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The LaGrange Sierra Club, now the Middle Chattahoochee Group, has returned to in-person meetings after going virtual for about two years due to the pandemic.

The group is still part of the national Sierra Club but removed the club reference in its name when it changed it to reflect the expansion to include expanded boundaries including Muscogee, Chattahoochee, Coweta, Fayette, Harris, Heard, Meriwether and Talbot County.

“We’re still a Sierra Club. We’re still the same people. We just don’t have Sierra Club in our name,” said Member Chair Ellen Parkhurst.

The Sierra Club is an environmental advocacy group that works to protect wild places and endangered species, promote clean air and water initiatives, ensure a lean energy future and curb climate change.

“Our group enjoys partnering with other groups such as Chattahoochee River Keepers. We have speakers and activities for people with varied interests including pollinator gardens, bats, bees, clean water and outings,” Parkhurst said. “We have also built, installed and monitored blue bird boxes along the Thread in LaGrange.”

Parkhurst said they had to stop holding in-person meetings a couple of years ago due to the pandemic. They only recently started back holding regular meetings.

“We didn’t think we were ever going to be allowed to meet back in person. We had to get the okay from the chapter,” Parkhurst said. “It took them forever to OK it for us to meet in person. We had our first one in September.”

People can still attend meetings via Zoom if they choose to do so, she said.

The next meeting is set for Tuesday, Jan. 17. Everyone is invited to attend, said Parkhurst.

The guest speaker scheduled for the meeting is Sam Collier, who chairs the Georgia Sierra Club chapter committee to protect the Okefenokee Swamp.

As a regional representative for the Sierra Club, Collier was part of a team of conservationists who persuaded the DuPont Corporation not to mine 38,000 acres adjacent to the swamp.  The land currently at risk of mining is immediately south of the land DuPont proposed to mine.

The Middle Chattahoochee Group will meet at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at 207 N. Greenwood St. on Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m.