The Peak View Newsletter August 24th, 2026
Rose Young
It's almost fall, and that means it's time for MPG to think about our annual election of members to our Executive Committee (ExCom). The ExCom determines and manages group policies, finances, and activities. It also provides communications and working relationships with the state chapter, national headquarters, and MPG members.
Meetings are currently held on Zoom once a quarter. Some discussions and decisions are made via email. Members serve for two years. Any member in good standing in the Marys Peak Group is eligible to submit their name to the Nominations Committee. You don't have to be a hiker to be on the ExCom.
The deadline to apply is Sept 29. Contact the Nominations Committee at: MarysPe...@Oregon.Sierraclub.org
If you love the activities that MPG provides, consider joining the ExCom! Details on how to vote will be posted in a future issue of The Peak View. The annual elections are required by MPG's bylaws.
All three webinars from the 2026 Liz and Bob Frenkel Spring Environment Series, with the theme of Listening to the Land, are now recorded on YouTube and are available to the public. Each of these webinars provide unique insights into both the history and current conditions of the land in the Willamette Valley. We encourage everyone to watch these recordings. The webinars are co-sponsored by the Marys Peak Group Sierra Club and the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. The webinars honor the lives and environmental work of Liz and Bob Frenkel, who led the founding of the Marys Peak Group and the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club.
A Kalapuya Legacy: Oak Savannas and Prairies on OSU Lands
By Dr. Dennis Albert, OSU researcher
Learn how our local Oregon White Oaks and native herbaceous species on OSU lands reveal Kalapuya ancestral culture and about our conditions today.
Link to YouTube recording:
YouTube: A Kalapuya Legacy: Oak Savannas and Prairies on OSU Lands
What we can learn from Ancient Douglas-fir of the OSU McDonald-Dunn Forest
By Dr. Meg Krawchuck & Charles Drake, OSU Researchers
Learn how our local ancient Douglas-firs help us understand how ancestral Indigenous cultural practices, including fire, reflected and impacted the human experience and why it matters for current forest management.
Link to YouTube recording:
YouTube: Implications Found in Ancient Trees of the OSU McDonald-Dunn Forest
Lessons from the Land: Cultivating Abundance through Land-Based Education
By Marta Capriles, Corvallis Waldorf School Agricultural Arts teacher
Learn how a local schoolyard was developed into a dynamic farmscape in which the students tend the land and learn to work with its gifts through an Indigenized curriculum. Perhaps you can learn a few things about gardening/farming also.
Link to YouTube recording:
YouTube: Cultivating Abundance through Land-Based Education
Take Action to Save the Roadless Rule!
One of the most important US Forest Service conservation policies is on the verge of being cut by the Trump administration. If the Roadless Area Conservation Rule is repealed, 45 million acres of pristine national forests across the country will be opened up for the first time in over 20 years to road building and the logging, mining, and extractive industries that come with that.
This policy was created by the Forest Service because it was ecologically critical, fiscally responsible, and overwhelmingly popular. Now the administration is repealing it, citing fire concerns and timber value - but neither of those justifications stands up to scrutiny.
Last year, over 600,000 people voiced their support for this rule, but the Trump administration is steamrolling ahead and ignoring the American public. Our goal is to continue to demonstrate how popular this policy is, and to raise more awareness about it, by submitting even more comments to the administration than last year.
Join your voice with thousands of others by submitting your comment today!
Note: The US Forest Service has not opened a comment period on this issue yet, but we are expecting them to only take comments for 14 days once the docket is open. To help show the broad support for the Roadless Rule, the Sierra Club will be collecting comments until the comment period is open, and then will deliver those collected to the US Forest Service.
Contact the Sierra Club at sc.org/roadlessrule and share your comments.
1) Newcomers to MPG outing events, please view the GENERAL OUTING POLICY on our MPG website, http://oregon2.sierraclub.org/marys-peak before pre-registering for or attending an outing.
2) Contacting Marys Peak Group: Marys Peak Group contact information is obtainable at http://oregon2.sierraclub.org/marys-peak Listed are the Executive Committee members and the Administrative and Program Coordinators.
3) Minutes of the MPG Executive Committee (ExCom) meetings for the last 5 years can be viewed by clicking on minutes. The ExCom meetings are held on Zoom and occur quarterly. All current Sierra Club members are welcome to attend. Contact MarysPe...@Oregon.Sierraclub.org to get the Zoom link.
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OSU Forestry Recreation Updates: