Allied with the Sierra Club
America's oldest grassroots environmental organization has been protecting wild places, clean air, and clean water since 1892 — and their Florida Chapter is on the front line of fights that hit Montura directly.
Who They Are
A national voice with deep Florida roots.
The Sierra Club is a national grassroots environmental organization with chapters in every state. Their Florida Chapter organizes residents, scientists, and attorneys to defend the Everglades, the aquifers we drink from, and the rural and natural lands that make Florida worth living in.
For Montura — surrounded by the C-139 Basin, sugar cane fields, sand mines, and ranchland — that fight is not abstract. It is the air on our porches, the water in our wells, and the land our neighbors are being pressured to sell.
Fighting Together
Sugar Field Burning
Every harvest season, sugar cane fields around Lake Okeechobee are set on fire before cutting. The ash — locals call it "black snow" — and smoke drift across Hendry County and into Montura, settling on rooftops, water tanks, vehicles, and inside our homes.
Children, the elderly, and anyone with asthma or heart conditions pay the highest price. Green harvesting — cutting cane without burning first — is already the standard in other major sugar-growing regions of the world. The Sierra Club's Florida Chapter has been leading the campaign to end pre-harvest burning here too.
We stand with them. Every Montura household that reports impact strengthens the case for change.
Issues They Fight For
The Sierra Club Florida Chapter campaigns
These are the active fights across the state. Each one ties back to the air, water, and land around Montura.
Clean Energy
Solar prices have fallen 80% in recent years and the industry now employs more people than coal mining. Florida — the Sunshine State — should be leading.
Read more
Florida Wildlife
Black bears, gopher tortoises, manatees and other native species still face habitat loss, road mortality, and weakened protections.
Read more
Land Conservation
Protecting the wildlife corridor, state forests, and rural land from sprawl and speculative development — the same pressure Montura faces.
Read more
Sugarcane Burning
Pre-harvest burning across 400,000 acres around Lake Okeechobee sends ash and smoke into Hendry County every season. Green harvesting is the proven alternative.
Read more
Save Our Shores
Expanded offshore drilling and weakened Endangered Species Act protections put the Gulf, Rice's whales, and Florida's coastline at risk.
Read more
Don't Incinerate, Innovate
A grassroots environmental justice campaign opposing a new waste incinerator in Miami-Dade and pushing zero-waste alternatives instead.
Read moreMore Common Ground
Where our fights overlap
Clean Water
Protecting the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, and the aquifer that supplies Montura's wells.
Wild Land
Keeping rural Florida rural — pushing back on sprawl, sand mining, and speculative development.
Public Voice
Giving residents the tools, data, and legal support to be heard at county, state, and federal hearings.
How You Can Help
Lend your name. Lend your voice.
Join the Sierra Club Florida Chapter, sign on to their petitions, and show up at hearings. The more Hendry County residents on the record, the harder this fight is to ignore.