Sierra Club California Legislative Office Records, 1962-2000
Collection context
Summary
- Extent:
- 38 linear feet (31 cartons), 66 videocassettes, and 4 sound cassettes
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item] Sierra Club California Legislative Office Records, BANC MSS 91/1 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Background
- Scope and content:
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The Sierra Club California Legislative Office, located in Sacramento, began in the late 1960s. It was one of the first offices established to work strictly on state-level environmental legislation. The staff consists of a state director, currently Michael Paparian, legislative representatives, the editor of the California Legislative Agenda, and a fund-raising coordinator.
Records were received from the office in December, 1990. Most are files of former staff members. In June, 1991, the office was destroyed in a fire.
The best-documented issues are energy-related, including liquefied natural gas, nuclear energy, and the California Energy Commission. Water quality, hazardous substances, pesticides, and all terrain vehicles on public lands are subjects which can be found in the papers of the state directors, legislative representatives, and the subject files.
- Biographical / historical:
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John Zierold, formerly the head of the California Planning and Conservation League, began advising the Sierra Club on state legislative matters in the 1960s, and he became a full-fledged lobbyist for the club in 1970. Some of his early successes included helping to pass the legislation which created the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the [San Francisco] Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and the California State Solid Waste Management Board. He also influenced laws on logging and forestry management, nuclear safeguards, coastal zone management, and California's counterpart to the National Environmental Policy Act.
When Zierold retired in 1984, his assistant, Michael Paparian, became the state director. Paparian currently supervises a staff of experts in such areas as ancient forests, public lands, hazardous materials, and energy and water policy legislation. The Sacramento office also maintains a consultative relationship with Sierra Club California, which is comprised of volunteers from each California chapter.
- Acquisition information:
- The Sierra Club California Legislative Office began donating its records to The Bancroft Library in 1991. The office continues to transfer groups of historical records in appropriate increments.
- Processing information:
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Processed by Lauren Lassleben, Project Archivist and Feliz Fuentes, Project Assistant; machine-readable finding aid created by Gabriela A. Montoya. Additions processed by Lisa Marie Monhoff in 2019 with the generous support of a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
- Physical location:
- For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
- Rules or conventions:
- DACS
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
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Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For additional information about the University of California, Berkeley Library's permissions policy please see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item] Sierra Club California Legislative Office Records, BANC MSS 91/1 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
- Location of this collection:
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University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft LibraryBerkeley, CA 94720-6000, US
- Contact:
- 510-642-6481