We wanted to provide some context regarding a recent Sierra Club election in Fort Collins:
In the fall of 2024, three leaders of Preserve Fort Collins––Eric Hamrick, Elena Lopez, and Kevin Harper––ran in an open election to serve on the local executive committee of the Sierra Club. All three were defeated.
Make no mistake: They lost their bid to serve on the Sierra Club’s local executive committee because they were out of step with the Sierra Club, out of step with the mainstream environmental movement, and out of step with Colorado voters.
Where does the Sierra Club stand on housing?
The national Sierra Club has supported infill housing for decades. The Sierra Club’s Board of Directors wrote in 2019: “An essential strategy for reducing urban-related carbon emissions is supporting dense, mixed-use communities and land uses that prioritize walking, biking or transit to meet daily transportation needs”.
“Urban infill,” they argued in 2021, “is a key strategy for minimizing sprawl and vehicle miles traveled.”
The Sierra Club has held this position for nearly thirty years. The Sierra Club was a founding member of the Smart Growth Network in 1996 and was an early advocate for infill housing.
The national Sierra Club’s membership has also repeatedly rejected environmentalism based on restricting population growth or renewed immigration restrictions––in referendums and board elections over the course of decades.
Moreover, nearly every other mainstream environmental organization in Colorado, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, Conservation Colorado, and the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, has been a staunch supporter of the state’s recent housing legislation.
What role did YIMBY Fort Collins play in the election?
YIMBY Fort Collins is a network of volunteers who are active in local politics and who advocate for better housing policy. We have no paid staff. Our members also belong to any number of other local organizations including Indivisible NOCO, Strong Towns Fort Collins, Fort Collins DSA, and, yes, the Sierra Club.
From the moment YIMBY Fort Collins was founded in 2022, local environmentalists have reached out to us with concerns about the rightward, anti-immigrant drift of the old Poudre Canyon Group leadership, as well as its ties to Preserve Fort Collins.
Others expressed frustration with the dysfunction and insular culture of the Poudre Canyon Group, which has seen many resignations and vacancies on its board in recent years.
A local ecologist named Eric Jensen reached out to members on the YIMBY Fort Collins’ public Slack channel as part of an effort to drum up support for a progressive slate for the local Sierra Club executive committee.
Eric assembled a team that included a research ecologist, a Phd student in conservation biology, an environmental engineer, and a science communications specialist for the Colorado State Forest Service––all eminently qualified environmental professionals who were interested in moving local environmental politics in a more progressive direction.
Preserve Fort Collins is now trying to claim that the most basic get-out-the-vote activities—getting organized, making a list of friends who might be eligible to vote, and then reminding them to vote—are somehow a sign of “election manipulation.” They seem incensed that a new generation of activists would want to get involved in the Sierra Club and that progressives would want to have a voice in the Sierra Club’s local leadership.
The Preserve Fort Collins candidates were at odds with the Sierra Club’s official positions: They have fought infill housing for years, and they have also fought for greater immigration restrictions: Rather than endorse the progressive state representative Yara Zokaie in 2024, former city council member Eric Hamrick chose to endorse immigration hawk Steve Yurash––who suggested that immigration enforcement would be the best way to get a handle on the housing crisis. Needless to say, Eric Hamrick lost his bid to represent the Sierra Club.
What happened after the election?
Upset at their defeat in the Sierra Club election, Elena Lopez and Kevin Harper lashed out at the newly elected members of the committee. Instead of working together on what was essentially a divided committee, they created a climate of such intense hostility and acrimony that it moved the Sierra Club’s Colorado Chapter to step in to dissolve the local executive committee in Fort Collins, citing “the group’s inability to maintain the welcoming, inclusive environment that is fundamental to Sierra Club’s mission and values.”
The Colorado Chapter has essentially asked for a reset, a chance for everyone to take a breath and hopefully move forward towards a more inclusive organization.
For the record: YIMBY Fort Collins played no role whatsoever in the decision to suspend the Poudre Canyon group. We would have no reason to seek the suspension of the group. We were disappointed to hear that the group had been suspended. And any claim to the contrary is simply false.
Although YIMBY Fort Collins played no formal role in the Sierra Club election, we’re proud that our volunteers—together with Eric Jensen and other local environmentalists—continue to be engaged in moving the community in a more progressive direction.
Respectfully,
Peter Erickson, on behalf of YIMBY Fort Collins
Suggested Readings:
- Natural Resources Defense Council: Smart Housing Policy is a Climate Strategy
- Conservation Colorado: Bill to address Colorado’s climate and housing crises introduced
- Sierra Club resources and policy guidance on urban infill
- Sierra Club’s own account of its history with immigration and population control
- Sierra Club’s explicit condemnation of “overpopulation” as the primary driver of environmental harm
