The Sierra Club is one of the nation's foremost conservation organizations and has worked for over 100 years to preserve "the wild places of the earth." Founded in 1892 by author and wilderness explorer John Muir, who helped lead the fight to establish Yosemite National Park, the group's first goal was to preserve the Sierra Nevada mountain chain. Since then, the club has worked to protect dozens of other national treasures.

The preserve of Mount Rainier was one of the Sierra Club's earliest achievements, and in 1899 Congress made that area into a national park. The group also helped to establish Glacier National Park in 1910. The Sierra Club supported the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, and in 1919 began a campaign to halt the indiscriminate cutting of redwood trees.

The club has helped secure many conservation victories. They worked to create such national parks as Kings Canyon, Olympic...