Warren Olney helped found the Sierra Club with John Muir. He and Muir had enjoyed a close friendship and partnership. However their friendship eventually reached a political boundary. When Olney decided to lead a group of Sierra Club members to support the damming and the city of San Francisco, Olney became separated from Muir. Olney stood strong on his beliefs and later on when the club had a vote on preservation vs. conservation, preservation won but those preservationists were then forced to take action on their beliefs through the organization: the California Branch of the Society for the Preservation of National Parks.