The Washington, D.C., office of the Sierra Club carries the principal responsibility for lobbying on legislation at the federal
level. Records from this office reflect the Club's leadership in the drafting, enactment, and revision of laws, the implementation
of which affect the environment in a favorable or an adverse manner.
Although John Muir and Century Magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson may be considered the Sierra Club's first lobbyists for their spirited battle against damming
the Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley, California, in the early twentieth century, the National Legislative Office traces
its permanent beginnings to 1962. In that year, Executive Director David Brower urged the Sierra Club's Board of Directors
to hire William Zimmerman, Jr., a former administrator in the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management,
as a part-time consultant in Washington, D.C. An office was established in the following year. Some of the significant conservation
campaigns in the early years included efforts to establish North Cascades National Park in Washington state and Redwood National
Park in California; support for the passage of the Wilderness Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund, both in 1964;
and the club's continuing crusade to keep dams out of Grand Canyon National Park.
Number of containers: 162 cartons, 5 oversize folders, 1 tube
Linear feet: 200
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