Guide to the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund Records

Processed by Lauren Lassleben, Project Archivist

The Bancroft Library.

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California, 94720-6000

Phone: (510) 642-6481

Fax: (510) 642-7589

Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Note

History --History, California Geographical (By Place) --California Social Sciences --Urban Planning and Environment Biological and Medical Sciences --Agriculture --Forestry Biological and Medical Sciences --Agriculture --Wildlife Management Social Sciences --Sports and Recreation Social Sciences --Law

Guide to the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund Records

Collection number: BANC MSS 71/296 c

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Contact Information:

The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Processed by:: Lauren Lassleben, Project Archivist
Date Completed:: 1992
Encoded by:: Xiuzhi Zhou

Collection Summary

Collection Title: Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund Records

Collection Number: BANC MSS 71/296 c

Creator: Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund

Extent: Number of containers: 1 box and 7 cartons Linear feet: 9.15

Repository: The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, California 94720-6000

Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Languages Represented: English

Information for Researchers

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund Records, BANC MSS 71/296 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Related Collections

Title: Sierra Club Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/103 c
Title: Sierra Club Members Papers,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/295 c
Title: Sierra Club National Legislative Office Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/289 c
Title: Sierra Club Foundation Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 89/230 c
Title: Sierra Club International Program Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/290 c
Title: Sierra Club Mountain Registers and Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/293 c
Title: Sierra Club California Legislative Office Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 91/1 c
Title: Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/291 c
Title: Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter Records,

Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/292 c

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

In 1970 the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club voted to place the club's historical records in The Bancroft Library. Among the records subsequently donated were historical files of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.

Funding

The Sierra Club Records Project was made possible by a major grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Administrative History

The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (SCLDF) was established in San Francisco in 1971, with funding from the Ford Foundation and the Sierra Club Foundation. Sierra Club Legal Committee members Phillip Berry, Donald Harris, Fred Fisher, and Michael McCloskey were instrumental in its creation. James Moorman was its first executive director. It is legally and financially separate from the Sierra Club, able to solicit tax-deductible donations and represent non-Sierra Club clients.

The young organization immediately became embroiled in a lawsuit, first filed by the Sierra Club in 1969, to prevent the establishment of a major ski resort at Mineral King, California. The decade-long campaign to halt Walt Disney Production's development plans resulted in the addition in 1978 of Mineral King to Sequoia National Park. The courts also granted environmental organizations legal standing to sue to protect public lands, despite their lack of financial interest in the outcome.

SCLDF has been involved in many other landmark environmental law cases throughout the United States. These include the ongoing campaign against the clearcutting of Admiralty Island, Alaska; and the protection of federal lands in the Western United States against strip mining, coal-fired power plants, and uranium mining. The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund has worked extensively with local Sierra Club chapters and groups on local litigation. In this way, SCLDF's work complements the legislative and grassroots campaigns carried out by the Sierra Club.

For further information on the history of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, consult Tom Turner's Wild by Law: The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and the Places It Has Saved (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990).

Scope and Content

The records of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund at The Bancroft Library are incomplete. Included in the collection are agendas, minutes, reports, clippings, financial reports, dockets, new matter forms, notes, and subject files pertaining to SCLDF's Mineral King litigation.

The files are arranged in two series. Administrative and Operational Files pertain to the functioning of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund itself. The second series, Mineral King Files, deals exclusively with the prosecution of SCLDF's first major case. These Mineral King files are divided into two subseries, the first arranged alphabetically, and the second using a SCLDF-devised numerical code. Except for minor changes (adoption of the Library of Congress-approved subject headings used in all of The Bancroft Library's Sierra Club collections), the original order of the files has been maintained throughout the second series.

Container List

Cartons 1-3

SERIES 1: ADMINISTRATIVE AND OPERATIONAL FILES, 1970-1991.

Scope and Content Note

Files include agendas, reports, dockets, financial reports, and minutes dating from 1971, the year the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund was incorporated. Also included are general files, arranged chronologically, containing correspondence, memoranda, notes, and press releases (1970-1985), most concerning pending legislation, and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund's relationship with the Sierra Club.

Ctn. 1, folder 1-9

Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 1970-85

folder 10

Agendas 1971-75

folder 11

ALI-ABA Conference 1974

folder 12-15

Annual reports 1971-83

folder 16

Board of Trustees n.d.

folder 17

Clippings 1982-83

folder 18

Current litigation 1973-82

folder 19-24

Dockets 1971-77, 1983

folder 25

Financial reports 1971-74

Ctn. 2, folder 1-5

Legal documents 1972-80, n.d.

folder 6

"Legal Program Accomplishments" 1971-75

folder 7

Minutes 1971-74

folder 8-23

New matter forms 1974-82

Ctn. 3, folder 1-3

New matter forms 1983-84

folder 4

Newsletter 1975-86

folder 5

Notes 1976-81

folder 6

River of No Return Wilderness (Idaho) 1973-75

folder 7

Sierra Club financial commitment to Club Legal Defense Fund 1979, 1982-84

folder 8

"Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund: Perspectives on the Future" 1981

folder 9

Sutherland, Frederic P., memorial service 1991

Cartons 3-7; Box 1

SERIES 2: MINERAL KING FILES, 1890-1978.

Scope and Content Note

Files include research materials gathered by SCLDF attorneys during the ten years of litigation against Walt Disney Productions' planned ski resort in Sequoia National Forest at Mineral King, California. Sample topics include information on plants and animals; the potential effects of building access roads and power transmission lines into Mineral King; and the benefits of adding Mineral King to neighboring Sequoia National Park.

SUBSERIES 2.1: MINERAL KING, ALPHABETICAL FILES, 1897-1977.

Ctn. 3, folder 10-20

Mineral King 1961-74, n.d.

folder 21-22

Briefs and background 1970-71

folder 23-24

Clippings 1962-68

Ctn. 4, folder 1-5

Clippings 1969-77

folder 6-7

Depositions 1973, 1975, n.d.

folder 8

Notes 1973-75

folder 9

Discovery 1972-75

folder 10

Endangered species 1973-77

folder 11

Environmental impact analysis n.d.

folder 12

Comments 1973-76

folder 13

Experts n.d.

folder 14

Notes 1974, n.d.

folder 15-19

Express highways 1955-71

folder 20

Interviews 1972

folder 21-24

Legal documents 1969, 1971, n.d.

folder 25

Legislative history 1897-65

folder 26

Maps n.d.

folder 27-28

Notes 1969, 1972

Ctn. 5, folder 1-2

Notes 1973-75

folder 3

Pleadings and orders 1972-77

folder 4

Porterville (Calif.) 1973

folder 5

Power transmission lines 1973-76

folder 6

References 1963-72

folder 7

Report of Preliminary Site Studies and Proposed Development of Mineral King 1966

folder 8

Sierra Club v. Rogers Morton - Deposition 1973

folder 9

Transportation 1973

SUBSERIES 2.2: MINERAL KING, NUMERICAL FILES, 1890-1978.

Ctn. 5, folder 10

Filing system guide 1973

folder 11

1. Air pollution 1967-71, n.d.

folder 12

2. Air quality 1969-70

folder 13

3. Ski resort - Location 1971-73

folder 14

4. Archaeology 1970-71

folder 15

5. Avalanches 1947-73

folder 16

6. Benedict, Howard: Correspondence 1965-67

folder 17

7. Bibliographies 1971-72

folder 18

8. Botany 1955, 1972

folder 19

9. Caves 1962-72

folder 20

10. Criteria 1969

folder 21

11. Rack-railroads 1966-75

folder 22

12. Deer 1961-72

folder 23

13. Mule deer 1943-74

folder 24

13A. Deposition 1974

Walt Disney Productions

folder 25

14. Correspondence 1965-76

folder 26

15. Public relations 1966-76

Ecology

folder 27

16. Reports 1970

folder 28

17. Bennetzen, Steve 1971

folder 29

18. Eissler, Fred n.d.

folder 30

19. Power transmission lines 1968, 1975

folder 31

19A. Endangered species 1974-77

folder 32

20. Environmental Awareness Center 1970

Ctn. 6, folder 1

21. Environmental impact 1970-73

folder 2

22. Environmental impact statement 1968-74

folder 3

23A. California Department of Fish and Game 1976

folder 4

24. Plants 1942-72

folder 5

25. Rare plants 1971

folder 6

26. U.S. Forest Service - Delegation of Function 1966-75

folder 7

27. Foxtail pine 1972

folder 8

28. U.S. Federal Power Commission 1970

folder 9

29. Wildlife refuges 1968-69

folder 10

30. Correspondence 1960-76

folder 11

31. Publicity 1965-73

folder 12

32. Sierra Club v. Hickel 1970-72

folder 13

32A. Correspondence 1967

folder 14-16

33. Geology 1958-73, n.d.

folder 17

33A. Maps 1967

Administrative agencies

folder 18

34. Correspondence 1965-75

folder 19

35. Memoranda 1965-72

folder 20

36. Comments 1969

folder 21

37. Guide 1963-68

folder 22-23

38. Road surveying 1948-73

folder 24-26

39. History 1976, n.d.

U.S. Department of the Interior

folder 27

40. Policies 1967-79

folder 28

41. Hickel, Walter J. 1968-69

folder 29

42. East Fork Kaweah River (Calif.) 1956

folder 30

43. Lakes 1969-70

folder 31

44. Clippings n.d.

folder 32

44A. Legislation 1972-77

folder 33-34

44B. Legislative history 1890-24, 1971-75

folder 35

45. Maps 1965-1971

Ctn. 7, folder 1-2

46. Master plan 1965-69, 1972-75, n.d.

folder 3

47. Draft environmental impact statement 1973-75

folder 4-5

47A. Comments 1972-76

folder 6

48. Mining claims 1965

folder 7

49. Pumas 1964-69

folder 8

49A. Municipal bonds 1973

folder 9

50. Impact on Sequoia National Park (Calif.) 1965-75

folder 10

51. National Environmental Policy Act 1972-74

folder 11

52. All terrain vehicles 1973

folder 12

53. Koch, Jean 1972

folder 13

54. Private lands 1968

folder 14

55. Prospectus for bidding 1965-67

folder 15

56. Public use 1972, n.d.

folder 16

57. Area plans 1966-75

folder 17

58. Ski resort 1972, 1976

folder 18

59. Redwoods 1952, 1966

folder 19

60. Right-of-way - Railroads and roads 1967-76

folder 20

61. Roads 1958-75

folder 21

61A. Sequoia National Park (Calif.) 1968-75

folder 22

62. Correspondence 1965-76

folder 23

63. Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund - Correspondence 1973-78

folder 24

64. Sierra Club policy 1972-75

folder 25

65. Ski lifts 1969

folder 26

65A. Silver City (Calif.) 1975

folder 27

66. Soils 1966-75

folder 28

67. Licenses 1948-70

folder 29

68. Revocability of special use permit n.d.

folder 30

69. Stables 1967

folder 31

70. Dams 1936, n.d.

folder 32

71. Reports 1965-71, n.d.

folder 33

72. Transportation 1967

folder 34

73. Fishing 1968, n.d.

folder 35

73A. Tulare County (Calif.) 1975

folder 36

74. Golden trout 1919-72

folder 37

75. Tunnels 1965-71

folder 38

76. U.S. Forest Service - Press releases 1966-75

folder 39

77. Visitors data 1966-72

Box 1, folder 1-2

78. Water resources 1965-73

folder 3-4

79. Water quality 1966-72

folder 5

80. Sequoia and Kings Canyon Wilderness (Calif.) (proposed) 1966

folder 6

81. Wildlife conservation 1966-69

folder 7

82. Wolverines 1923-69

folder 8

83. Osterlund, Pat - Studies 1970-71

folder 9

84. Patri, Tito - Data 1973, n.d.

folder 10

85. Landscape architecture 1969

folder 11

86. Independence Lake (Calif.) 1974-77

folder 12

87. Walt Disney Productions - Correspondence 1973-78

folder 13

88. Memoranda 1975-76

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