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Following is a proclamation honoring environmentalist David Brower, approved by the City Council Nov. 21: 

Whereas great men are rare, and Berkeley’s native son David Brower was an indisputably great man; and 

Whereas David Ross Brower was born in Berkeley on July 1, 1912, and died here on November 5, 2000; and 

Whereas David Brower was a visionary environmentalist who changed the world in ways that will earn the gratitude of generations to come, pressing on all of us some essential lessons that we will ignore to our peril: that the Earth is our only home, and that the very survival of life on Earth depends on our learning to cherish it and to reverse and repair the damage we have inflicted on our beautiful home just in recent decades; and 

Whereas David Brower fought for the health and protection of the Earth for over half a century, serving as the first executive director of the Sierra Club for 17 years, during which time the club grew from 2,000 to over 77,000 members; and 

Whereas David Brower was a pioneering outdoorsman, climber, and skier, who made some 70 first ascents of significant American mountains, and as a wilderness guide led thousands of people into – and out of – remote regions; and 

Whereas David Brower had a profound impact on the protection of America’s wild lands, helping to create national parks and seashores in Kings Canyon, the North Cascades, the Redwoods, the Great Basin, Alaska, Cape Cod, Fire Island, the Golden Gate, and Point Reyes; and in protecting primeval forests in the Olympic National Park, and wilderness on San Gorgonio; and 

Whereas David Brower played a major role in keeping dams out of Dinosaur National Monument, the Yukon, and the Grand Canyon, in establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System and the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, and in developing plans for a National Land Service to protect and restore both public and private lands in the United States: and 

Whereas David Brower was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and played an essential role in raising environmental awareness worldwide, in part through his creation of the popular genre of exhibit format photographic books on conservation themes; and 

Whereas David Brower in 1969 co-founded the League of Conservation Voters and founded Friends of the Earth, an international environmental organization now operating in 68 countries, and in 1982 founded Earth Island Institute to link the causes of peace, social justice, and environmental protection, taking a leading role in opposing nuclear power, leading delegations to aid in the protection and restoration of Lake Baikal in Siberia, co-founding the Ecological Council of the Americas, and developing plans for the creation of a National Biosphere Reserve System; 

Now, therefore be it resolved that the City Council of Berkeley does hereby declare that July 1, the anniversary of his birth, will hereafter be David Brower Day in Berkeley and that the City will encourage activities to honor and perpetuate David Brower’s profound legacy to the Earth.