancy Wylie at 404-256-1172.
Adopt-A-Stream Report - March 2012 | Biological Indicators of Watershed Health 
NEWS: DeKalb County Adopt-A-Stream is "2011 Program of the Year" in We Are DeKalb Magazine (pages 30-32)
Also, four parks that inspire are on pages 18-23 and birds on pages 24-25.
Give a Sierra Club Membership
A Sierra Club membership makes a good gift for Christmas, birthday or graduation. For a limited time, memberships are just $15 and include a free backpack. How can you beat that offer? They make great book-bags for students.
Learn more about JOHN MUIR
John Muir's 175th birthday was April 21, read more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir
John Muir's birthplace museum, Dunbar, Scotland was created after Americans asked about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir's_Birthplace
Constitution Lakes Nature Preserve
Gordon Draves went on the bird walk with Audubon on September 23 lead by Dave Butler who presented his program about green-spaces in DeKalb to our group on September 11 (see the entry about meetings). There is a very good article about the preserve on the front page of The Champion Free Press
On the way to the second part of the article on P. 15-A, check out the cartoon Shovel Ready Projects, and the article about the history of Mr. Bird's farm. Please note that there are herons not herrings in the park.
Sierra Club Legislative Issue Priorities – 2012 RESULTS
Georgia Chapter Chair Mark Woodall sent this list of issues - some the Sierra Club opposes and others are favored. To see the bills on the official Georgia General Assembly website, go to: http://www.legis.ga.gov. You may also find the contact information for your state legislators there. Please contact them about how they voted on these issues - before the primary on July 31. Of all the bills below, only three were signed by Governor Deal to become law. But next year, we will have to be watchful about similar legislation.
| ROLLBACKS | STATUS |
|---|---|
| OPPOSE Senate Bill 269 making EPD enforcement slower/weaker - Sponsor Jeffares | FAILED |
| OPPOSE Senate Bill 159 Economic Development Secrecy - Sponsor Mullis | FAILED |
| ECON DEVELOPMENT | STATUS |
| OPPOSE HB 131 exempting DOT contractors from erosion control - Sponsor Bubba Epps | FAILED |
| OPPOSE SB 110 making it easier to put megafills over significant groundwater recharge efforts - Sponsor Murphy | FAILED |
| OPPOSE SB 360 release the invasive fish tilapia into Georgia ponds leading to "kudzu" fish wiping out Georgia native bream - Sponsor John Wilkinson, Status: | FAILED |
| OPPOSE SB 362 allowing deadhead (sunken) log mining - Sponsor Tommie Williams | FAILED |
| SUPPORT bills making regulation of interbasin transfers mandatory | NO POSITION YET |
| HB-400/SB-374/ SR-781 Tennessee River bill and resolution - Sponsors Neal in House, Mullis in Senate | all three FAILED |
| ENERGY | STATUS |
| SUPPORT HB-316 EMC open meetings - Sponsor Willard | FAILED |
| MONITOR SB-382 PSC redistricting bill due to new census figures, Make Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, Jr. or Stan Wise PSC Chair - Sponsor Shafer | signed into law as Act 641 |
| SUPPORT SB-401 Solar Energy Association bill for freedom for 3rd party provider contracts - Sponsor Buddy Carter | FAILED |
| MONITOR repeal of state sales tax on energy for manufacturing | |
| TRANSPORTATION | STATUS |
| SUPPORT regional transit governance bill if board representation is based on population served and includes MARTA funding flexibility permanent fix | |
| HB 1052 amended in the Senate Transportation Committee it gives MARTA three years without the oppressive 50-50 spending mandate for the capital versus operating expenditures | FAILED |
| GOOD GOVERNMENT/STEALING | STATUS |
| SUPPORT HB-811 ACCG bill on fees - Sponsor Jay Powell | FAILED |
| SUPPORT SR-704 Senate Democrats' CA on fees - Sponsor Henson | FAILED |
| SUPPORT HB-798 limit on gifts from lobbyists to legislators aka legalized bribery - Sponsor Tommie Smith | FAILED |
| SUPPORT AG's open records/open meetings act if exclusion for litigants is removed | |
| SUPPORT SB-391 senate version of limit on gifts from lobbyists to legislators - Sponsor McKoon | FAILED |
| SUPPORT HB-397 AG's open records/open meetings act IF exclusion for litigants is removed -Sponsor Jay Powell | signed into law as Act 605 |
| OPPOSE HB 475 Dan McRae's development authority addition powers of funding to include public private partnerships - Sponsor Jay Powell | FAILED |
| SUPPORT HB 822 GA Taxpayer Protection Act which rewards those who expose fraud - Sponsor Lindsey | signed into law as Act 591 |
| OPPOSE HB-887 Legalize bribes for DNR - Sponsor Nimmer | FAILED |
| new HB-1050 amend last year's tourism stealing bill to allow tourist attractions to keep 1/2 their sales tax to include the new Falcons stadium - Sponsor Ron Stephens | FAILED |
John Patrick Walsh - Obituary
John Walsh has passed away at age 52. He was a long-time Sierra Club member. A few years ago, he was on the Metro Atlanta Group Ex-Com until he got an evening job, so couldn't attend Ex-Com or regular meetings, but this Fall he was going to be a candidate for our Ex-Com again. When you get your ballot in the coming issue of SIERRAN, I encourage you to vote, for that is what John would have done.
When I saw, "John Walsh" in my E-mail box from Sierra Club–GA Chapter office, the worst I could think was that he had sent his candidate bio to Chapter instead of to me. Ho Boy–it was much worse. Chapter Chair Mark Woodall wrote: "I am sorry to report that long time Sierra Club volunteer, John Walsh, 52, of Decatur passed away August 31. I was very surprised to hear this as John looked fine recently when he was helping us set up the inflatable power plant at the showing of 'The Last Mountain' in Macon." He also looked good at the August 9 Metro Atlanta Group meeting.
His brother Chris said that his death was probably due to a fall several years ago. John had a rough time recovering, his brain kept deteriorating, he had seizures for awhile, but Nancy Wylie said that he was proud to get his driver's license again after 2 years seizure-free. However, he apparently died in his sleep, probably from a seizure. Bettye Harris, Ted and Lissa Jackson, and I attended his funeral at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Decatur where John was a Lector and also volunteered much of his time, when he wasn't doing things for the Sierra Club. He was a good guy, faithful Sierra Club member, and the Sierra Club will be lessened by his leaving us. He even requested that in lieu of flowers that people should donate to the Sierra Club. We will miss him at our meetings.
--- D. Gordon Draves, Chair – Metro Atlanta Group, Georgia Chapter, Sierra Club