Larry Fahn
Environmental Advocate, Attorney, and Activist.
"The last grizzly in California was shot by hunters in the 1920s, although it remains the familiar icon on our state flag. In state after state, ranchers and hunters wiped out local populations, until they were isolated in but a few small ecological islands in Wyoming and Montana...
The grizzly bear, perhaps more than any other wildlife species, represents the wilderness that shaped us as an American people, and it sustains our spirit and culture...
The Endangered Species Act has helped bring the grizzly bear back from the brink of extinction. The bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem need its help, and yours, to continue on their road to recovery."
Q: What do you say to someone who recognizes the problems but feels ineffectual?
A: Join the Sierra Club and get involved. We’re a network of 750,000 of your friends and neighbors working together to protect local communities and the planet. We offer strength in numbers and a sense of community. And we provide a broad range of opportunities for people to make a difference, from writing a letter to going on a service outing (cleaning up streams, parks, coastlines and trails) to attending a town meeting.
"Best known for his repeated advocacy for increasing oil drilling off California's priceless coast, (Gubernatorial candidate) Rep. Lungren voted in 1982 to permit mining and oil drilling, including using explosives, in designated wilderness areas (HR 6542, Aug. 12, 1982). That same year, he joined the timber industry in opposing a modest Oregon wilderness bill (HR 7340, Aug. 11, 1982).
...Should this record become widely known, they (Republicans) face a defeat of major proportions come November."
With so many additional species under threat (the Florida panther, black-footed ferret, manatee, spotted owl and various West Coast salmon runs come to mind), the Endangered Species Act is their last best hope. Bush and Cheney have both been critical of the act, calling it a "serious threat to private property rights."
With Director Michael Dorsey at the Sierra Club Booth at the UN Climate Talks in Durban South Africa 2011.
Larry attends the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen as a Sierra Club Delegate. He met up with a friendly polar bear on the Conference floor. On the big screen in the background President Obama is accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. He arrived in Copenhagen the next day.