You won't find members of Lancaster County's only environmental group staging tree-sitting protests or engaging in "ecotage."

But the volunteer-driven Sierra Club-Lancaster Group is finding ways to quietly improve the local environment while enjoying the heck out of it at the same time.

"We use a model of enjoy, explore and protect the environment," says the group's leader, Jennifer Ericson, 42, of Landisville.

"You won't be interested in saving nature unless you have a connection to it. It's just as important to have hikes for fun as cleanups."

That brand of do what you can but don't get overwhelmed by all the environmental threats in the world has worked well, attracting a diverse core of volunteers made up of everyone from families to retirees.

For example, members (and the general public) can attend these far-ranging activities in the next few months: a Polar Bear 5K Trail Run or Hike, how to contact your legislators seminar, a family hike in Landis Woods Park, a book discussion on Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods," an introduction to end-of-life options, a work trip to pluck invasive plant species from a local park, a guided wildflower walk and a boat trip on the Chesapeake Bay.

The club counts a membership of just under 1,000 Sierra Club members who live in Lancaster County, but like most groups, there is a core of about 50 volunteers who make things happen.

They may like to enjoy the earth that surrounds them, but club members certainly walk the walk. They get down to business, certainly, with cleanups.

In 2010, the group contacted the Lancaster County Department of Parks and Recreation about a cleanup in the Chickies Rock County Park Day Use Area. Ericson, who had once been a naturalist for the county parks, remembered being annoyed by trash in a wooded corner.

But when the volunteers started digging in, it quickly became apparent they had discovered an old dump.

Rather than just remove all they could and call it a day, the club returned several months later, sifting through the layers of trash, hauling away mattresses, appliances, an iron and old barbed wire.

Then, when Tropical Storm Lee sent just about everything including the kitchen sink down Chiques Creek, there they were again. Among the debris hauled away this time were road barricades, a propane tank, lawn furniture, wooden steps to a deck, Christmas ornaments and a portable toilet winched out of the creek.

Total trash removed from the trio of cleanups: 9.4 tons.

"I can't express what a help they've been to us in cleaning up," says a grateful Paul Weiss, the county's parks and recreation administrator. "They really do an excellent job mobilizing people and getting a job done."

That kind of drive from people willing to give up their time to make their local surroundings a better place moves Ericson, who has been the group's chair since 2008.

The Lancaster Group is one of 12 local Sierra Club chapters in Pennsylvania. It was officially formed in 2008, though local members had been gathering and holding events several years earlier under the leadership of Ellen Milligan. Before that, local members were part of a Harrisburg-based chapter. 

The local group is the only chapter in Pennsylvania with a viable membership from within a single county.

"It's great people with similar interests, yet a diverse group," explains Kyki Bobotas, who's been involved since the early 1990s. Millersville University's assistant director of admissions, she's the kind of person who brings washable plates to a party so there won't be a trash can full of plastic ones.

"I love the outdoors and the group is so much different than what I do day to day," she says.

The diversity also attracts Jim Meenan, 51, of Manheim, the club's outings leader.

"Some are retired, some are families, some are empty nesters. Dogs come out. We encourage folks to come out and enjoy the woods, if nothing else. We take garbage bags along wherever we go," said Meenan, a Penn State employee who monitors vegetation at Fort Indiantown Gap.

Carl Kanaskie, who handles most of the group's communications, is proud the drive of local residents resulted in their own chapter.

"We are a small core of people who saw things to be done in Lancaster County," he says.

Retired from communications at Millersville University, Kanaskie says the group fits in with his personal ethos "to preserve the environment now when we can."

The group's efforts to do just that have come in many forms, from walking door to door in Lancaster City's southwest section, handing out hundreds of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, to repainting trail blazes in Susquehannock State Park.

In 2008, the club got the city to sign on as a "Cool City," reducing the city's emissions by installing LED traffic lights and performing energy audits on city buildings, among other steps.

A former director of the Humane League of Lancaster County with degrees in ecology and science writing, current leader Ericson elected to be a stay-at-home parent when she and her husband's son was born 5 years ago.

The Landisville woman read about the local environmental group in a community events calendar in the newspaper and went to a meeting. The next thing she knew, she was chairing the group.

She surveyed active members on their concerns and water quality emerged as a top priority.

An ongoing series of educational programs has brought in speakers on where local drinking water comes from, watersheds around the county, how Lancaster's water-treatment plant works and the efforts of the Lancaster County Conservation District and the Susquehanna Riverkeeper.

Sometimes, she says, people get frustrated because their efforts on behalf of water or air quality don't bring immediate results.

That's why she is fond of cleanups, because when the volunteers take off their gloves at the end of the day, a small chunk of their environment is noticeably better.

But, she says, motivating people to do what they can individually, even if the results are not immediately tangible, is crucial, whether it's driving a fuel-efficient vehicle, drying clothes on a clothes line or installing a low-flow toilet.

She practices what she preaches. Escorting Ericson back to her Prius after an interview, I noticed her trunk was chock-full of bags. She was between recycling runs of Styrofoam cups from the Hempfield Recreation Center and Mountville Public Library, where she volunteers, and sneakers collected for reuse as building materials.

Among future initiatives, Ericson hopes the club can accelerate its fundraising and partnership with other groups and local government agencies to help finance and erect more streambank fencing on local farms to keep cows out of streams.

"Why aren't all streams fenced, because we know it works," she says.

Fighting invasive species in the county is another issue the group's eager volunteers intend to tackle.

While the group is not known for overt political activism, Ericson hopes to see more members speak out.

For example, she thinks Marcellus Shale fracking "is the biggest threat to Pennsylvania I can think of. It's massive in scale and a nightmare that has come to our state."

The Sierra Club-Lancaster Group meets on the third Wednesday of every month except July and December at 6:30 p.m. in Room 111 of Lancaster Country Day School, 725 Hamilton Road. The group's website is pennsylvania.sierraclub.org.... To contact the club, e-mail sierraclublancaster@yahoo.com.
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For a listing of outdoors events throughout Lancaster County this week and beyond, go to lancasteronline.com. Click on Sports, then Outdoors.