Conservation Forum Wrapup

Guest Post by Bill Fisk, Chapter Conservation Chair:

What event in the mountains could cause the State Police to call a National Forest and ask what’s up? The Quarterly Meeting of the Sierra Club, the Conservation Forum part of the meeting to be exact. With a room capacity of 130, and 130 plus people in attendance, it was the biggest Conservation Sierra Club Meeting in North Carolina. Sadly, some people who showed up Saturday morning but hadn't registered in advance with Meagan actually had to be turned away so we could be in compliance with fire codes.

Some of the Sierra Club people in attendance had never been to any sort of Sierra Club activity previously. They live too far from their Groups to participate and this was their first opportunity to attend a Forum. We tried to hook them up with the Conservation Forum Listserve through Meagan at the Raleigh Office. Hopefully these good folks will continue to stay connected through the internet.

We had a diverse line-up of speakers from the worlds of business, academia, and environmental activism. Each did a fabulous job of covering their topic, and each was met by an attentive audience. Topics covered were, federal regulations, wind power, solar power, water quality, individual attitudes and actions toward environmentalism, and the future of wilderness areas. The scheduled end for the forum was 2:30, and we finally had to call a halt at 3:30. No apologies from me as each topic was important and each speaker had many questions from the audience.

Pisgah Group, as usual, did a fabulous job of organizing the function as well as providing great food. And could there possibly be a better location to talk about conservation than the Cradle of Forestry in the heart of the Pisgah Forest?

We learned a few lessons about planning a forum. Another time we might be a little less ambitious with the number of speakers, and we might schedule a potty break into the time schedule....aside from that it was a great event and we wish all of you could have been there.