State of Sierra Watch 2020

Each fall we take stock of another year of Sierra Watch and the work we do to defend our mountains. Of course it’s tough to look back on 2020 – when it keeps bearing down on us like a freight train.

Throughout California, we’re suffering the realities of a changing climate – the ravages of wildfire and the threat of drought.

Pictured: California, 2020

For months, smoke in our skies has reminded us: so much of the state is burning; and the rest of us are at risk.

Pictured: Emerald Bay, 2020

Changing weather patterns are impacting our Sierra snowpack and remaking our watersheds.

Pictured: Squaw Creek, 2020

And then there’s Covid – locking us in our homes, cratering our economy, and inflicting us with the worst health crisis in a century.

Throughout it all, the mountains provide an antidote. Maybe you’ve been able to escape to the trails and the peaks, the streams and lakes – or even just to the simple solace of the smell of pine trees from your own porch.

Pictured: Five Lakes Trail, 2020

Just knowing that those experiences await us can provide at least some respite in tumultuous times. And, this year more than any, we’re reminded how important it is for us to protect those timeless opportunities from reckless development.

At Sierra Watch, throughout the year, our challenge has been clear: to not lose any of the ground we’ve been fighting for, and to maintain our strength for the times ahead.

Thanks to you – to the hundreds of supporters who have stayed with us and our work to Save Martis Valley and Keep Squaw True, we’re doing it. In a year when so much is going wrong, this – our shared commitment to conservation – is going right.

Pictured: Olympic Valley & Squaw Valley, 2020

There are no new subdivisions on the Martis Valley West property; there is no indoor waterpark in Squaw Valley.

These threats are not going away. But neither is Sierra Watch.

We look forward to the coming year, pivoting out of our quarantine, our recession, and our collective withdrawal and getting back into our communities, our work and, most of all, back into the adventures that await us in our mountains.

Thanks for helping make sure they’ll be ready when we are.