These chapters further allow for special interest sections (e.g. camera, outings), committees (conservation and political), and task forces on a single issue with some kind of geography involved.

As early as 1889, Johnson had encouraged Muir to form an "association" to help protect the Sierra Nevada, and preliminary meetings were held to plan the group.

Others involved in the early planning included artist William Keith, Willis Linn Jepson, Warren Olney, Willard Drake Johnson, Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan.

In May 1892, the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson from the University of California, Berkeley helped Muir and attorney Warren Olney launched the new organization modeled after the eastern Appalachian Mountain Club.

In the late 19th century, the city of San Francisco was rapidly outgrowing its limited water supply, which depended on intermittent local springs and streams.

Leading the generation of Young Turks who revitalized the Sierra Club after World War II were attorneys Richard Leonard and Bestor Robinson, nature photographer Ansel Adams, and David Brower.

Invoking the specter of Hetch Hetchy, conservationists effectively lobbied Congress, which deleted the Echo Park dam from the Colorado River project as approved in 1955.

In 1960, Brower launched the Exhibit Format book series with This Is the American Earth, and in 1962, In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, with color photographs by Eliot Porter.

The ads generated a storm of protest to the Congress, prompting the Internal Revenue Service to announce it was suspending the Sierra Club's 501(c)(3) status pending an investigation.

The result of the campaign and its trade-off was, in the words of historian Andrew Needham, that "the Grand Canyon became protected, sacred space," while "the Navajo Reservation"—which housed some of the main power plants picking up the slack—"became increasingly industrial.

"[13] Despite the club's success in blocking plans for the Grand Canyon dams and weathering the transition from 501(c)(3) to 501(c)(4) status, tension grew over finances between Brower and the board of directors.

Another conflict occurred over the club's policy toward the nuclear power plant to be constructed by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) at Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo, California.

In exchange for moving the new proposed site from the environmentally sensitive Nipomo Dunes to Diablo Canyon, the board of directors voted to support PG&E's plan for the power plant.

Ansel Adams and president Richard Leonard, two of his closest friends on the board, led the opposition to Brower, charging him with financial recklessness and insubordination and calling for his ouster as executive director.

[citation needed] The Sierra Club formed a political committee and made its first presidential endorsement in 1984 in support of Walter Mondale's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Ronald Reagan.

[15] After a two-year interlude with Douglas Wheeler, whose Republican credentials were disconcerting to liberal members, the club hired Michael Fischer, the former head of the California Coastal Commission, who served as executive director from 1987 to 1992.

[18] In January 2013, executive director Michael Brune announced[19] that the Sierra Club would officially participate in the first civil disobedience action in its 120-year history as part of the ongoing protest calling on the Obama administration to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, stating, "We are watching a global crisis unfold before our eyes, and to stand aside and let it happen—even though we know how to stop it—would be unconscionable."

On February 13, 2013, Brune was arrested along with 48 people, including civil rights leader Julian Bond and NASA climate scientist James Hansen.

The annual High Trips were led by mountaineers such as Francis P. Farquhar, Joseph Nisbet LeConte, Norman Clyde, Walter A. Starr, Jr., Jules Eichorn, Glen Dawson, Ansel Adams, and David R. Brower.

[34] The historic High Trips, sometimes large expeditions with more than a hundred participants and crew, have given way to smaller and more numerous excursions held across the United States and abroad.

[63] The Sierra Club sued the federal government to stop the 663.5-megawatt Calico solar station in the Mojave Desert in California, saying it would imperil protected wildlife.

[69][70] In 2012, the Sierra Club sued to block the construction of a mixed-use development composed of 16,655 housing units (for an estimated 37,000 residents) and commercial space in Riverside, California.

[72][73] Most other environmental groups supported the legislation, as dense housing construction near public transit was estimated to substantially reduce car pollution and help California reach its emissions target.

In 2012, the Laborers' International Union of North America left the coalition due to the Sierra Club and other environmental groups' opposition to the Keystone Pipeline.

[113] The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund is a 527 group that became active in the 2004 Presidential election by airing television advertisements about the major party candidates' positions on environmental issues.

[3] In February 2012, it was reported that the Sierra Club had secretly accepted over $26 million in gifts from the natural gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy.

[131] As a result, the Sierra Club announced cancellation of two forthcoming trips,[132] but quickly reversed its decision,[133] saying it was "hastily" made "without consulting a robust set of stakeholders".

[134] In June 2021, an executive summary of a report by D.C. consulting firm Ramona Strategies described widespread problems involving harassment, workplace discrimination, and organization protection of abusive senior leadership.

[27] It acknowledged the Sierra Club's reliance on volunteer leadership presented unique challenges and advised reforming its structure as part of a "restorative accountability process".

[135][27] On August 13, 2021, Michael Brune announced that he would be stepping down as executive director after eleven years, and apologized for any time that volunteers and staff did not "feel safe, supported, and valued".