In theory, these officials are accountable to the voters. While many of them are sworn to uphold the common good, the common good is still often weighted against the environment and sustainability. Citizen involvement at all levels is necessary to bring about environmental change. Environmental activism at the local level is most often involved with seeking improvements to or stopping bad projects or moving projects out of places that are environmentally sensitive - such as steep slopes, floodplains, canyons, creekbeds, forests, parks etc. Mitigation is the practice of trading environmental damage in one place for environmental improvements or conservation in another place.
Mitigation is controversial with environmentalists and popular with agencies.
When enough Americans put their politics where their polls are. This is why having citizens take their time and trouble to volunteer to help work on environmental issues is critical. Another major area of environmental activism is helping not only to stop or improve projects, but to help build the region's parklands and protected areas by soliciting private, public and political support for changing a place's land use category to keep it for conservation. Decisions are made daily that impact the quality of our lives and our environment. The largest national group in the U.S. is a membership group, the Sierra Club with almost 500,000 members in the U.S. and Canada.