Late June brought several pieces of great environmental news: Colorado's Roan Plateau was spared from oil and gas drilling, and the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the EPA's position that the Clean Air Act requires the federal government to impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from industry and vehicles.

But neither of those victories registered with the youngest environmentalists in the Brune household like the news that Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño had signed a law protecting nearly 2,000 acres of the island's Northeast Ecological Corridor from development.

The leatherback sea turtles get to keep their nesting grounds.

Two years ago, not long after I started with the Sierra Club, our family visited Puerto Rico, which has the Club's newest Chapter. We'd timed our visit to coincide with the Festival del Tinglar (Festival of the Sea Turtle), put on every year by the Puerto Rico Sierra Club and the Coalition for the Northeast Ecological Corridor.

When we arrived at the festival, Puerto Rico Chapter Director Camilla Feibelman greeted my wife and me briefly, and then turned her full attention to our kids, Olivia and Sebastian. Their eyes grew wide as they listened to tales of newly hatched baby sea turtles ...

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Coming Clean is the blog of Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.