A view of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve at Border Field State Park. File photo
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…” — Henry V, Act III
As the winds of war on the environment stir ominously on the horizon, we at the San Diego Chapter of Sierra Club stand at the ready to defend our hard-fought gains on behalf of habitat preservation, environmental justice, and climate action as we have before throughout our 76-year history.
There is some solace in that there have been significant guardrails erected by the county, many cities, and by the state of California, bolstered by dozens of established environmental activist organizations.
But, as one of the nation’s biodiversity hotspots, San Diego County residents and leadership cannot ignore the dark clouds brewing over it.
The intention of the next Trump administration to hollow out or eliminate federal regulatory agencies and legislation that San Diegans have come to rely on to keep our air and water clean, protect our special habitat, confront climate change, and promote environmental justice is clear. This was demonstrated in early agency appointments and policy statements made by Donald Trump’s lieutenants during the presidential campaign.
Among those agencies on the endangered list are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to name just a few, many ironically created under the Republican administration of Richard Nixon.
The Fish and Wildlife Service oversees the management in South Bay of the 2,620-acre San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge within the 2,800-acre Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the 12,445-acre San Diego National Wildlife Refuge.
Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Land Management oversees 16,885 acres of Otay Mountain Wilderness within the 1.4 million-acre San Diego and Imperial County Refuge.
These public lands in San Diego and others across the nation, home to endangered, threatened, migratory, and native species, are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, yet are frequent legislative targets by fossil fuel advocates, land developers and red-tape slashers.
Atty. Gen. Ron Bonta, whose office has provided consistent expert support for Sierra Club’s environmental actions protecting thousands of acres of habitat and supporting climate action, will certainly fight any rollbacks. But efforts to weaken the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and render the EPA toothless have been lurking in Congress for years, including votes by Lee Zeldin who is now the pick to head the EPA in the next administration.
Bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling last year, reducing the regulatory power of the EPA could be accomplished by executive action and will have serious health and safety consequences, especially for communities hammered by pollution, starting with the Tijuana River Valley and its watershed.
NOAA, along with its essential National Weather Service, provides global climate information and manages our marine and coastal ecosystems. On a micro-local level, surfers and beach users rely on its tidal information. As sea levels rise, its data informs everyone living on the coast.
A pet project of “climate skeptics” is to limit or eliminate the agency and privatize weather reporting. Thomas Gilman, who served in the Trump Commerce Department, describes NOAA in the Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 as central to the “climate change alarm industry.”
One ray of sunshine is the re-election of Supervisors Nora Vargas and Terra Lawson-Remer so that, with Monica Montgomery-Steppe, a pro-environmental protection and environmental justice majority remains on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. We can also expect that the newly approved county Climate Action Plan they championed will be implemented in a timely fashion.
At the state level, Bonta will defend California’s environmental laws. And we can rely on Gov. Gavin Newsom to continue bolstering the state’s regulatory agencies and commissions.
We stand with Sierra Club’s other 63 chapters and millions of members and volunteers nationwide to stop an anti-environmental protection agenda that would reverse years of progress.
And so, dear friends, again borrowing from Shakespeare’s King Harry:
“…when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger.”
Lisa Ross is chair of the Sierra Club San Diego Chapter.