“What do wolves have to do with equity, justice, and inclusion?”
So a Sierra Club staff member objected to ecologist Delia Malone’s suggestion that the club should lobby for more legal protections for wolves, according to The New York Times (NYT). The outlet detailed the Sierra Club’s downward spiral since embracing social justice as a top initiative during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Naturalist John Muir founded the Sierra Club in 1892, along with several supporters. Muir’s goal was to “do something for wildness and make the mountains glad,” as quoted by the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club has since foregrounded Muir’s alleged racism, rather than his accomplishments in writing, exploration, and conservation. Muir was a staunch preservationist, and with his leadership the Sierra Club pushed for protections for coastal redwood groves. Logging had decimated sequoias as ancient as 1,300 years old.
Today, the environmental organization has lost 60% of the four million members and supporters it boasted in 2019, according to the NYT in a piece published Friday. The Sierra Club “has held three rounds of employee layoffs since 2022, trying to climb out of a $40 million projected budget deficit,” as their annual expenses outpace their annual revenue. (RELATED: Top Dog At Sierra Club Jettisoned After Lefty Staff Revolt)
It’s little wonder the club is bleeding memberships, when their website invites visitors to donate by railing against Trump: “The second Trump administration has brought another wave of dangerous attacks on bedrock environmental protections, public health, and our planet’s future.”
I’d like to point out that one of the Sierra Club’s four board members just pled guilty to stealing almost $250 million… https://t.co/E2LVya6IXE pic.twitter.com/oIp5COiwl1
— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) November 7, 2025
The website also features the club’s “2030 Strategic Framework,” which is “firmly rooted in our Core Values of anti-racism, balance, collaboration, justice, and transformation.”
One effect of Trump Derangement Syndrome — and “wokeism,” more broadly — is to turn every organization into the same thing. Your equestrian club? Your little league? Sorry, those are all an anti-racist justice initiatives now.
You might wonder why. After all, we already had a million left-wing political organizations with an overt anti-Trump mission.
As commentator Auron MacIntyre says, “The side that wants to win will always beat the side that just wants to be left alone.”
Leftists staged a successful march through the American institutions in the mid-twentieth century. Confident in their power, they increased the fervor of their demands during 2016’s Trump hysteria and 2020’s Floyd hysteria. The left wanted to win. And they imposed their beliefs with religious fervor. Just as a Christian might believe all should be done for the glory of God, a leftist might believe all should be done for the sake of social justice.
“It’s almost like uprooting a sequoia and converting it into an ax handle,” said Aaron Mair, a former board president, to the NYT.
Some club members weren’t on board.
“In late 2020, the club surveyed its dues-paying members, its most hard-core supporters. The members said they supported racial justice, but when asked to choose among priorities they ranked climate change first, and racism tied for last,” according to the NYT. More than half of members reportedly said they were concerned that the club’s social justice shift would skew the club’s environmental focus and turn away conservatives.
The Sierra Club is in financial free fall:
– lost 60% of its members since 2019
– 3 rounds of layoffs since 2022
– $40 million projected budget deficit pic.twitter.com/rOvfogiWsM— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) November 7, 2025
The Sierra Club issued an “Equity Language Guide” in 2018. The introduction notes the guide was developed “with support from the executive team, Equity department, Justice Cluster, the Gender, Equity, and Environment program, and many others.”
A ‘Justice Cluster’ sounds like a malignant tumor. Which isn’t too far off from its role inside the Sierra Club.
The guide urges Sierra Club representatives to adopt the typically burdensome language of the left: “When referring to someone with HIV, for example, refer to ‘a person living with HIV’ rather than an ‘HIV patient’ to avoid the implication that their diagnosis is the sum total of their identity.” (RELATED: Ousted Sierra Club Chief Says Racism, Not Harassment Claims, Were Behind Firing)
It also encourages representatives to ask people for their pronouns, their racial or ethnic identity, their age, and their sexuality before describing them. Just imagine preempting an interview with, “Before we get started — Are you gay? Or black, perhaps? No? Or a person living with HIV?”
A few other prescriptions from the Sierra Club’s guide:
- Using the word “stand,” as in “stand in solidarity,” is ableist, as not everyone can stand. Or speak.
- Concern about “overpopulation” might be a “pseudo-scientific justification for racist and xenophobic policies to limit both immigration and reproductive freedom.”
- Tolerance is not enough. Avoid tolerance. “We should not be aiming to ‘tolerate’ one another, but rather to celebrate and uplift our differences.”
- Avoid using the term “citizens.”
- Avoid using the term “Americans.”
- Avoid the terms “bullet-proof,” “smoking gun,” “battle/batteground,” and “under fire.”
- Feel free to capitalize “Black,” in a racial context.
In June of 2020, the Sierra Club issued a statement recognizing Juneteenth. They denounced the “white supremacist, tragic recent murders of Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others.” For many of the dead, a racial motive was never established in their killings. For Floyd, an autopsy revealed fentanyl use and a history of heart disease.
The Sierra Club announced its support for “reparations for [b]lack people” in June 2021, with Executive Director Michael Brune claiming “the climate crisis continues to disproportionately harm Black communities.” Brune cited 2020’s “movement to end police brutality against [b]lack Americans” as informing his decision.
Okay. But what does any of that have to do with hiking?
Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC
